We awoke to clear skies. As is my habit, I checked my phone first thing and found our invite to the Craigslist-like user group on Facebook had come through. I looked through the offerings and noticed most wree rather inexpensive, low end kind of stuff. Old book cases, old bikes, hair dryers, that kind of stuff. Ours would be the most expensive posting. But, worth a try. I constructed an ad for the bike, went out to take some pictures and posted it. We will see what happens.
Showers, packing up and breakfast out of the way, we were on our bikes on the streets of downtown Rotterdam by 8:15 am. A few clouds lingered, but the sun was poking through and the day looked promising.
Our route took us through Rotterdam, headed northwest. Using the GPS, we navigated through the busy downtown area, rounding traffic circles, passing over canals, bumping down brick streets and making quite a few wrong turns or missed turns. It all sorted out and soon we were next to our old friend, the Rhine (or at least a channel of it out in this sprawling delta), headed for Hoek van Holland, the town where the Rhine meets the North Sea.
I saw we were receiving comments on Facebook, so I brought them up. One person tried to argue thatbshipping the battery was no problem, companies do it all the time. Another accused us of being crack heads and trying to sell stolen goods. I posted that we had the original receipt and thanked them both for their concerns and comments. After that, we received no further comments or inquiries.
The bent toward innovative architecture continued. We peddled past two buildings, they looked like apartment buildings, with some innovative designs. Modern windmills slipped by, as did many ships in the river, moving both up and down stream.
We had read in our guidebook that we would be passing the largest moving man made structure in the world. As we rode, we were searching downriver for signs of some monstrous object that could move. We saw gigantic windmills and cranes on the other side, part of the port project on the south side of the river. They were big, but did not fit the description. However, a white object started to come into view, lying low, next to the river. This had to be it.
In 1957, a combination of a severe rain storm and storm surge from the sea overran the dikes and flooded part of Holland. Many thousand were killed, homes and farms and factories destroyed. To stop this from occurring again the dikes were raised and strengthened, but that did not solve the problem of the threat of another storm surge racing up the Rhine to inundated Rotterdam and the surrounding countryside, all below sea level. To solve the surge problem, they built a movable steel wall that can be swung out to block the river and the incoming surge. The two halfs of the wall sit on either banks. Controlled by computers and tied to weather collecting monitors, if it senses a surge coming, the walls are swung out onto the river and filled with water to sink them to the bottom. These walls are huge! Even resting on the bottom they rise many feet out of the surface of the river to block the storm surge. How big are they? Each one, if stood up, would be as big as the Eiffel Tower. They are big!
We stopped by the visitors center and paid our €2 entrance fee. We were the only ones there on this Friday noon. We watched the movie. It explained the size and purpose of the barrier and how they fit into the larger water control system. It was fascinating. We had an apple pancake/crepe at the snack bar, then boarded our bikes for the rest of the journey to the mouth of the river, now not more than ten kilometers away. A quick stop for groceries as we entered town and we navigated to the campground. Once found, we left it to complete our ride to the North Sea, just ten minutes away on the other side of the dunes.
This area is very reminiscent of Long Beach, with arcade type businesses, but has a line of restaurants at the top of the beach. We rode down to the end of the pavement, about 100' from the water's edge, and took our picture (many of them). Somehow the timing worked perfectly that it is our anniversary today, our 38th. We have been together for 40 years. Wow! Are we that old?
We rode around a bit, then headed back to the campground to register and set up the tent. We were starving. It was now 1:30 pm. We had purchased sausage and potatoes at the store, so we fried up dinner/lunch. Delicious.
We had read that you could ride out onto the jetty at the mouth, so we rode back to explore that option. My GPS maps did not show any such road/route, so it took a few trials before we found the right path out onto the breakwater. When we reached the end of rideable/walkable surface, we felt we had completed our ride of the length of the Rhine.
We stopped for a beer and a pop at one of the shoreside restaurants, then headed back to the campsite for a rest and to charge Sally's gorilla. The campsite office was closed, so our only option for charging was the restroom plugins. We had had my phone battery stolen a few weeks ago, so we were a little leery to leave it unattended, but we did and it survived. We put it in the women's restroom, trusting to that sex's more honest nature.
We went back to the restaurant for our anniversary dinner. When first married we were quite short of funds, both still in college. We would make home made pizza crust, then sprinkle vegetables from our garden on it for toppings, cutting beets to look like slices of pepperoni. We took to calling this creation "beet pizza". We still laugh about it, and in honor of our humble beginning, often have pizza at our anniversary. That is what we did tonight. A beautiful setting sun, blue skies, light wind and seated inside a glass walled booth on the beach, we were quite content. With the sun nearly dropping below the horizon and the temperature cooling, we rode back to our campsite and snuggled beneath our favorite down comforter for the night.
We did it. 1106 miles and 40 years. Both satisfactory accomplishments.
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