Alphen aan den Rijn to Amsterdam

Sunday October 24, 2010

My campsite for the night, in the Heempark in Alphen aan den Rijn.

The large plastic bag which I normally use for keeping the sleeping bag, sleeping mat and  sleeping bag inside being used as an extra layer under the tent to help keep the water out.

Another Sunday, and all the shops were closed again, so I couldn't get any milk for breakfast. I'm starting to dread Sundays; I really need to plan ahead for them.
So I just had to keep riding without breakfast until I got to Amsterdam. At one point I had to catch the ferry across the canal.

Catching the ferry across the canal, Nessersluis, the Netherlands.

It was actually further than I expected to Amsterdam: 50 km or something, so it's just as well I didn't ride it last night.
Once in Amsterdam, I finally found a supermarket and bought milk and cereal, then found a spot to sit down and eat breakfast. Man I was so hungry, I went through 2 litres of milk. Meanwhile I did some research and decided on a hostel.
I was just about to hop back onto the bike to head to the hostel when I noticed the back tyre was as flat as a tack. Puncture number twelve for the trip. After this many punctures I was kind of beyond the stage of anger, and had moved into the stage of acceptance. Acceptance that the tyres are just crap, and that I'm going to get punctures in them all the time, and that I should expect them.
I tried to pump the tyre up so I could get to the hostel first and book in, and then fix the tyre. But the puncture must have been big because I could only ride a few hundred metres before it was flat again. I ended up walking half the way to the hostel.
I booked into the hostel which was called "Orfeo Hostel". It seemed pretty good, clean enough, a nice common room, computers, kitchen, good location.
The only thing was, they didn't have anywhere for bike parking, so I had to lock mine to the railing beside a canal at the end of the street, about a hundred metres from the hostel. I was worried that it was going to get stolen, because I'd heard bike theft was a big problem in Amsterdam. I disguised it well though, tried to make it fit in.

Can you spot my foreign touring bike in amongst these native Dutch bikes?  Mine is the light brown coloured ("Truccachino") Surly Long Haul Trucker. I think it blended in quite well.

Amsterdam seemed a really cool place, I loved the cycling culture there. It seemed like everyone rode bikes, so many cyclists everywhere, it was unreal! People dinking someone on the rack on the back of their bike was very common.
I didn't fix my puncture because I only had one of those massive patches left, the ones you get in the puncture repair kits that you never use because they're so big. If you ever had a puncture big enough to warrant using one of those, you wouldn't try and fix it, you'd just get a new tube.
Back in the hostel, there were a few Australian's, as well as people of various other nationalities, including Americans.

In the common room of the Orfeo Hostel, Amsterdam.

I didn't really talk to anyone or make friends with anyone, I just chilled there on my own, and listened to everyone else talking and surfed the net. I overheard a good way of testing drunkeness: take it in turns to say "one smart fella he felt smart", "two smart fella's they felt smart", "three smart fella's they felt smart" etc. If you stuff that up, you're probably drunk.
The hostel kitchen closed at 10 pm, and it was currently 9:30 pm, so I thought I'd just eat out. I stepped out of the hostel and immediately there were about 30 restaurants in sight.

My hostel, the Orfeo Hostel is just on the right in this photo.

I walked 20 m to the intersection and there were restaurants every way I turned, I was completely surrounded!
I wandered around for maybe half an hour, I couldn't decide where to eat, or what I wanted to eat. Every second restaurant almost was advertising pizzas and pasta's for €5. It was like trying to pick a spot to camp, or a spot to stop for lunch. That's what I don't like about restaurants, there's always too much choice, both for the restaurant initially, and then for the dish once you're inside the restaurant. If there was just one restaurant selling one pizza for €5, I'd just buy it straight away and not think twice about it, but when there are multiple restaurants selling many different pizzas for the same price, then there's just too much choice.
I ruled out one restaurant because the chef was smoking out the front, another one was too loud, another one was too busy. In the end I went for one that was almost empty, which is risky because a busy restaurant indicates a good restaurant, otherwise why would it be busy? But I figured this quite one needed some business, otherwise the staff would just be standing around idle, so I ordered a €5 pizza from there.
I spent a while surfing the net and didn't get to sleep until after 4 am.

My route for the day, Alphen aan den Rijn to Amsterdam.

An overview of my route so far from France to the Netherlands.

Ride stats:
Distance: 52.89 km
Average: 17.9 km/h
Maximum: 32.4 km/h
Time: 2:56:22
Total ascent: 25 m
Total descent: 24 m