I may not be seeing the Tour de France from a bicycle seat, but I'm having quite the adventure of my own. I don't know how many of you have driven in Europe with no road map, not able to understand the foreign road signs and and whose only guide is a car icon that hopefully stays on the Garmin track, but I'm about as far from my comfort zone as I can get.
Not since my days driving an old Ford pick-up on the farm have I wrestled with a manual transmission, let alone a panel truck with no side windows. Still, finding solutions to what seems to be an endless string of wrong road choices gives one a sense of "I can do anything"!!
Dale and Roy are delightful to be around . They converse as only best friends with decades of shared experiences can do. Smart conversations and clever observations abound so there's no lack of entertainment.
Today, I must figure my way out of Brussels and meet up with the boys in the village of Amay with a prepared lunch. I now see myself as part of a world-wide scavenger hunt in fulfilling such requests as "Can you find a clothesline and clothes pins?", "Could you pick up a couple of bungee cords?", "We could really use a cheap ice chest?" Yesterday's lesson was that the word "styrofoam" has no literal translation in Dutch.
Just a comment on the simplistic, lush beauty of the Netherlands. While Amsterdam has old world charm and unique architecture, the exquisit countryside of pastoral fields fenced by manicured canals really captured my heart. I now understand why my birth state Iowa was settled by many Dutch farmers who brought their skills to that part of the new country, the similarities are striking. And the bicycling....I've never seen so many people in their 60's and 70's enjoying a leisurely Saturday ride on a sunny day; it's inspirational.
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