Eric D. Schabell: Back on the bike again!

Monday, February 20, 2006

Back on the bike again!

So, waking up on Sunday morning and the sun was shining! That is the first time in over a month and a half. My first thought was to go for a bit of a ride, but today we had a birthday party in Utrecht around 1600 hrs. I decided to let my wife drive up with my daughter and I would take the bike on up to Utrecht, see if I could find it. Good chance to try out my Christmas present (a nice biking map set).

I took off around 1400 hrs and had to cross two rivers, one on a nice climb up the Zaltbommel bridge (we have to make do with this sort of thing as a 'hill' in the Netherlands as it is quite flat here) and another with a small boat (sort of ferry boat that traversed a rope stretched across the river). Was great!

Got lost in t'Goi due to the construction there involving removed all the bike signs so I had no clue where I was. Finally popped out in Houten just below Utrecht so was back on track. Entered Utrecht by the FC Utrecht stadium and watched the players exit their bus as they returned from beating AZ!

Not too familiar with Utrecht, so while looking for the Wittevrouwen area I cycled through most of east Utrecht and finally arrived at the birthday party around 1700 hours with 54.14 km on the odometer! Nice ride!

I needed heavy clothing as the temperature started around 10 degrees but the wind was blowing and it cooled off down to around 3 degrees by the time I got to the end of the ride.