Maurick to Rotterdamm

We got up early (for Peter, I wake up around 5.30 anyway), which was at 7, and got all packed up and organized in our little attic room. Then downstairs, where Kobe, their 13 year old, was very friendly and helpful, got us some breakfast (pourable yogurt with a little cut fruit, and some granola sprinkled on top, a very common breakfast here). Dad Elian was also around, he was getting the youngest son off to school (oldest has been off for about a week).

We biked off to the cherry orchard, just maybe 10 minutes down the road, on the dike path. Got introduced to the orchard owners, an older couple, there were already a bunch of kids working there and a few seniors. We were led off to the edge of the (covered with plastic mesh) orchard, where the crop was less well protected from the rain, because that's where the cherries could split if they absorb any rain. The technique was - always include the stem, split them into 3 categories (perfect, ones that have a mark which are used for jam, and the trash bucket). And were were off, filling foldable trays up with beautiful, huge, juicy, cherries that hung everywhere on the trees. It was fun. Kobe was a great conversationalist, asked all kinds of question (how do you like holland? do you like cherry picking?). He had some complaints about school, some bad teachers, teachers who were gone all the time so they didn't even have the classes and went home sometimes, etc. There was another girl of about the same age, picking with him, she didn't say a word - probably didn't speak English as well as Kobe.

Kobe said that being sent to the edge of the orchard to pick (away from where most of the others were) was a privilege that meant that he was trusted. Apparently a while back some of the kids had been messing around, throwing cherries, etc. He's trusted to be careful and hard working.

Kobe is a very chatty and informative kid. He broke his arm recently, biked into a ditch somehow. But 2 days after that, he went on a school trip to England. He loves sports shoes, and is saving up cherry picking money to buy some, but also is interested in a laptop. He said he used to spend a lot of time playing video games, but doesn't do that anymore, but he did say he spend a lot of time watching videos. He doesn't want to take over his dad's business, manufacturing bike parts.

What else did we talk about...

Anyway, at the break (10 am for coffee) the farmer got everyone out back to the barn, we all sat in a circle and had some coffee around a big wooden industrial spool table. There were about 3 people that were older, one hippie looking lady (dreadlocks). And the rest were teenagers. One of the older people asked some questions that she said came from some of the others (do you have cherries in the US, etc). All were very friendly and after the break was over, a couple of them came over and shook my hand and wished me a good rest of the trip. The older lady that spoke the most to us was one that wintered in her camper in Spain. The lady owner of orchard asked if I wanted to get paid, (I think they were getting either 5 or 10 Euros an hour), I said no, then she offered some cherries, I said sure, so we got a small package of really excellent fresh cherries. We picked, in total, maybe 5 or so flats. Our first 2 flats we over-filled, when the owner came over he told Kobe to tell us not to fill them so high.

So, that was cherry-picking, quite the experience. Then we started biking to Utrecht, so not following the Rhine anymore. At this point I'm just navigating via Google maps, but then also (since Google maps sends you the very direct way, but often on a nice bike path that's next to a very busy road) I just try to see how things are on the ground and get to a better location. There was one road we got on that had multiple castles, among them Castle Sterkenburg. We didn't go in any of them, but they're fun to see. Once when I was looking at the map, I saw that our route followed what looked like a canal with some funny corners, and I thought...I'll bet there's castle in there. And I was right!

Then got into Utrecht. First impressions - very cool, hip city. Tons of people were out, we couldn't even bike. Very chic people, very chic stores, and also - TONS AND TONS of English spoken! All of a sudden so much English, and many people didn't look like tourists, rather people just maybe on short term stays, etc. Althought one thing that's missing here, which does exist in Germany, is - there's no English translations. None of the restaurant menus, signs, etc, are translated, which I guess means there's not much tourism.

One thing I'm noticing is that the Netherlands have many many fewer immigrants than Germany. In a Germany city of about this size, it seems like MOST of the people you hear, when out and about, are foreign and don't speak German when they're together. Here, the vast, vast majority of people are Dutch looking, and speak Dutch.

Here in Utrecht we went first to a McDonalds where I got my usual 5 burger patties (a lot of explanation that I JUST wanted the beef, not anything else). The whole place was PACKED wtih these really good-looking but kind of etheriul (sp?) teenage girls, really about 90%. I guess that's where they hangout. Peter got his usual cheeseburgers. There was a shop just next door that was selling this HUGE sandwiches, but it was mostly bread. From what I saw, just a few thin meat slices. We went into the main library, a REALLY interesting looking building, which this year had it's 100 year anniversary. Art deco style, a huge arched interior, was previously the post office. I talked at length with the guy at the desk, he said that in holland now, there are no post offices, you can send packages at grocery stores, etc. Peter found a piano there at played quite a while, and then we went to get into our room. So far we've NEVER been let into a hotel room early! The room is nice (Eye Hotel) but at this weird below-ground level, not one I would care to stay in for long. I washed out some clothes, also scrubbed the cherry orchard stains off.

Later in the evening we went out again, looking for a place to eat. Lots of drinking was going on, not a lot of eating. We ended up going to this place BadaBing, ordered spare ribs for me and Enchilada for Peter (the spare ribs came out VERY black, and not a lot of meat on them. if you don't eat the fries, you end up still hungry). Then...a big windstorm, preparing us for a downpour! Everyone moved from the outside patio to inside, after one of the big gusts.

We worked our way back to the hotel slowly, stopping for breaks from the rain. Stopped at the library, where Peter thought he would play a little piano, but the piano was locked. I went to the grocery store very close by to get some cream. Then...home, called Eric, made plans for the next couple days. Now I have the hotels booked (3 nights Rotterdamm, 1 night Frankfurt at the airport), and our trip is almost over!

The laundry that I washed out by hand last night didn't dry very well - seems like that always happens if you're below ground. I finished it off with the blow dryer. Then got a few things for breakfast at the nearby local grocery. I think they were using some kind of very "eco-friendly" refrigeration shelves because...they were completely fogged up! You couldn't tell what was inside, so I had to open everything up to search for things. Kind of defeats the purpose of glass doors.

We only checked out of the hotel at 11, which is late for us. We walked around a bit, checked out the library again (which had a piano, another lady was playing but she and Peter ended up taking turns). I took a good walk around the library, it's actually a very impressive building, and also impressive is that - there are zero homeless people there. There's multiple huge open study/desk/work areas that are filled with ... people that actually look like they're working. Not like in the US, where many people at libraries nowadays are homeless. I actually went to the employee sitting at the front desk, and asked about that (do they have a problem with homeless people in the library), and she said there are people who go will ask them to leave. She said it so politely and politically correctly though (something about "advising them") that I didn't even get it at first. There also appear to be almost zero homeless people, at least in downtown. There were a couple obviously mentally disturbed people around, but there were no homeless people camped out where we were.

Then to the museum of music boxes. I'm not sure what the name was, but that's what there was - lots and lots of automatic old music devices. I think Peter thought it was more of a musical instrument museum, but it definitely wasn't. I was prepared for it to suck, but it wasn't that bad - we went on a tour and, the guide was decent and actually operated many of the more interesting music boxes.

Then back to the hotel, packing up, and heading to the central train station in the rain! It was a short ride, though. Then bought a ticket, and were on a train to Rotterdam in about 40 minutes. Bringing the bikes cost extra, and it wasn't like on the French train, I had to stand next to them the whole time to make sure they didn't fall over. But overall it went okay, then a short bike ride to the hotel - the Social Hub. It's supposed to be partly a student home, and then also a hotel/extended stay type of place. Anyway, it has a very modest kitchenette, everything in it was brand new (manuals still in the dishwasher, sticker still on the stovetop). I got everything to work with some effort, and then bought a bunch of foods I've been craving (ground beef!) at Lidl. Lots and lots of vegan influence at all the grocery stores here, it's dismaying. There's hundreds of different types of sugar water (juice, soda, all that stufff) but it's tough to find things like eggs, butter, etc., in the store.

We're going to relax at the hotel this evening. The plan was to go out and do things but ... just relaxing is a good idea. The good thing about this place is that there's some common/social areas that are actually populated with people. Nobody seems really to be socializing right now, but maybe that'll come. They advertise this as a digital nomad location...I wonder if it's a big digital nomad hangout.

There are MANY MANY fewer immigrants here than in Germany. I think I've noted this before. Here in Rotterdamn there are more, but still - overall VERY few in comparison.

Something to remember - many mornings there are insect pieces around my eyes. I think what happens is that the insects fly into my eyes while biking, I blink them away to where they no longer bug me (got that?) and then my eye gradually works them out overnight. Weird but I guess better than having them in there!

I'm pretty sure I noted this before but...people in Utrecht are glamourous. Well-dressed. Chic and stylish. Also - so many more young people! Than in other places in general. Lots of teenagers and 20, 30 year olds no.

Initial thoughts on Rotterdam - definitely not as chic and fancy and wealthy as Utrecht. More immigrants. More litter, definitely lots of litter around.

What have we been up to? Lots of walking around the central pedestrian area, where a lot of action in the book Peter really likes - Ender's Shadow - takes place. He noted down 4 places, and we went to all 4 of them and took pictures.

Lots and lots of very well developed bike paths, but in the inner city/pedestrian area, nobody is on bikes. No electric scooters pretty much at all, everyone is on bikes, and mostly those "oma fiets" - randma style bikes, very upright, and work well if everything is flat.

I went to the sports store (Decathlon) and looked around for a while, Peter stayed outside and played games on the phone. I ended up buying a 35 liter size daypack, it should be more convenient to cary than the orange daypack plus yellow drybag

Breakfast here is one of the best so far - a pretty social layout, decent food including eggs and salmon, blueberries and yogurt.

We went by the used bike store that seemed the most likely to buy the bikes from us - 010 Bikes, or something like that, very close by. But after talking to the guy, he said that they buy all their bikes very cheaply, like 10 to 20 euros each, from the city of rotterdam auctions. So he would only offer us 50 euros for both of them. He suggested that we put them for sale on this Marketplaac site.nl (something like that). I tried doing that, but unfortunately it looks like it requires a local phone number. I put the bikes up for sale on Facebook marketplace, but got nothing but scammers responding to that. So, we may be unable to sell the bikes. Bummer.

Where else did we go? The library (the one in Utrecht was lots nicer), train station (there was a public piano there that Peter played at). Went to the cafe at a Hema, those are always pretty nice and on the second floor, a good place to chill.

I bought train tickets back to Frankfurt at the train station, and that was an ordeal. First of all at the place with a huge sign, "Train Info", I went and ask the 2 train employees chitchatting there if I could buy tickets. One of them said rudely something like "There's a sign right here that says no tickets sales". Jerk.

Then off to the actual ticket office. Even though there was no line, you had to take a little number stub. And it wasn't an easy "here's a place to take a number". You had to go to this screen, and choose what kind of ticket you wanted to buy, and then they'd print out a number for you. Messy akward system. I did eventually get to an employee, and no kidding - it took about 45 minutes. Apparently there's some kind of holiday this weekend, and everyone is traveling. He kept on printing these sheets of paper with an itinerary, and the price written by hand at the bottom, which I would approve, and then he'd try to actually book it. And it always failed! At the 8th or so try, he printed out an itinerary with 4 trains! So 3 changes. Then that one, we were able to book and purchase it. We'll have to be on our toes to not miss a train or do something wrong.

Evening we biked around the harbor, that was nice, though not a smooth ride, lots of starting and stopping.

What all did we do today... The weather all morning was really rainy, just pouring rain. It got better around 2 or 3. We went out, and went to the Market Haal (the big food market area), then to the train station where Peter wanted to play piano. Turns out they had some bands from the North Sea jazz festival there, so Peter couldn't play. He listened a while, though while I went around to a few other stores.

Went to the Decathlon sports store again, just to use up some of my cash. I found a raincoat that seems pretty decent - I could have used it in the past couple weeks!

Also checked out the Action stores, which is the dollar store equivalent here. I noticed some interesting differences in prices, things that are much cheaper here. For instance - corelle type dishes, they're only 58 eurocents at this store, vs about $4 a plate in the US, like at the walmart. Also borosilicate glasses, less than 1 euro here, they're a ton more in the US.

Peter wanted to go check out the North Seas jazz festival later on in the evening, on his own. He thought he could find some jazz improv sessions there, even without having tickets. So, after some back and forth, I agreed to give him my phone, so he could do directions. I worked my way back to the hotel with no google maps. How did it go? Well...fine, after I asked THREE people for directions. Yes, literally 3, and 1 more to tell me where the Lidl was, so I could buy a little food for the trip. It's amazing how bad my sense of direction has gotten, because I am so dependent on google maps!

Unfortunately Peter didn't find anything he could participate in, out at the festival grounds, so he came home pretty soon. We played ping pong a little bit in the common area but called it a night pretty quickly.

On the train now, with 4 separate trains to take. I'm stressing out a little because if anything fails, we might not make our flight tomorrow. The train is pretty comfortable and smooth, lots of people (relatively) on it. Weather poor, though now as we're headed east it seems to be getting better.

This morning at breakfast I still didn't have a buyer for the bikes. The facebook marketplace contact that seemed hopefully last night turned out to (in all likelyhood) to be ANOTHER scam, but one that took a lot more work on the part of the scammer. Lots of back and forth, but then a bunch of things came up that sounded really weird (like...he wants to start a long bike trip tomorrow, but doesn't have 100 euros in cash to buy a bike, but he would be able to do paypal. Nope. Definitely a scam.

Anyway, at breakfast this morning I talked to the African guy at the kitchen who's been really friendly, and asked if he wanted the bikes. He's the first one who said yes! He said he wanted to pay for them though. I gave him the bike lock key, and a description of the bikes, location, and my email. We'll see what happens!

Overall the breakfast has been an okay way to chat a bit with people. Yesterday there was a couple nearby, the woman was in a wheelchair and they were waiting for one of the tables to open up, so we moved over and opened one up. We ended up chatting a bit, she was very tanned and had just come back from southern Italy.