Short, Sweet Ride

All morning, the morning after the huge Doodstil-Nieuweschans ride (see previous post), I feel hung over. It ended up being 4 hours on the train, home about midnight. I drank 2 liters of water and crashed. By 5:30 it's light and birds are singing. No amount of coffee helps. By one in the afternoon, though, I shake it off--indeed I burst with energy. Er-op-uit!--to the station!--for a short, sweet ride along the Waal.

Off the train back at grubby little Tiel. The Tiel station has this high fence, and my bike is too long for the barriers that are supposed to accommodate it. So I swing it over the fence and set it down on the other side. Two women's eyes are wide, and I comment, "nog niet te oud" (not yet too old), and they laugh. For the right reasons, I hope. In case not, I head without delay for the big, big Waal river...

They handle apple trees very weirdly, here. They are pruned within centimeters of their lives, packed close together. I had assumed all these rows of supported plants were grapevines or berry vines until I saw the blossoms.
 

And I'm still not sure why, everywhere here, this particular species is pruned--nay, pollarded--back to its heartwood. The look is positively extraterrestrial.
 

 
By the time I get to the villages collectively called Herwijnen, light is getting low. A few long exposures with camera wedged into a fence, and the photo is won.

That's it. I roll a little farther along the Waal, through Gorinchem and across the canal and I find the station, buy my ticket back to Naarden-Bussum, hoist my bike up onto the train. The wrong train, someone says. I wedge past the couple kissing good-bye in the doorway, carry the bike down the tunnel and back up, and the conductor for the correct train blows the whistle just as I emerge. I shout "Meneer!" and he scowls and holds the door for me. Safely on. Change trains in Geldermalsen and again in Utrecht, home for dinner.

A bonus ride.