We arrived in Frankfurt and made our way to our regular hotel on the waterfront. For an extra €40 we were able to check in early, freshen up, leave our bags in the room and head out for our first German breakfast before heading over to the cell phone company to reactivate my German phone number. To my great surprise and relief I didn’t have to buy a whole new number and account. I just had to put Money into the account and within 15 mins I was roaming.
2 days later we were in Bielefeld buying my new bicycle. It’s the same style as my AZ bike with a few upgrades.
A couple of days later we were once again on the trains heading for Alkmaar in the province of Holland. We celebrated our arrival with a wonderful bistro supper not far from our hotel.
After an overnight we were off to our apartment in Bergen for the next week. We unload the bags and planned bicycle tours in the dunes. We dodged rain storms but found some bracing wonderful afternoons where we could walk the beach, enjoy fresh ginger tea with apple pie at one of the several beach cafés and use sketching to meet meet people.
As in earlier years I was able to connect with the leader of the Alkmaar urban sketchers group. She took me to an interesting part of town to sketch this building
When Andreas and I managed to meet up again later that day we found ourselves in the middle of a hiking festival celebration. We were heading for a coffee and heard music that turned out to be one of several bands that setup on the side of the street to welcome the hikers to the finish line. It was the culmination of a 4 day annual fundraiser where hikers pledge to walk 10,20, 30 or 40km per day.
The next day we ended up at another sea side village and another community archestra was playing in the town square. The conductor was strikingly young.
This is the fourth year I have come to this area of the Netherlands. I’m increasingly impressed with what appears to be a healthy work and play ethos. Music appears to be everywhere, canoeing, tennis, cycling, windsurfing are extremely popular. Judging by all the orange shirts, football is also high on the list. The blend of tourism, farming, canal management and small tech business leads me to believe that there is something for everyone. The cities and towns are densely packed but green space is plentiful. Houses have big windows with no curtains or shutters. Life and light flow both ways. Maybe I’m seeing the world through rose colored glasses, but life feels full here.
That’s all for tonight… chat again soon
Life on my Own Terms 