Three Little Rides

Even in this very dreariest of seasons, I find myself fully back in awe of the Netherlands and its outdoors. I do love looking at this place.
 

I shake my head and say it again: photographer's paradise.

Windy all week since I got back, and even Saturday was a total loss, sitting around all day, worn out from fighting flu. But I woke up strong Sunday and took a short ride to see if I was really over it. Returning well as cold and windy as it was, I pronounced myself cured. Rode through the west side of Bussum...

...and through this weird wood with all the tree trunks and branches covered with this unearthly green mold.
 

Though they are probably normal-looking in summer, just now some of the trees look downright spooky.
 

I would strongly urge these two gentlemen to give the little Dutch girl the bowsaw, and go have a beer on this fine Sunday morning.
 

Sunday afternoon, I just cruise around neighborhoods I had heard of but never seen, especially the Composer's Quarter, streets named after Bach and Wagner etc. Somewhat of a let-down, nothing particularly different from the rest of 't Gooi...which of course would look pretty great anywhere else.

Wednesday at work I just couldn't stand it any more, and I headed on the bike southwest (and downwind) to Maarssen. On the way: through Bussum Zuid, Franse Kamp, Spanderswoud, and the communities of 's-Graveland, Nieuw-Loosdrecht, Muyeveld, Breukeleveen, Tienhoven, and Maarssen, all in the space of 30 km--what I used to commute in boredom each morning in Florida. Then I couldn't find the rail station, and I really really needed to get home. In Maarssen, as it turns out, Stationsweg doesn't go to the station--it dumps you unceremoniously into the Amsterdam-Rijn canal. Stationweg USED to go to the station, but now you have to go...

...over the canal bridge pictured. I arrive at sunset, and the Utrecht train is just pulling away--it's 30 minutes to the next one, and it's getting cold. Maybe this impromptu ride wasn't such a brilliant idea. But the train to Amsterdam comes along, and I transfer at Duivendrecht and again at Weesp, at from Naarden-Bussum station I ride home in the very dark and very, very cold. But all's well that ends well, and this little experiment--biking in a straight line away from the apartment (bikes are not allowed on trains during rush hour), riding until dark, then taking a train back home--the experiment was a success. At my age you do whatever you must to stay in the saddle.
 

By the way, the local bike map is HERE (100kB)