The beach

When you ask the name of a famous beach in Holland, many people say Zandvoort.
The picture below is one of the beaches of Bloemendaal aan Zee, which stretches out to Zandvoort. The picture was taken on Monday August 13 at 12.10 pm.

There are more beaches of course. Bergen in the province of North-Holland has a nice beach if you like nature and an artistic atmosphere. In Zeeland there is a nostalgic beach town called Domburg.

We got 5 inhabited islands in the Waddenzee on the edge of the North Sea. Each of the islands has it's own characteristic. But everyone has a wide beach. Slightly different then what you see on the picture. A little bit more heroic.

Hello

More than a month past since my last post.
I cycled, I worked and had a vacation in Germany.
We had a removal at work at the end of May. My department switched to another building. In the last days I couldn't do very much. The systems were down due to the removal which concerned 600 people or more.

I needed a vacation badly but at the same time I was a bit afraid for weeks of travelling. I didn't have a tent and didn't know where to sleep after 100 kilometer cycling. But as I went on vacation it wasn't bad at all. The first night I knew where to sleep but after that I had no idea. Hotels in Münster, Verl, Holzminden and Clausthal-Zellerfeld were okay.
In Clausthal-Zellerfeld I had an accident. It was not bicycle related. Just fell 3 metres down in a riverbed. My upper right arm hit a piece of metal (as I thought) or a rock. I think adrenaline made me not being dizzy. I first had to climb out. Then I noticed that there where a few bubbles on my arm, blood, scratches, and a lot of pain.
I climbed out of the deep trench and saw a ambulance rinding by. I only had to cycle 3 kilometers to Clausthal where I would look for a hotel, not realizing the seriousness of the injury. A kind German directed me to hotel Goldene Krone where I booked a room. Luckily it was 300 meters from a hospital. So I went there after a shower. In the hospital the doctor did cleaning the wound, using lots of Jodium, made a bandage and finally did an X-Ray. It looked broken. It wasn't luckily. The next day I had to be there again.

The next I showed up a 8 am and heard that I couldn't get on cycling.
I asked the doctor to let me cycle to the highest mountain there. Without packing I added. He allowed me.
24 Hours later I was home.

After that I still had 10 days to enjoy. June 20 I'll be working again.
What I've learned of this how to stay calm in these matters, being stoic in this situation. These are the facts you can't change, so don't worry about it. Some things you can change so work on them. For instance, change to a more silent room. Get enough sleep at the end of the day. Have a good breakfast in the morning. Well I succeeded but another thing happened.

When I was going downhill on my light bike (no packaging)my back wheel slipped and I almost fell with 40 k/hr. That was the moment when I thought that it was the moment to go home.

Of course there is the story of Mephistopheles in Faust.
Angels do exist?

back

Lets get back 3 weeks. My vacation started. Lets get back to what I wrote down then in my diary.

June 12 - Holiday. To forget everything. To take distance from my job, distance from E., from what happened Friday at work (I wrote about it). This week I need to think forward how I'll do my holiday. How far is the Brocken?

June 16 - Firstly I didn't do anything this week. I only read, didn't cycle. To be short I'm in a crisis. I'm ready to leave to the Brocken, but I'm scared. It was to much for me. I couldn't cope with it (It sounds familiar). Anything could go wrong. I wasn't as well prepared as in other years. It's only 500 kilometer in Germany but the way to it looks more and more like an ocean to cross and the mountain seems more and more like an Everest to climb.

life

I've seen no mountains. I've seen no abroad. I've seen beautiful places and cycled great roads. I've been in places like Paris in Texas. I've seen our old house for sale where my family and I lived in for 5 years.

The miss sunshine and the dry wind made it a monster tour. 386 kilometers in 2 days that's all. There were to many cobble stones and I counted them all. I tell ya that make minds aching. That's not what a vacation is supposed to be of course.
I break off this holiday if I can in order to use the days left for benefit of my well being ;)
August 5 I have a first consultation so u know where my time is spent. Before I'll make some kilometers on my bicycle.

For me this house was safety for a time. Nevertheless the gods were not always good gods.

life is a house, from time to time you got to open its doors and windows

Spain

The opponent in the final on Sunday July 11 will be Spain.
I like that because it plays the game delightfully almost gloriously.
Holland has to play 2 times better than they did to win that final. Luckily it's only one match and the players can play an extraordinary balanced game with their energized bracelets.

This afternoon I screwed the derailleur of my racing bike. I was lucky enough not to fall. A photo

I went home and took another bike to make a trip to Soest and Lage Vuursche. In the woods I had some real brainwaves when I sang the versions of songs I know.
At 10 pm I was home. I'm ready for a vacation till the end of the month.

I feel good, I hope you feel tohoo.

Thinking of Spain, I think of Puigcerdà. It was the first town in Spain I visited. Spain was the first country I entered walking.
And Puigerdà makes me think of Llivia, a Spanish enclave in France. And that brings me to a small museum in Llivia with all kinds of butterflies. I think Boudewijn Büch has never been there only because it's not on an island in the sea.

Anyway he would have loved it. Not only the museum but also being far away from the real world. The monastery on top of the hill looking over Llivia lying downhill up in the Pyrenees will make your mind free, gives you new incentives in finding yourself.

The butterfly effect makes me happy. I didn't bother having no dinner tonight. Only two 2 days old sandwiches. The sour stomach are the butterflies..

Public service: don't go to far

Our social securities are really good here in the Netherlands. Disabled people get their wheelchairs if they need one from the local Public Service (PS) and if applied for. When the chair is stolen they get a new one immediately. It's a need for living for some disabled people. Some disabled people don't depend on a wheelchair, but that's often forgotten.
PS also pays for housing adjustments, such as stairs-, toilet- and kitchen-adjustments. The ownership belongs to the owner/user of the house. When there is damage to the adjustment due to burglary it's an insurance problem. It can't be that the invoice for reparation is for the municipality.

Such an invoice was offered to me with the subject burglary damage. I immediately informed my co-worker of the reason. I think it belongs to the owner/user of the house who should have an insurance. Let him (it's a he) pay for it. It doesn't matter weather he is handicapped, he just an ordinary citizen who should insure himself the way or citizens do. The reaction of the colleague who wanted me to pay the bill was that the client would cause a lot of trouble. Communication seems to be very difficult. It would take him 3 hours to solve the matter. Probably he would go to the local Ombudsman. The simpliest thing to do is paying the bill.

I think it's showing weakness of the PS to walk away for these possible difficulties. Also PS doesn't take it's client serious and you can ask yourself if in similar cases the same procedure will be followed.

Well, this was the last thing at work which made me a little bit angry. 3 Weeks no work.
When I leave for Paris is the question, the weather you see and maybe not only that.