Hard cycling with headwind

#fietsen #cycling #kerst #pannekoeken

This morning I expected more than when I was Facebooking with a very personal friend last night. Apart from the weather conditions, the museum in Arnhem was not something to be happy about in terms of money. Although the entrance fee was reduced (museums do so in the winter season), the one euro that could be spent in the museums of Gelderland was intended only for children. I left my rental house with a good intention because I was going to pedal on my tricycle to a fall market in wild nature. Not that it was big, but with, I was hoping, a nice used handbook or a nice plant for the windowsill. If the plants were not for sale I would have tapped a small pine tree on the head during my walking holiday last month in the Ardennes. The route to the autumn market had a big detour because the cycle path was literally torn apart. Asphalt concrete was no longer just a sandbox that ran through under the brown-yellow foliage. Then there is the big asphalt road called Schaapallee with before arriving in the rich village a huge long descent where the wind whistled in my ears when shezing down. I got a perplexed feeling just like winning in a lottery. All in all, without realizing it, 15 minutes longer on the road but not a bad idea afterwards.

To reach the autumn market I had to follow a few kilometers in a small core (village). Shortly before, I followed the yellow signposted signs with the text of a diner and restaurant. The text on the plate reminded me of a café with fun old men drinking from a thick mug of beer. I skipped that part and went to the café and restaurant around the corner to the grounds that turned out to be a kind of garden without flowers and plants. There were people behind wooden tables, with long legs, who had displayed their commodity. There were books, most of them with their cover displayed upwards, and others put in boxes. At the back there were flower arrangements for sale and to the right of me a drinking table with cups of filled coffee and a bottle of syrup for a plastic plate. Later I would regret not having bought a flower arrangement because with Christmas in the prospect this was something to cheer up my white window sill. Being alone is not bad because on the site a number of people ran and the stalls were installed without canopies. The “no more adolescent “looking boy served me by taking the money for the ordered pancake. The waiting was rewarded because, despite the fact that the pancake was thin, I poured the dark black syrup over it. And before it knew, the light brown pancake was devoured with the sweet taste of the syrup still on my lips. For the amount the pancake was easy to call, given the long wait at the stall.

Satisfied, I drove back to my rental house on the winding road that was just not right to call. Through a detour I came to the only asphalt road that went to the ferry over the river but that was not visible. I decided to follow the straight cycle path overlooking a car salon where the most expensive cars were exhibited on a large gravel path. The money for such a four-wheeler I would have to save a lot for, which with my salary was impossible. Dead ends are not nice especially if it is not indicated well in advance. So I decided to follow the only other road via the red and white mushrooms to the village with the spa had been demolished. I came out just before the canal and knew from experience that right to follow the straight water was the right way. The next core was not yet visible, only taken into consideration because I knew I had to follow the forest area to go in the right direction. Only the main road was the best solution and not the dead-end cycle path that I would now approach from the other side as in the beginning. So far my thoughts were sunk, that I pardo turned right and could just brake in front of the busy canal road that honoured its name.

After half an hour I found myself in the backyard and I had put my tricycle behind the closed barn door. I was delighted and relieved to notice that that one sandwich I had kept with the pancake food had later picked up by a sand road that crossed the railroad and went into the forest edge. Because the lunch time had passed, I had eaten the sandwich much faster because the healthy forest air promoted the eating process. Not to forget that.