De Vang

Thursday 13 December 2018

We're in Pijnacker (PIE neh ker), Netherlands and it's cold, way cold. Don't do cold so of course we're riding friend's bikes to next town for breakfast in a windmill. Despite the quaintness of the idea this is nuts. As many of you may know, unlike cars, bikes don't often have heaters. Also, cafes here don't open until at least 1030. No hot beverage with caffeine until almost noon - how do the Dutch survive mornings? Pretty sure in winter they just stay under the doona until the sun comes up. They're above 50 degrees latitude so this doesn't happen until nearly 0900.

Although Holland is only a small part of the Netherlands it contains the major cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague. Half the country is below one meter height, about a third under sea level behind dikes. Highest point is 322 meters on its southeastern-most border with Germany. They refer to this as a mountain. Dutch language is similar to Africaans, which we also don't speak, but for some recondite reason virtually everyone speaks excellent English, which we do.

- Later

Nine minute ride to De Vang, the windmill, seemed to take forever. Fortunately about halfway there nerve endings in cheeks froze so they stopped aching. They open at 1030 and, although specializing in pancakes, serve eggs, but not until 1130. They do have coffee right away. It's served in thimble-sized cups probably on purpose so it takes an hour before you can ingest sufficient caffeine to prepare for breakfast. No idea when they eat lunch. It gets dark at 1630.

Jack