Off to Amsterdam.

Well, it's official.

I realise there have been times in the past when many of you have had your suspicions as to whether or not I'm a complete idiot, and I'm here to confirm that your suspicions are well founded.

I'll get to that in a minute.

The plan for the day was to get to Amsterdam. Our visitors had been there the day before, and wanted to round out the visit and take in a couple more sights. Mind you, with roughly seven hundred thousand residents and seven million tourists going there every year, most of the "sights" is really just other tourists, but don't get me started.
Since there are just so many seat belts in the car, the idea was that four of us would head off in the car, and meet up with Phil and Betty later at one of the lions at the "Dam". The more hidden agenda actually involved going to the de Bijenkorf
which is right there on the edge of the square but hey, I'm just the transportation guy.
So I took the two of them to the Hengelo train station (again) for the 7:55 train (something like that) and off they went. Stopped around the bakery and then the Texaco station around the corner from the house to fuel up.

I'll now attempt to explain in a little photo show and tell what happened next:














Ah...ya.

That would be our car being loaded on the back of a tow truck, from one of the narrowest streets in Delden, as you can tell by the car squeeking by. Oh, and it's on a bus route too. What fun!


Here we are on our way to the Audi dealership in Hengelo....


Just another adventure!!

At least that's what I tell myself. That and, "at least we weren't on the highway", and "at least nobody got hurt".

Whatever.

It just so happened that one of our young passengers wanted to send off a couple letters back to Canada, so I figured we'd stop in town on the way and pick up some stamps, and get that sorted out. This was probably a good thing, since at least we didn't break down on the highway, or worse.

Note that I earlier mentioned fueling up? Well here's the thing....

Diesels don't run on gas.

There, I said it.

Now, much to their credit, the dealership had a car waiting for us, which I believe is made available through leaseplan (the company that provides our car) and we really and truly were on our way once again after say, a couple hours? So it ended up being a "half day in Amsterdam", but that's the way she goes.

We'll probably find out today how much the dealership is going to put the bite on us for my boneheadedness. I don't think it'll be a nice number. But we'll deal with it.

"It's only money"....."It's only a car..."


You go with that Bob....



As we were back on the Snelweg (highway) I said to Gabe, "Y'know, I do find it amazing that you remain calm when I do these really stupid things from time to time..."

Know what she said?

"I'm saving it up".



Oh boy.



Suffice to say the rest of the day was pretty much uneventful. Phil and Betty managed to get their bank card issues sorted out, so that was a relief. It's important whether or not your card is linked to a chequing or savings,since none of the ATMs here let you make that choice, and that's about the extent of it.

I'll throw in some pictures here just to prove that we actually were there.....


Pretty sure this bike has had it's picture taken a quite a few times, since I recognised it from somewhere on the net. Figured I'd take one more.

Where I ended up parking was a bit of a hike, but unless you're willing to try your luck on a bike, it's always about the walking.


Whatever we would have done without cell phones is a complete mystery to me, since the meeting time did get changed once or twice.

Meeting up with someone in any big city can be a bit of a challenge.

Rode hard and put up wet.

Originally I thought the title of this entry would be "Bob's bike tours ", but after getting just a tad too much sun yesterday, it's more about how I feel today than anything else.
Our visitors, (and here they are btw, just outside the Hengelo train station, since they're off to Amsterdam today....)

arrived without too much difficulty on Saturday morning at Schiphol. I say that, even though it did seem to take them forever to emerge, but then again, the airport has had to hire extra personnel this summer, since it's been a mad house there for the last month or so. Seems the recession hasn't stopped the Dutch from going "op vacantie".
The rest of the day was more or less spent recuperating for all concerned, since I too had a brief rest in the afternoon after going to the airport for seven that morning.
As delightful and convenient as the train ride from the airport may be, I volunteered to go and fetch them. The car certainly doesn't complain, and then there's also no concerns about changing trains in Amersfoort. I can't quite put my finger on it, but changing trains always makes me a tad nervous, and I'd sooner just take the direct train to Hengelo, but of course, that one is operated by Deutsche Bahn, which can make it even more confusing.....

*sigh*


Sunday we decided to head out on the bikes, with the usual visit to Twickle, since it's pretty much the extent of the local attractions around here. We then came back through Delden, stopping at a bakery for lunch before heading off to Hengelo. By the way, this is one of the bakeries that I almost always go to on a Sunday morning for croissants, so it was a pleasant experience to be met with a couple knowing smiles when I showed up there again a couple hours later with an "entourage".

This can trump the anonymity of a big city any day as far as I'm concerned.

We later took a little detour through one of the streets here in Delden on the way out of town, since I knew that the houses were all very interesting.
What I didn't realise was that among the many that have thatched roofs, there was one that was getting redone. This is a bit of a dying art it seems, and probably somewhat of a status symbol, since I understand it's a rather expensive proceedure.

Here's the bare roof with what we would call "ice and water shield"....
with all the straw ready to be installed...
Betty wanted to touch....
No sooner had we reached the "Hengelo" sign, when I heard some rumblings from the back of the pack, only to discover that the bike that Betty was riding was beginning to have some "issues". This is one of the bikes that we shipped over when we moved here, only to discover that it was was too small and uncomfortable for me, and is now used as a spare. It has also turned out to be one of the most unreliable pieces of junk I think I've ever owned in my life. But don't let me tell you how I really feel.
This meant that we had to figure out where we'd meet up, since I'd need to pedal it back to Delden to grab a couple adjustable wrenches.....
There was really no other choice to be made, since the problem was that the seat had come loose, AND in the moments leading up to our departure, "Do you have any tools with you" was one of the questions I heard but failed to react to just before we locked up and headed out the door....

Idiot.

The car was sitting there tempting me when I got to the house, but that wasn't going to be an option, and at least the head wind that I had been battling on the way home was helping a touch on the way back. Took two seconds to solve the problem, but I think it was just that small amount of extra time in the sun that put me ever so slightly into the "well done" category....

....which probably explains the way I feel today.

Just as content to keep a low profile here at home, and let the travellers....travel.

A sad day.

Don't mean to get maudlin here, but I've bought a few things from this place over the years, and even strolled around their Calgary location once a few years back, and now I see the recession has hit them a little hard.


Well, either that or they did something really retarded. We'll never know.

And maybe "a little hard" isn't quite accurate. It's more like....they're done.

From what I hear though, the boom in Calgary has definitely taken a bit of a turn for the down side. This was one of the far reaching side effects.

I was just going to do a little online shopping (well, browsing first, but who knows?) to break up the monotony, since I don't think the rain has stopped for one tiny second yet today.
Gabe did manage to get to the car unscathed at around 7:30, but after that the sky opened up. Happily I stayed a little ahead of the game yesterday and picked up a couple extra things, so there's no need to be lurking around any stores. The novelty of riding in the rain "because I can" has kind of worn off I'm afraid.

Now to make matters even worse I was scouting around the Calgary Sun looking for any snippets having to do with the economy, and came across this....

Now I'm really at rock bottom....

Thursday, July 23, 2009

LOS ANGELES -- Handlers say Gidget the Chihuahua, whose Taco Bell commercials made her a star, has died. She was 15.

Gidget suffered a massive stroke late Tuesday at her trainer's home in Santa Clarita and had to be euthanized.

Gidget was the sassy mascot in Taco Bell commercials from 1997 to 2000.

It was her bug-eyed, big-eared face that is seen pronouncing, in a dubbed male voice, "Yo quiero Taco Bell," Spanish for "I want Taco Bell."

The ads made the Taco Bell mascot wildly popular, although they provoked some criticism from activists who felt they used Mexican stereotypes.

Gidget also had a role in the movie Legally Blonde 2.

............./.............
Poor Gidget.

First Walter and now the Taco Bell dog. Somebody better hide the razor blades.