Author: Jennifer Colvin

The Big Trip #11


Week 21: Bicycle Heaven – Life in Holland

Route: Chamonix, France – Rotterdam, The Netherlands – Amersfoort

145 kilometers


While hiking the Tour de Mont Blanc, we met a nice couple from The Netherlands, and once we told them about our plan to spend a month in their country looking for jobs, they insisted we take their house key and stay at their home while they were on vacation. We were hesitant at first, but it was too good of an offer to pass up, so we headed directly to The Netherlands by train.


Arriving in Rotterdam, it was immediately apparent that all the wonderful things we’d heard about biking in this country were true. We were in awe at the extent of the bike lanes and the sheer numbers of people riding bicycles. We rode nearly 100 kilometers to our new friends’ home in Amersfoort, and didn’t have to share a lane with cars for a single moment. It was heaven.


Once in Amersfoort, we entered a new stage of our trip. We both got new haircuts, new clothes and new shoes, making us look (and feel) a bit more normal than the scruffy travelers we’ve become over the past five months.


It felt wonderful to have a real place to stay, where we could cook in a kitchen, sit at a table and curl up on a sofa to watch a movie. We soon got to know our way around Amersfoort, a middle-sized town that felt like a comfortable place to live.


I was continually amazed by all of the people riding bicycles. I saw one young mother riding a bicycle with a toddler sitting in a special seat in front of the handlebars, another child in a seat behind the saddle and a third in a trailer behind the bike.


Everyone from businessmen to high-heeled grandmothers rode bicycles to work, to the store and the train station. Usually I feel a bit out of place when riding a bike, because everyone else is walking or driving. Here, I felt out of place whenever I wasn’t on my bike. It was a nice change.


Week 22: House hunting

Route: Amersfoort – Amsterdam

65 kilometers


Right away, we got to work researching options for renting a small apartment for the month of September. After seven days of hard work, we had the keys to a small, comfortable basement flat in a nice Amsterdam neighborhood.


After five months of moving around and living in a tent, we needed to stay in one place for a while, and Amsterdam was the perfect place to be. The city is small enough that it’s easy to get around, but big enough to have a lot going on. Because the country is so small, we planned to do day trips from the city so we could enjoy biking without hauling our gear around with us.


We spent a few days exploring Amsterdam, going to the Van Gogh museum, the Anne Frank house and the red light district, before Bob started his search for a computer programming job here in The Netherlands.


Next up: Detour to London.