Day 14, 15

OK so where am I? Time has crunched up in a bit of a vortex over the last couple of days. We had breakfast at Gallery Yasmine, left Bruges in Belgium on the train and ended up in Groningen in northern Netherlands.

Cathy getting breakfast at Gallery Yasmine.

Our intent was to stay two nights and then continue on the train to Denmark and our cycling B&B on the island of Møn. We stopped at the ticket wicket to buy the next leg of our trip and after many attempts to explain what we wanted the agent politely said “You can’t get there from here”. Armed with this information, minor dehydration, hypoglycemia and train fatigue I narrowly avoided panic by taking some deep breaths and forging ahead to our hotel. Once here we encountered one of those human beings who transcends the ordinary state of helpfulness and elevates to an art form.  Dominique, the hotel clerk rapidly figured out that since there are indeed no trains from The Netherlands to Denmark our best solution was to take a train back to Amsterdam and then fly to Copenhagen. This would enable us travel to our destination from within Denmark and avoid confusing train travel through Germany with numerous transfers over a couple of days.  Presto, problem solved and Trent can breath again.

Today presented some challenges and some delights.

We headed out to rent bikes and finally found a place that parks, fixes and rents bikes.

Double-decker bike storage parking lot.

Coming up the ramp from the rental place.

Ready for a day of riding.

  A helpful lady at the tourist center suggested a 25 km ride in the country south of Groningen.  The signage for this adventure was excellent and enabled us to travel on paved pathways through small villages around a lake and end up back in Groningen.  We occasionally lost our way but after 20 times of losing our way we rediscovered it 21 times.  The weather was stormy with off and on showers, downpours and sun.

Thunder and lighting off in the distance.

  Our rain gear worked well and we had a delightful time.

Garbage bin cleverly designed to make you want to 'make a basket'

A somewhat bedraggled White Stork, preening it's feathers.

Arriving back in Groningen we happened upon a market and spent some time discussing these marvelous German and Dutch made bike powered vending stations.  Very ingenious.

Designed by this Dutch owner this unit folds up and runs as a bicycle to move to the next venue.

Built in Germany this beautifully designed and constructed unit sets up as a traveling coffee center.