Yellow van caravan (Day 15 Denmark-Germany-Netherlands)

Floris (and Ben and Adam), our local guide who has been with us the whole trip, had us bring our bikes to the Austin Adventures yellow vans the night before we left Odense. In ye olden days, it'd have been a couple of carts and some draft animals hoofin' it from Denmark through Germany to the Netherlands. (Okay, okay, boundaries were different back then. You get the point though.) In our present day, these were our trusty yellow beasts to carry us and our bikes to Nijmegen, Netherlands.
These were my travel bags as I brought them for stowaway in the luggage van (which was not yellow). When I need to have a carry on and personal item, I can either stuff the gray duffel in the backpack and carry my laptop bag or stuff the laptop bag in the backpack and carry my duffel bag. It's super convenient to have the smaller laptop bag (sans laptop) when I'm out and about (or in a yellow van caravan).
We took vans because it's ostensibly faster than the train (3 transfers minimum) even with bio breaks. I'd been concerned that I'd get motion sickness in the middle back, but mostly I napped. I was relieved to not be biking (or driving) in the rain.
FYI-US fastfood behemoths spread across Europe, too. 

Other than paying to use the toilet, which gives an equivalent 0.50€ coupon for the store, freeway gas stations in Germany looked and felt pretty much the same as most US long haul gas stations I've seen. Some had electric car charging stations, but I forgot to take pics. #BloggerFail
Turns out, the farmers have some very strong opinions about nitrogen use regulations. (Nitrogen is a necessary element for plant growth. Inorganic Nitrogen is cheap to make, but washes away easily due to a negative charge. Organic nitrogen sticks around due to its positive charge, but applying too much still washes away. Too much nitrogen in waterways feeds algae that also eat up oxygen, lowering oxygen in the water for other life. Bim bam boom, deadzones.) The farmers drove their tractors onto the freeway and stopped car traffic as a protest. (See? Roadways ARE places for protest. It's a classic move.) The inconvenience for us as travellers meant a 12-hour, not 10-hour, van trip.
Considering I slept most of the way, I was exhausted and very happy to see that our EuroParc pre-fab accommodations allowed my 3-person roomie situation to each have our own room. (Shout-out to Nick for taking the living room sofa as he wakes up earlier than Brendan or I!) Not only did we have our own luxurious space, We. Had. a. KITCHEN!
I chopped veggies. Nick stir fried the veg. Brendan cooked some chicken for us omnivores. Dinner tasted damn good!
Next up: Keep on going to Nijmegen!

Random pic of the day: Where we parked at lunch. I understand why the German branch of my family liked southern Ohio a way back in the day. It felt like my childhood farm days.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Out n About (Day 26 Netherlands)

Image
I woke up with a plan, a very good plan, to take every form of non-automobile transport easily available in Amsterdam. Bike to Rijkmuseum Bike to the bookstore district  Take the ferry from behind Central Station  Bike around Noord Amsterdam  Ride Metro back with my bike before rush hour  Drop my bike at the hostel Take a bus out Take a tram back What I actually did: Slept in too late for the art museum Biked to the bookstores Ferried to Noord Amsterdam  Biked up through Noord to a Metro station ...and realized I missed the last train before rush hour that would allow bikes on board. So, I biked around Noord Amsterdam neighborhoods for the rest of the day, ended up at a light industrial waterfront area that had been redeveloped into design offices, restaurants, and what I think of as "the usual" attempts to spruce up an old port or industrial area to attract high income people to work and visit in an ar...
Read more

European Cyclist Federation (Day 22 Netherlands)

Image
We met with the board chair of the European Cyclists' Federation, Henk Swarttouw, to learn more about how bicycling advancements work at the EU level. While the Dutch approach to cycling as a normal part of transportation, rather than viewing it as an "alternative" transportation, exists in their own forms and histories in other countries of the EU (such as parts of Denmark and Germany), expanding infrastructure to increase the utility and ease of cycling varies widely across the union. When a country or region within a country wants advice on network design, they sometimes turn to the European Cyclists' Federation for guidance.  The European Cyclists' Federation also works as advocates at various levels. At the EU level, the ECF works to improve cycling across all of the union. For example, they try for policy to ensure that biking and rail connect networks and work together. They also work on tax policy that would categorize bikes as basic needs. Whe...
Read more

Transit, a piece of the pedal puzzle (Day 21 Netherlands)

Image
It's a bit startling how easily people can get around here in the Netherlands. Short distances or long distances, we can move about without a ton of planning.  We met up with Bradley Tollison, a former participant of this learning abroad program, at the Driebergen-Zeist train station to learn more about how cycling complements transit more than it competes. When a region makes an ongoing effort to make a less-car life a real possibility, it pays attention to human behavior. In the Netherlands, the city planners noticed that a large portion of bike trips went to or from trains.  (Photo from Cuijk Station near Nijmegen) Turns out, people living in Denmark can participate in a program where they use the same card as the train trips for a bike share bike. So, they can bike to the train (possibly on their own bike), park it, take the train, then borrow an OV fiets (bike) to complete the journey on the other end. I'd noticed these bikes at the stations near Nijmegen (lik...
Read more