{"id":183,"date":"2007-04-08T11:33:46","date_gmt":"2007-04-08T16:33:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kaitlyn-marsue.net\/?p=183"},"modified":"2007-04-15T13:49:40","modified_gmt":"2007-04-15T18:49:40","slug":"ouch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/kaitlyn-marsue.net\/?p=183","title":{"rendered":"OUCH!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Oh, is my butt ever sore!<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Today was our first day on the bike portion of our boat and bike tour of Holland. We got off to a late start, which sort of dominoed from yesterday’s (ahem) delay. So now, the Spanish Family will always be thought of as the family that was late and made us have to rush on the first day. We were not all the way to our starting point when we got up this morning, and were going to sail the rest of the 2 hours during breakfast. Apparently, the captain had even decided to set sail at 6am, to try to get us back on schedule. But we woke up to a thick coating of fog. So instead of sailing at 6am, we sailed at 10 or so. So instead of biking at 9, it was after noon when we got started.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The first order of business was to take all the bikes on a \u0093test ride,\u0094 to make sure everything was ok. The slipstream for Kaitlyn was attached to the back of Bill’s bike. A seat was put on mine, so we’d have an alternate. We tried both out and I managed ok with Kaitlyn riding behind me. So we figured our great plan was perfect. The Spanish Family started the morning with everyone on their own bike. Luckily before we set out, they put the youngest Spaniard (she’s about 7) on a slipstream.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We started out biking through the very small town of Nieupoort. It was so quaint \u0096 picture perfect rows of houses up against the road and a small canal in the middle. I thought to myself, now this is the way to see a country. But on the bike tour you’re on a bike and the camera is in a bag on your back and there are no pictures of Nieupoort. There’s just no stopping for pictures of every adorable thing you see. Maybe especially so on a day when you start 3 hours late and have a 42 kilometer itinerary. <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We did get to see all sorts of things (some we have pictures of, others not): tall, huge nests for storks who have just migrated back from Africa, towns of delightful cottages, shutters painted with red, green and cream diamonds, yards with everything from dogs to chickens to goats to llamas, Linden trees (fascinating \u0096 you force the branches to grow straight out. Our guide said it’s a mosquito repellent and a good way to show off your green thumb because they’re hard to grow. So I’ll never have one!)<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lunch was sandwiches we’d packed after eating breakfast. We ate it next to a windmill that is still hard at work. I did not know anything about the history of windmills and now I know a lot. They were built to pump water back to the ocean. Important, given that we were standing 6 meters below sea level. People live in them. The blades are used to send messages to others in town. During WWII, the locals used them to secretly warn of the arrival of German soldiers.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 After lunch, Kaitlyn seemed to tired to get back on the slipstream, so she rode with me. Balancing a 20 kilogram little girl behind me on a bike is a lot harder than I’d anticipated. And it got a lot harder when she dozed off back there! I didn’t realize she was asleep until I nearly lost control of the bike (we were pedaling along a fairly narrow path with water on one side and a muddy, grassy section on the other side) and one of the French speaking women caught us from falling over. She told me \u0093Elle dort.\u0094 Great. Kaitlyn’s head tipped from side to side and I had a terrible time keeping balanced. Bill rode behind me and kept telling me \u0093keep right!\u0094 because I was nearly knocking her head into oncoming bike traffic. <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Kaitlyn woke up when we got to an old windmill you can walk through. (for 3 euros) That tour was ok. The labels for each room were short, to say the least. \u0093living room\u0094… that was about it. It probably didn’t matter. If there had been plaques to read, Kaitlyn wouldn’t have stood still long enough to have been able to read it.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 After the windmill, Kaitlyn got back on the slipstream with Bill. <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I don’t know how far we’d gotten when we came to the dock for the fast ferry to Rotterdam. Thank goodness, we took that rather than going the rest of the way by bike. (So we didn’t complete the full 42 kilometers) It was nearly 6, I was hungry and my behind couldn’t take much more! And we have 5 more days of sitting on these bikes!<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 After dinner, Bill went on a walking tour of the city. I stayed on the boat with Kaitlyn. And the Spanish kids. Everyone else (except the crew) went. I’ll go on the next one.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Oh, is my butt ever sore! \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Today was our first day on the bike portion of our boat and bike tour of Holland. We got off to a late start, which sort of dominoed from yesterday’s (ahem) delay. So now, the Spanish Family […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/kaitlyn-marsue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/kaitlyn-marsue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/kaitlyn-marsue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kaitlyn-marsue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kaitlyn-marsue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/kaitlyn-marsue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/kaitlyn-marsue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kaitlyn-marsue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kaitlyn-marsue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}