How can it be when two people plan a training program so they are capable of riding the 850 k’s on their city bikes from Haarlem in the Netherlands to Untersiggenthal in Switzerland – that it just keeps on raining. In March and April we cycled regularly doing several 50+ days. We cycled out on the polders, to the sea and round trips around Haarlem. We also tested our bags and packing and so on and stayed in Alkmaar overnight – in short we had been preparing.

NOW 8 days, 22 hours, 45 mins, 22 secs – out from our departure date we have not cycled for a month.

Do you lose all your condition if you don’t cycle for a month? I think so, but I certainly hope not.

Our original plan was about 55 to 60 k’s in each of the first 2 or 3 days – now we are starting at 35 or 40 – depends on accommodation, which means we will not actually reach Germany for 3 or 4 days depending on the time we take to cycle the 140 k’s approximately to the border.

Does fitness for cycling improve quickly once you are cycling regularly? I certainly hope so.

Sadly the weather forecast from Accuweather says it will be raining on 5th and 6th becoming cloudy on the 7th and 8th. So there is faint hope. BUT if it is raining on the 5th we may take the train for the first section and then have more time in Germany and France.

NOTE: Not because we are lazy, but because we cannot ride bikes in the rain as we both have to wear glasses and funnily enough ours don’t have windscreen wipers on them.

So will have to keep you posted, meantime we are sorting our stuff to make sure we take back to New Zealand only what we need there.

We certainly will get to Untersiggenthal – with some of it being by bicycle.

Now I have written that it is raining again – it is NOT NOW raining. The sun is shining, the sky is blue, the clouds are light and fluffy.

AccuWeather says:
Wednesday 7/27/2011
Clouds and sun with a couple of showers
High Temperature: 19°C
RealFeel: 24°C

It was last Sunday. We were well rested, and the effects of this spring seemed to have lessened a bit for us both.

It was nearly a great day – this Bison hunting day.

We left home reasonably early, and as we always do we took clothes for the rain, and clothes for the wind. We had to stop about 1k from home to add clothes to protect from the wind.

Now Morgan has given us both a special Swiss bag for carrying across the body over one shoulder and it has pockets for everything. It is a great thing for hiking as they do in Switzerland and for cycling as we do here in the Netherlands.

Mine contained my little Samsung camera to take those all important Bison photos, my puffer for my asthma, my strepsils for my sore throat, and my sun tan lotion for the sun, tissues for you know what, and did I say it already; probably, but I also took my little Samsung camera to take the all important Bison photos.

I know you are saying out there – what am I on about.

Well, I added a sleeveless sweater vest thing to stop the wind. I took off the wonderful Swiss bag, the gift from Morgan, put on my Vest thing, and reduced the affect of the wind. I rode off happily without my Swiss bag, my camera, my puffer, my suntan lotion, my strepsils, my tissues, and oh dear, my camera.

We rode for nearly 5k’s before we realised. That is we rode to our destination – the Bison Park, well it isn’t called the Bison Park, but just now I cannot remember what it is called. But we rode there all the same, stopped the bikes, started to lock them up and I realised I didn’t have the bag, the wonderful Swiss bag from Morgan.

and that Best Beloved rode gallantly back to see if he could find the bag – not a hope.

But the best thing that happened on this day is that there were no Bison to be seen anywhere. So the camera wasn’t needed.

But I would like 4gb memory card back

So if you found the bag – you can have it, I just want the photos I have not downloaded from our boat day the day before.

So if you have the bag and camera and all the other bits and pieces in it – we can swap – I will give you the charger for the camera battery and you will give me the 4gb card with the photos on it still.

Message for Morgan don’t buy us another bag. We can replace it ourselves, as well as the camera. I just hope we get the memory card back.

Dutch News in English posted this story, which is certainly worth a read The bike was returned forthwith – after much angst and tv coverage and so on – but I am not telling you anymore – go and read the news.

What an outcome.

Fantastic work Pakistan.

Official figures show a dramatic reduction in the number of bikes stolen in the Netherlands last year. The Dutch are well-known as a nation of cyclists and bike theft causes much irritation.

Just over half a million bicycles were taken in 2009 compared to about three-quarters of a million in 2006. This is down to measures taken by the government, the cycle sector and the police. New bikes are now routinely fitted with hidden chips which can be used to identify their owners.

Quality certification for cycle-racks and locks has also helped, as has the construction of more racks, some of them patrolled, in cities and at stations. The creation of an official register of stolen bicycles has made their recovery easier.

© Radio Netherlands Worldwide

Other Miscellaneous Facts

The April 2010 population of the Netherlands was 16,603,575. and there were 500,000 bikes stolen in 2009. I found that there were 13,000,000 bikes in the Netherlands in 2005. If I find updated figures I will add them to this post.

The Netherlands has the total area of 41,526 sq km (16,033 sq miles), of which inland water accounts for more than 7,643 sq km (2,951 sq miles). The land area is 33,883 sq km (13,082 sq miles). The land area increases slightly each year as a result of continuous land reclamation and drainage. It is bordered on the east by Germany, south by Belgium, and west and north by the North Sea, with a total boundary length of 1,478 km (918 miles), of which 451 km (280 miles) is coastline. Data is from the Encyclopedia of the Nations

New Zealand, which we think of as quite small is the 75th largest country in the world with an area of 270,464 Km2, is more than 6 times the size of the Netherlands, has an April 2010 population of 4,364,134, probably has only 500,000 bikes in the entire country.

Could that mean that the stolen Dutch bikes are in New Zealand?

New Zealand includes Antipodes Islands, Auckland Islands, Bounty Islands, Campbell Island, Chatham Islands, and Kermadec Islands. It excludes Niue (260 km²), the Cook Islands (236 km²) and Tokelau (12 km²), as well as the Antarctic claim of Ross Dependency (450,000 km²). It is the third largest country in Oceania.

Dutch lovebirds often hold hands while pedaling

That is as much geography and social information I can provide today.