Direkt zum Hauptbereich

Fietspaden

On Sunday morning my fridge made me clear, that I would have to make some grocery shopping, if I wanted to choose what to eat. But in Germany, shops are closed on Sundays. Therefore and in order to break my July routine, I used the wonderful weather to make a small bike tour to the Netherlands. But once I reached Vaals I liked cycling so much that I decided to make first a tour and then go shopping on my way back. I stayed in the Netherlands near the Belgium border, first cycling a signed fietspad. But the signs were all along the streets, so I skipped the path after a while and followed some numbered pathes.
The Dutch cycle path system is quite smart. In Germany every path has an own number from its beginning to its end. If you cycle track 14 you know where it starts and where it ends after for example 30 km. In the Netherlands the cycle paths themselves are not assigned to numbers, but their crosspoints. The signs on the track only show you which next crosspoints you can reach in what direction. And once you reach such a crosspoint you can check on a map for the next number. Thanks to that system, behind Vaals lies a real web of cycle paths. And this web does not relay on the streets but uses also small streets between fields.
I was cycling around, enjoying landscape and view, but after a while I felt that midday sun (my tour took from 12 to 15 o'clock) combined with almost no breakfast were not the best preparation. And fun alone could not bring me far that day. It was so hot that even the wind wath not refreshing but warm. And because I stayed close to the borders, there were hills everywhere. All the time I had to climb slowly a hill, without any shadow. Therefore I decided at one point I should spare my reserves and finally cycle grocery shopping. I still avoided the big streets and finally found even the signed path from Aken to Maastricht. I followed it back to Aken and it is quite pretty. Much nicer than the big street I took in beginning of May. I really liked the new way. Instead leading along streets, it went through some smaller communities and valley back to Aken. Very pretty, but once I reached Aken I realized that I did not come across one single supermarket. I decided that I can also have something else than bread for breakfast on Monday morning and went on back home.

Kommentare

Beliebte Posts aus diesem Blog

I'm not an addict - am I?

My first month as full time employee is over and things are going pretty well. Work is currently quite easy going. I have time to improve things. Most likely it will be worthless when the think-tanks behind the projects create new requirements, but that's ok, because I now get salary. The freshly graduated students I know all go the same prestige-track: first they buy a new computer. I did it, too, for my old one was barely working since I drowned it once during a legen-dary story (Hälsningar till Mainz, lil åpa). Considering the law of freshly graduated students a flat television in a minimum size of 60" will follow, right after a new by-far-too-expensive car and right before the super-duper dolby soround audio system with playstation 3 which gets lost in the living hall of my new huge single-appartment. I - dont - think - so. Instead I asked for holidays and I hope to get a response, soon. If everything goes well, I will escape the summer for two weeks in July. As I said, wo...

Perfect Situation

As constant readers know, I went on a last big trip before I start working in less than a week. I went to Nicaragua for a little bit more than 4 weeks starting 10 minutes before the new year. The trip was... intense. I missed the biggest attractions, but met a lot of nice people I hope to stay in contact with. There were treasure moments as well as worst moments. But still, it was the absolute right decision to go. Like a short movie of life, if you like. And since my job is supposed to give me a lot of freedom, it for sure won't have been my last big thing for this year. The amount of new stories is intense. By far too much for a blog. So I suppose, if you want to hear them, we have to meet. Since Christmas market in Aachen is closed since more than one month, I suggest a hot chocolate instead of Glühwein. If you make it to stay over night, we can exchange the chocolate with a few cold beers. And if I can trust my flatmates there should be some of this liqueur left :-) Costa Rica...

Tour de Fryslân

These weeks are busy. Work is a mess of new requirements, but since there is a lot to do, there is a lot that can be solved, therefor motivation remains. But Friday evening my head still running on work-level. All the time I was looking for logic challenges, like I have to solve all the time at work. For getting rid of a busy head you can either relax and hope you come to rest... or you seek nice challenges. So I decided spontanuously to go to Dutch Friesland and Roden last weekend. The trip was not as easy as I thought in first place. First the car of my parents seemed to have some serious problems with one of the wheels. Therefore instead of being on my way to a Dutch tea with Stroopwafels I was hanging around in two car workshops. They could not find anything, but after they attached the wheels again, the problem was gone. Well, at least it was cheap. But I was already one hour later than I planned. Because I needed to go to Aken for dropping some stuff and picking some up, my time ...