Dutch Adventure: Week Two, Part 3

Week Two: Rain, Rain Jackets, and Wobbly Legs

I’m trying to get used to writing Day, Month, Year, so you’re all getting the benefit of me exercising this new muscle. 😀

Saturday 25 August, 2018

We had plans to go to the city center to buy things like a rain jacket for me, an umbrella (again, mainly for me), and a few other bits and bobs. And of course get some fries while we’re there.

We left on our bicycles, heading first to fries and then to a department type store called Hema. Well, it started raining. First it was just a little bit, but the locals must have known because as we approached the center of town, the streets got really empty really fast. The skies opened and it was really coming down. We reversed course to try to make it to the Hema (and thus be inside) but didn’t make it that far, finding cover to wait it out.

Silhouettes of people waiting for the rain to pass.

Raindrops visible against building across the street.

Apparently we weren’t the only ones waiting for the rain to pass. 🙂 This building has apartments above it, great bicycle parking areas to the sides, and a pedestrian/bicycle thoroughfare in the middle. Can you imagine living with people above you and people walking below? I expect you’d get used to it, but it seems weird at first.

It was quite a good rain. I took a picture of a building nearby; you might be able to see the raindrops.

Eventually the rain slowed enough that most folks took their leave, and we bicycled over to Hema, parking our bikes outside next to the building. I’m not sure if we were supposed to, but there were a few others dotted around, so we thought maybe it was ok. It was also funny shopping for an umbrella and rain jacket while it was raining, but they really had been on my list! We checked out all three floors of the store (there’s a food area on top that reminded me of Ikea), finished our list, and headed out.

It was thick with pedestrians when we came out as the rain had slowed considerably so we tried to ride the bikes but ended up walking them instead and were planning to cycle around the pedestrian area to the fry place. We ended up by the Saturday Market (Markt), so I stopped for some cheese, of course.

Waiting at gemeente for rain to stop

The rain quickly came back in while we were at the Markt, so we ducked over to the city hall area that we had visited the day before to wait it out. Again we were not the only ones. 🙂

Very Dutch, ignoring the rain and walking with umbrella instead.

I was trying to get a good picture of the raindrops in the air and hitting the pavement, splashing back up. Hopefully you can see some of that in this image.

After not too long (maybe 15 minutes?), the rain cleared again, and we bicycled and walked up to the fry place, nom nom.

Then we bicycled home, up a few hills because this is after all Arnhem and I don’t think you can go anywhere without going up (and down) at least one hill!

I love my new rain jacket. It’s not overly cute, but it’s not plain either – it has little polka dots that I think are reflective! It’s also one of those that you can turn in on itself and fold it into a small bundle, but its best feature is that it has two large pockets and they velcro shut so I can put my phone in there and not worry about dropping it out of my pants pocket while I’m on the bike. Hurray!

Speaking of all this bicycling, how are your legs doing with all this, you might ask? Well I’ll tell you!

After Friday’s 9 kilometers of bicycling and Saturday’s 6.5 km, I was done. I made it into the house and that was about it. For perspective, I did a little math. In June, while we were still living in the US, I walked a total of just over 6 km or around 4 miles. That’s for the whole month!

Most Dutch homes are thin,tall, multi-level accommodations, so you’re going to do some stairs. This house is no exception.

So yeah, my legs were wobbly and I wanted to be done, but I needed to go upstairs. About 4 steps in, my legs called mercy. But I had to get up or down, so I convinced my right leg to stay and I’d move the left. Then the left said no more, so I convinced it to stay and moved the right. Then the right said no more, so I moved the left, and on until I got to the top.

I somehow got back downstairs and did laundry, but there was a lot of shuffling and psyching myself up to move. And I didn’t get back on the bicycle until the following Wednesday. 😀