Paths
The Netherlands is a great country to walk in: an abundance of bike lanes, footpaths, hiking trails and the kind of landscape you don't get to see anywhere else.
The Netherlands is a great country to walk in: an abundance of bike lanes, footpaths, hiking trails and the kind of landscape you don't get to see anywhere else.
Places
The streets and canals of Utrecht must impress anyone no matter by which means they get there, yet after four enjoyable but otherwise uneventful days of walking through farmlands, quite a few forests and several incarnations of Dutch suburbia, the sight of Utrecht made me want to break into spontaneous applause.
Utrecht was the definite highlight of the trip so far and I'm glad I could spend two nights here (thanks to my outstanding last-minute CS host!).
And then there was Gouda...
And then there was Gouda...
And now Delft...
People
I really regret not being able to speak the language, not because you don't get by--virtually everybody speaks either German or English or both, is extremely helpful and gives excellent directions--but because I would really like to know what the comments were that accompanied the chuckling and nodding at the guy with laundry drying on his rucksack...
I really regret not being able to speak the language, not because you don't get by--virtually everybody speaks either German or English or both, is extremely helpful and gives excellent directions--but because I would really like to know what the comments were that accompanied the chuckling and nodding at the guy with laundry drying on his rucksack...
During the first two days people kept telling me I should be walking the Four Days Marches of Nijmegen which were just taking place last week: a long-distance walking event with almost 40.000 participants (a good few of them US troops) walking between 30km and 50km a day (fifty?1?). It still felt like an odd coincidence when on the second day after leaving Enschede I hobbled into a hostel in Arnhem to find eight equally hobbling GIs who during those two days had just walked the same distance! Ha! We laughed and hobbled to bed.
I also met my first Irish person since starting the walk! Wohoo! Not far now.
And tomorrow: England.
I also met my first Irish person since starting the walk! Wohoo! Not far now.
And tomorrow: England.