1st day in Holland

12^th February 2014

“It looks like a beautiful day in Holland, little to no cloud cover and great visibility up to 10km. On the ground it is 3 degrees……….”

There was no simpler way to be told that I was no longer in Cape Town, and was indeed in Europe. At least I was not alone, as we disembarked the plane, there was a general pain felt as in turn everyone put down their hand luggage to put on a jacket and all warmth of South Africa was lost.

Anyone travelling alone would admire the simplicity of Schiphol Airport. I was directed very clearly by signs to passport control, luggage halls and arrival hall. And as you pass through passport control, you think, “Well this is going to be simple enough”. Straight afterwards the baggage hall with opens up in front of you; you look at the monitor to find out that baggage from Johannesburg will be on belt 16. Now in my head 16 is a pretty small number, and it is until you have to first pass 15 other belts. As it turns out Schiphol’s baggage hall forms a semi-circle around the arrival hall, so once completing the half-moon to get to belt 16, you look back and you can see where passport control is, about 50m away.

But as much as I can moan, it was an easy trip, I slept well and I had no hassles. I still haven’t seen Wolf of Wall Street though.

After leaving the airport, and facing the cold for the first time, you realise that you can deal with this weather. So we pack the car and begin the drive to Hilversum. Now at this stage my eyes are set firmly out the window, looking at the countryside and the highway and making my initial observations of Holland. They take great care of their country, no litter, trees planted alongside most of the roads and where there is no road, building or tree there is grass, a lot greener than you would find in our back yard.

The Highways have walls constructed on the sides, I assume to stop cyclists from trying to cross. These walls have been constructed to have some design or pattern to liven the place up. The Roads are very clear as to where to go, especially the circles with divided lanes. And after about 15 minutes of driving, you realise you that you finally reached the edge of Schiphol. But my biggest observation was that as far as you look in any direction, the highest point is a tower or the tip of a tree. When people say Holland is flat, believe them, they are not over-exaggerating anything.

It seemed appropriate to go for a cycle on my first day. And that is what I did, cycled through the streets and the town and the park. There is no easier place in the world to cycle. There are bicycle lanes almost everywhere and cyclists have the same rights as drivers. Cars wait for bikes at corners and cyclists have their very own robot system. But what makes cycling so easy and dare I say enjoyable is the fact that Holland is so flat, my steepest incline all day was a speed bump. Very little energy is used and the only time when your legs feel the burn is when you are cycling into the wind. While I enjoyed my time on the bike, I may still give the Cape Argus a couple years.

So far so good in Holland, I am settled and having a good time, I look forward to putting down some more thoughts. But I must first mention the biggest revelation of the day, and that is their Wi-fi. I no longer feel that far from home as I can always stay in contact and it helps that it is a lot quicker than anything at home.