Fabulously sunny.

It's rare I know, but the sun came out today in full force. And it got up to a balmy plus 6.
I do feel a tad sorry for my friends and family back in certain parts of Canada who are experiencing their annual deep freeze.

Really.
I feel your pain.
Bundle up.

Meanwhile however, after experiencing a minor mystery involving the dishwasher this morning, I decided to set off for the store on "new and shiney" since although I didn't really need too many things, it hit me like a bolt of lightening that last night I had quaffed my absolute last beer! Yikes!

How does this happen? I mean, back home there's always the possibility that another beer drinker has been helping him/herself to the stash but here, I got nothin'.

Thankfully that near tragedy was averted, and Dirk's still has six packs of Heineken on for €3.99. That's a hard price to beat, so Heineken it is, and Heineken it will be until something else goes on sale.

Beer, Yogurt, cheese slices and paper towels.....just in case there's a problem later on. (I sometimes wonder, do the cashiers ever take note of what goes past them and are thinking, "what the hell is this guy doing?")

After getting back home I wasn't quite willing to let all that sunshine go to waste so decided to...

wait for it...


go for a bike ride!


When I went to the store I bravely went "sans gants", but ended up having to shove one hand in a pocket since it's just a tad too cool for the bare hand program, so the gloves were coming too.

Decided to head for the canal. We've gone as far as that other bridge off in the distance, which is the A35.
...and the city limits for Hengelo.
And yes, that's ice. But since this canal is used by barges all the time, it didn't get a chance to freeze solid as some of the smaller canals had done last week.

I took the third picture from the bridge in the distance that the barge is just about to go under.

Oh, and you'll notice if you squint a certain way, that there's a car on the back of that barge, since (and you probably know this....sorry) entire families live on these things as they take freight from city to city. So they take along all their worldly possessions, including a means of getting about on dry land, whether it be bike or car.


There's new and shiny....


sitting at the side of the aptly named, Kanaldijk.

I hadn't ever gone this far before by bike since frankly, it was not the most pleasant experience. This time it was pretty nice. I mean, I'm still basically in pitiful condition and get winded at the slightest provocation, but when I got home after an hour or so at least my ass was not on fire.

That can make a substantial difference.

Trust me.

As a matter of fact, I feel so great that I just might go out again.

Well no, actually that's not going to happen. But I could...really.

Tomorrow will be pretty much an all car day, since I have to go to the airport to pick up Gabe.
Oh, I guess I skipped over that part. Gabe's been in Birmingham since Tuesday night, and I know, I said I'd never go to the airport again on a Friday afternoon, but I'm going to go early...and maybe take a detour by way of Alkmaar,just to check out that whole cheese market scenario.
Besides, she's my wife, and she asked me. It might have been in the wedding vows, "and thou shalt fetch thine wife from distant airports regardless of traffic problems".

I don't quite remember since I'm sure I blanked out for at least part of that ceremony.

If you saw the pictures....you'd completely understand.

The New Bike.

Went out today and bought the bike.
This will be the last bike I buy for the rest of my life....but I rode it home just now, and I wanna tell ya, it's pretty darned nice.
Mind you, I felt like I was riding on top of a load of hay or something, since I'm really not used to riding something that's the proper size, but I'll get used to it I'm sure.

I felt like Piet Pelle on my Gazelle!!....(you Dutch folks will get that one)

I did take a couple pics, and you're welcome to go to the website...

but here it is....

Of course by the time I was on my way out of the store it was getting dark, so got to try out the lights. The front one runs off a generator that inside the rear hub and the back light just takes batteries. So there's none of the usual resistance that you get from a wheel mounted generator.
After the bewilderment of shopping on Saturday and then going back again on Tuesday to Leenders Bikes, I did some looking online and realised that there were very few places that had a bike in my size. Turns out there was a place in Enschede and here in Delden.
So I printed out what I had and took it to the store here in Delden, and he had sold that model. It was an "Orange Limited Edition" and they can only be ordered once a year.... you can order as many as you want, but only once a year. Looked to me as though the "special edition" was only a bit of smoke and mirrors, since the only difference between that and the one I ended up with was a slight modification to the shape of the frame, and the whole "limited edition" part.
Pretty much looked like the same bike, so...I just said, "I'll take it..." and that was that. I also bought three years of theft insurance, which is only valid if I'm in possession of the keys, since all bikes here have keys to a built in lock on the back wheel. It's already been registered with the cops. And now I understand why I see people locking their bikes every single time they leave it for even a few minutes....'cause that's the only way you can get the key out of the lock.
Couldn't take it right then and there this morning, since they like to do their "dealer prep" unlike any experience you might have had at Walmart of Canadian Tire, where you're lucky if some pimply-faced kid has actually put the thing together right.
You might be wondering about what to any non-European might sound like a bit of a goofy name, but Oranje is the name of the House of the Queen of the Netherlands. That would be Queen Beatrix btw.

This is a pretty good link.

But you can also read about it here... or here .

You have to watch the video in that last one....it's a hoot.
If you're not too thrilled with all that reading, suffice to say, on April 7th 1999, crown prince Willem-Alexander (of the House of Orange) put the finishing touches on their 10 millionth bike.

As of 2005, Gazelle has produced over 12 million bikes.

I should also mention. There's something to be said for buying the bike here in Delden, since with the purchase of the bike, I get three "service visits", with the first one being free, then half price, then something like 40%. So taking it to Enschede would have been a pain, since I would have had to get it there by car somehow. Besides, at this dealership they give you a loaner to ride home!

*snort!*

Mind you, I have no friggin' idea what they're going to do, but I figure even though it's no way as important as your free oil changes with a new car, it can't hurt.

So now I think I'll go out to the garage and switch over my "fietstas" (bike bag) from old and skanky to new and shiny.

Shopping for new wheels.

The biggest problem is having to choose.


Haven't a clue how to do one of those panoramic shots, but this is only one fifth of the store. It's simply a sea of bikes.
If remotely interested, you can check out their website
here.
We pretty much weeded out the one's that were heart-stoppingly expensive (like, €2500 and up) and I did try out a few that were more or less in our price range. These were all pretty pricey just the same, but only so that they'd only make your heart race a bit, and not stop altogether.

The justification, if there can be one, is that it is replacing a second motorised vehicle. I mean, we haven't the room to park a second vehicle anyway, and don't really need one, so it's not an overly noble justification, but it will do.

Seems the accepted practise is to tool around the store with whatever you'd like to try out.


Of course, one must be mindful not to go careening into the "sea of bikes" and start some sort of domino effect. We parked in the back, so I didn't think we could make it to the car and get out of there fast enough if I did something that foolish.

Besides, we might like to go back.

I did kind of like that one. It has it's share of carbon fibre and aluminium to keep the weight down. I don't actually recall what it weighed, but it was quite light for an every day bike.

The two major brands they have are Batavus and Gazelle. They also carried the much cheaper Raleighs, but they're made in China, and I could see one of them already starting to rust in the showroom.

How sad.

We did go outside and I tooled around on a couple used ones, and they were in the three to four hundred Euro range (so you can just imagine the price of the new one, and that's all I'll say) Got a bit of a tutorial on what the proper sized bike should be (60 cm) for me, since I've never had a clue. All I know is, the bike I'm presently riding is way too small, and becomes really uncomfortable for any trip much longer than just to the store and back.
I'll have to order the proper sized bike in the model that I'd like, and it should arrive a couple weeks after that point.
We still have a little more research to do, but we'll quite likely pull the trigger on this one in a week or so.