Harderwijk, Nunspeet, Haarlem, Schipol Airport

July 4 to 8, 1999

After the wedding, with MJ and K on their way to their honeymoon, Eric and I decided it was time to try to see a little more of the Netherlands before we had to fly home. The week before, we had bought one-way airline tickets from Amsterdam to New York ($573 for two, one-way tickets on United Airlines. Not bad).

We left Hollandse Rading, and the great hosting of MaartenJan's parents, with many good-byes and better yet, a bottle of champagne left over from the festivities. We had vague plans to ride north and east before circling back to Amsterdam. But Eric was feeling a little under the weather, so the first day, we just rode a little bit, lingered for a long time over some yummy pancakes, and then rode a little bit more to the town of Harderwijk. We camped.

The next day, we had only gone 23kms when we got to a nice looking town in central Holland called Nunspeet. At this point, the weather was getting really bad, and Eric was feeling worse, so we decided, what the hell, we just have a few more days in Europe, why not spend them in a hotel? At first, we tried a budget hotel, but Eric said it looked awful. So then we rode up to this huge thing that looked like a castle and got a big room for two nights, for a little under $70 a night.

It was kind of sad to think that we were about to leave the Netherlands, but we were too exhausted to see more of it. All we wanted to do was hang out in the hotel room and recover from--at that point--25 months on the road. So we only went out to eat pancakes. Otherwise, we stayed in and ... what does any homesick American do? ... watched television. It's amazing how many American sitcoms are still going strong in the Netherlands. Over the next two days, we saw sitcoms including All in the Family, Providence, Canon P.I., and what looks like a new version of The Streets of San Francisco. I think we also saw My Three Sons. What do the Dutch think of us?

Eric was feeling pretty bad, and didn't even want to go out to dinner. So for one of the first times on the whole trip, I got to cook us dinner on our camp stove. I set it up in the bathroom and made us noodles. Eric was happy to eat them.

After two nights in Nunspeet, we were rested up and ready to ride to the Amsterdam airport. I was all for getting there the night before our flight, and sleeping in the airport. Eric wanted to get a hotel. So we figured we would ride to the town of Haarlem, near the airport, get a hotel there, and ride in the next morning.

It was a long ride to Haarlem--maybe 100kms. When we got there, we liked what we saw. It had beautiful old brick buildings and lots of restaurants. But all the hotels were either too expensive, or really run down. So after eating dinner there, Eric and I looked at the map and decided to try to make it to Schipol Airport after all.

It was a long and brutal ride. We got turned around at least once. As we rode on and on, we got more and more tired. We started checking out hotels near the airport and they were all extremely expensive (i.e. $100 or more). Also, we were so close, we figured we could make it.

At the end of the evening, after getting lost riding between various terminals at the airport, we finally made it. We had gone 136kms and our seats hurt. We rolled our bikes into the airport, and discovered ... that Schipol is the worst airport we've ever seen for sleeping in overnight. Most airports have some sort of carpeted area, and secluded seats where you can lay out a sleeping bag and crash for a few hours. Not so with Schipol. There were no carpets anywhere, and all the floor space was prime walking space. It was awful.
 

Out of desperation, Eric and I set up in a corner, a space about three feet wide, that wasn't supposed to be used for anything. We put the loaded bikes right next to us, and put our most valuable things under our heads. We laid down to sleep. After an hour or two, I woke up and felt pretty comfortable that we weren't going to get kicked out, so I got out the sleeping bag and climbed in. So did Eric.

A few hours later, I woke up hearing Eric yell out in surprise. I opened my eyes. Right next to me, on a wide window sill, about two inches from my nose, was the face of a large middle Eastern man. I mean, he was so close to me, he might as well have been sleeping on me. I was completely freaked that I had slept so soundly that this guy could climb in over all our stuff and lay down next to me. Eric and I immediately checked to make sure our money and passports were safe, and they were. Nothing was missing from our bags, either. But it was still freaky. Even though different cultures have different ideas about personal space, no one in the world would sleep on top of you and think you wouldn't mind. That's my opinion. Eric and I got up and left. The intruder never opened his eyes, but Eric is pretty sure he was awake.

After that, we had to kill several hours packing our bikes. United Airlines counter wasn't open, but a United Airlines person at the counter told us to try KLM for bike boxes. So we bought bike boxes (about US$10 each, and they seemed to have a pretty good supply) from KLM and packed them up. Hours later, we dragged them back over to the United counter, where a different person yelled at us for having sealed the boxes. She unsealed them, and took out everything to inspect it to make sure we weren't smuggling anything. Then United asked us if we had paid our fee for shipping the bikes.

Bike fees! When Eric and I bought our tickets at a travel agency in Utrecht, they didn't know if we would have to pay a fee to bring our bikes. Most airlines don't charge bike fees for international travel, as long as you're within the weight limit. We're often over the weight limit, but even so, we've never been charged a fee. (Except for once, when we flew to Costa Rica, with United Airlines. They charged $45 per bike. UA is the only airline that has ever charged us).

Well, after we bought our tickets home, our travel agents called United Airlines and then called us with bad news. We would have to pay a bike fee of 180 gilders, or about US$85 each! Over the next several days, we got conflicting news. One person told us it was 180 gilders for both bikes. Another person told us it was US$180 each! After going around and around for several days, and threatening to cancel our tickets, our travel agency finally told us the fee was $60 each. They told us to pay at the airport.

So when we were at the United Airlines ticket counter at Schipol, and the nice lady asked us if we had paid, I was tempted to lie. But I didn't. I said No. She told Eric and me to go to another counter, about two city blocks away in the terminal, and make the payment there. That's when I figured, No Way. We already had our luggage claim tickets for the bikes. I figured Eric and I would just forget to make the payment, and if United Airlines wanted it when we arrived in New York, they could force us to pay it then. Besides, what if we paid the fee and our bikes never showed up?

Well, when we arrived in New York, the bikes arrived safely, and no one asked for any money. If we can help it, we'll never fly United Airlines with bikes again.

Next: the last leg of our trip: Pennsylvania

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