Winter blues and no regrets (mostly)

Once again it has been a long time since my last blog post. I've gathered that my last post gave the impression that we're never moving back to SA. Clearly that was written before winter had properly started! It's the end of March now and I think G and I deserve a medal for surviving the miserableness that is Europe in winter. At least this year we had snow - our first winter here was just cold and wet. I really struggled with the cold: I was prepared in terms of clothing but unprepared mentally. How can you go so long without the feeling of a hot sun beating down on your skin? Us poor African children were brought up to play outside 365 days a year. Boy I struggled. 

View from my train platform on a snowy day

But now Spring has arrived and the flowers have starting to appear on the islands in the middle of the roads. It’s not hot but at least some days the temperature is double digits. As I write this I'm sitting on a blanket in the sun in Vondel Park watching a lady throw sticks into a pond for her dog to fetch. I'm not sure who is happier - me or him. The sun is glorious and I think the whole of AMS is out to enjoy it. G is cycling by himself towards the dunes on the west coast and I had brunch earlier with some friends from that girls group I mentioned in the last post. Today life feels pretty good. 

Dog jumping into a pond in Vondel Park

But it's not all sunshine and daffodils. On Monday we got back from a very quick trip home for a friend's wedding. We had 10 days of family and friends and all it did was remind us where our hearts truly lie. We came to Europe with the intention of travelling and we have done that. We also have some nice trips lined up for the next few months (Berlin, Mallorca and Norway are already booked). But home is starting to call. Our friends at home are having babies, buying "grown-up" houses and saying goodbye to ill parents. We're missing out on being there for them. It's a very strange feeling whenever we go back. Everything feels the same but so much has changed and will continue to change. This whole experience is one big reminder that the only constant in life is change.

View of Llandudno (taken while cycling in Cape Town)

All of that said, I have no regrets. Yesterday I started compiling a 30 Before 30 list (30 things to do that I've never done before I turn 30 in August 2016) and I started where all other personal goals and projects start: Pinterest.  It was quite an ego booster to read other people's lists and see that I've done a lot already. I'll do a separate blog post for my list once I know what they all are (I'm stuck on 21 items). I think my mother will be horrified to read that the first one is roasting a chicken. Yes, I am a respectable married woman who has a postgraduate degree and has lived abroad, but I have never roasted a chicken. We can’t all be perfect…

Anyway, back to no regrets. In my last blog post I mentioned buying racing bikes. We did this in January and almost immediately starting riding them. In January. In Europe. Let’s just say my feet are still recovering from the first 3 rides – a beautiful range of purples, blues, yellows and reds that would look lovely in an art gallery but painful on my feet. We stocked up on suitable riding kit but that only protects you so much…I can also confirm that this country is flat. Training adequately for the Cape Town Cycle Tour was challenging and we were both slightly relieved when the course was drastically reduced from 109km to 47km following a week of fires around the Cape peninsula. The weather and flatness of NL had not prepared us sufficiently for the full distance’s route profile. We would have completed the race but we would have suffered a bit more than we’re used to suffering on long rides like that. Now that it’s over, I’m training for my second half marathon in April and G is concentrating on cycling for Iron Man.

G on a ride along the Amstel river with his shiny new racing bike

I finally arranged to attend a beginner’s Dutch course for 8 weeks earlier this year. I’m glad I did it but it was 2 nights a week which becomes quite taxing, especially when you’re trying to build new friendships and then have to turn down invites. I’d like to continue with the next course but not yet. I’m also not 100% sure it will benefit me in the long run. I know one of the reasons I wanted to go to a non-English speaking country was to learn a new language (I even wrote a whole blog post about it in June 2014) but it becomes a lot more difficult when the locals prefer speaking English to me because it’s 1000 times easier than trying to put up with my broken Dutch. All the discussion about moving back to SA doesn’t help matters much either.

A wine, food and craft market at Westergasfabriek (western AMS)

But summer is just around the corner. We've already noticed the terrace bars and cafes have more tables and chairs out. The general mood of the city is a little happier - I don't think we're the only people tired of the cold. Vondel Park is packed most evenings when I go for a run and tickets for the summer music festivals have gone on sale (I managed to get tickets for PinkPop - whoop whoop). Last year we missed a whole month of summer due to our wedding and I'm really looking forward to experiencing a full season here. If last year was anything to go by, it should be good.

Overall, the mood in our little home in AMS is positive but we’re missing SA and counting the minutes to summer.

The Bicycle

The Netherlands is known for many things, but probably the one that has the biggest impact on daily life is the way that the Dutch are devoted to The Bicycle. Before we moved here I’d heard and read about how everyone is on bicycles but until you see it for yourself, you think the guide-books and blogs show posed photographs. Those pictures you see of a bicycle leaning against a pretty canal are real. Except it’s not one or two pretty bikes leaning against the canal, it’s thousands. Thousands of bicycles. EVERYWHERE. Arriving at Amsterdam Centraal or any train station will blow your mind because you can’t believe how many bikes can be in such a small area. And they are in all conditions – old, new, single-speed, 3 gears, pedal breaks, normal breaks, Omafietsen, racing bikes, mountain bikes, bent wheels, flat tyres, covered in plant life, wicker baskets, spraypainted neatly, spraypainted badly, beer crates, flower garlands, worn-spring-exposed saddles, tandem with kids seats and my personal favourite: the bakfiets* – it has a trunk on the front for loading groceries/kids/furniture/dogs/grannies. How you turn a corner when you have wriggling children in a huge bucket in the front of your bicycle is beyond me but this shows the capability of the Dutch on bicycles. These people can cycle before they can walk and the cyclist is king. Pedestrians and drivers must give way to a cyclist, even if the traffic light changed 15 seconds ago. The dedicated cycle lane system with cyclist traffic lights is really impressive and 99% of the time it can’t be faulted. It’s fantastic.

 A lone Omafiets alongside the canal 

Our first four months of being in NL were spent living in Ede and once we moved to A’dam I wanted to get a feel for how things worked so I used public transport to get to the office (and it was February so still a bit cold). One mid-March Saturday, Gordon and I decided to test out my route to work. Google said it was 10.2km door-to-door and would take 34 minutes. Considering the metro takes 28 minutes, cycling supposedly was a good alternative. That first attempt showed that I have an easy route but it did not flow well as there was a huge rowing regatta happening on the river so we had to negotiate screaming crowds for the first 5km. But I knew how to get to the office on Monday which was the purpose of the excursion.

The view from the first 5km of my daily commute

Monday morning, I left the apartment 45 minutes before I was supposed to be there so that I had a buffer. My ride was lovely. The first 1.5km is city cycling but along the Amstel river. Then the city suddenly disappears and for 3.5km I’m cycling with the river next to me on the left and beautiful parks and gardens on the right. Across the river is farmland. It’s lovely and a popular route for runners, serious cyclists and commuting cyclists. It looks flat but has a few sneaky rises which you notice when you are on a single-speed bike.

The windmill and a serious cyclist (note the helmet) at the turning point in my commute

At the 5km mark there is a typical Dutch windmill and that’s there I turn onto a lovely country road with canals on both sides with farmland, sports fields and cute little houses for about 1.5km. This is also popular with trainers and commuters. After that I turn onto the final stretch which is a main road (with more-than-sufficient cycling lanes) that basically takes me to my office. This road also looks deceivingly flat and is lined with apartment blocks, canals and patches of tulips and daffodils. Just before my office, I have to go under the metro which means a ramp down then up the other side. Thanks to the gentle undulations and the last (significant) ramp, I was drenched in sweat and about 5 minutes late. This was not a good start to a Monday morning! I’d packed my deodorant as a precaution but that wasn’t sufficient – I needed a shower and a fresh shirt. I hastily dabbed toilet paper wherever possible in the bathroom and took deep breathes to dry mitigate the problem but I knew the damage had been done. This was not mentioned in the guidebooks and blogs, which is why I’m telling you here – NL is not flat and cycling 10km in 45 minutes on a heavy single-speed Omafiets will leave you sweaty.

The middle stretch of my commute - my favourite part

There have been several cycles to work since then and I am slowly mastering the art. Tip 1: Don’t trust Google – I give myself an hour so I don’t have to rush which means a) less sweating and b) I can enjoy the scenery more. Tip 2: Don’t ride with your handbag strapped across you – it will hold the back of your shirt against you which leads to sweating. Air flow is good. Tip 3: Even if it feels really cold, don’t ride with a warm jacket because after 3km you will feel those evil beads running down your back and it’s really hard to recover from there. Remove the jacket asap. Tip 4: Take an umbrella and a scarf just in case. No explanation required. Tip 5: Crossing the road can reduce the number of undulations on a particular stretch – this is worth investigating. Tip 6: Enjoy it. The days when I cycle to the office always seem better than the days using public transport. The endorphins and lack of sneezing passengers make you feel great and it’s a sneaky way to burn a few more calories – very useful in the weeks before your wedding!

Gordon's commute is through the city - the red lane indicates a bicycle lane (see how close to the tram line it is!)

It’s a hard feeling to explain, but riding through the city surrounded by traffic and other bicycles is when I feel the most like a local. I feel like an Amsterdammer even though I’ve only been living in this city for 3.5 months. It’s by far the best way to experience NL and we are planning a countryside adventure on our bikes over the long weekend in June – route still to be determined. When we were living in Ede we would often ride through the forest and farmlands on the well-marked cycling routes. It was a fantastic way to spend an afternoon. This country appreciates bicycles and I love it.

*A colleague of mine says only people who aren’t from Amsterdam ride a bakfiets and he means that in a not-very-nice way.