May 31, 2025

 Saturday. Left around 9:45. Blacksmith. Light gray cloud cover in most places, very light southerly winds, mild. Groenedijk to Achterwetering to Korssesteeg. At the end both yellow and white water lilies. Away from the cars on a beautiful morning. Egelshoek, Kerkelanden, Emmaweg, Kortenhoefsedijk. Then Moleneind, clouds of little bugs alongside the Vuntus. Loenderveense plas very calm. Vecht before Loenen. Right after Mijndensesluis (crammed with little pleasure boats full of people) a stork fetching some hay off the land and taking off. Scheendijk, Veenkade (baby ducks). Still haven't seen any swan chicks. Herenweg, Oud Zuilen, and home. In the city, a kid on a fat bike challenged me to a race. Why not.

May 28, 2025

 Left around 9:45. Nikor. Mild, breezy out of the northwest, overcast with some moisture. Eventually some clearing. Classic Dutch spring weather that keeps the fair weather folks away. Merwedekanaal to Nedereindseweg. A pair of ducks mating on top of a concrete wall in the underpass. Marrepad to Noord IJsseldijk, and Benschop. There, what looked like a rat sniffing around by the side of the road, right after the turn-off. On to Polsbroekerdam, then left to Lopik. Approaching the Lekdijk, some baby ducks. Hares also visible from time to time. Tailwind back toward Vreeswijk, with the sun improving the views everywhere, as if that was necessary. Some baby geese alongside the Sluispad-Noord. Back by way of Wayen and the Oude Mereveldseweg (first time in years) to Mos. In the paper a report on an exchange in parliament, with a socialist representative asking the government how we can spend billions extra on defense while some poor kids still can't be provided with something elemental as a pair of glasses. Reportedly, the government's response had been that, surely, poor kids also benefit from enhanced national security. I'm all for the extra defense spending, but that's a ridiculous, even obscene, response. If this really was the trade-off (I'm sure it doesn't have to be) you could be justified in asking what it is we're really trying to protect.

May 26, 2025

 Monday. Left around 9:15. Nikor. Shorts-and-long-sleeves-mild. Breezy out of the West, so the shelter of the Straatweg to Nieuwersluis. Then ARK, the water highway. An old motor barge, loaded down and still at work. It looked small amid the ever bigger recent models, and yet so much better. Many have been converted into house boats or tourist vessels, but since these barges can navigate smaller waterways to reach customers there, some are sticking around. Utility, esthetics, and nostalgia rolled into one. Bridge at Nigtevecht and on to Ringdijk and Javaplein. In the paper a response from the White House to the attacks on Ukraine over the weekend. Who is going to say if "crazy" really is a condemnation, or whether it leads to some meaningful action. I'm not holding my breath. Also a column by an old, level-headed acquaintance warning against becoming wedded to doom scenarios. After all, the 2026 or 2028 elections have not been cancelled, hence democracy lives. The argument was a little richer than this, but it is still a naive definition of a functioning democracy. When you include other crucial elements, you can, at best, speak of a hollowed-out democracy, or one being captured by a hostile conspiracy. When the people at the top reject any accountability--and act like it, aided by a expert crowd of selfish, cynical ideologues-- you can also speak of a democracy speeding down the slippery slope. When resistance grows, as surely it will, they will have their excuse for proclaiming an emergency and cancelling the mid-terms--and will you still have a "democracy" then? They are all-in, with much to lose, so let's keep these doom scenarios front and center. From Javaplein to Bushuis. Back by way of Plantage, Oosterpark (short detour past Kastanjeplein, but I missed spotting the Little Titans), Watergraafsmeer, Diemen. Then the widened, 21st century bike paths past Driemond, Weesp, to 's-Graveland. Not all change is bad, especially with a tailwind. Detour at Kerkelanden, then the usual, sheltered way home: Noodweg/Einde Gooi, Hollandse Rading, Maartensdijk, Groenekan. Hard to decide if the wild rose along the bike path after Maartensdijk is struggling, or if it has taken life after our recent, most welcome rain showers.

May 24, 2025

 Saturday. Blacksmith. KMC. 9:30 start at the Markt in Steenbergen. Overcast, mostly, rain in the forecast, fairly mild still. Koos himself, and the likes of Axel Merckx, Cees Bal, Aad van den Hoek, Bart van Est, Adrie van Houwelingen, Maarten den Bakker. Also some younger, stronger guys (not that the older ones can't keep up). Fast pace, big group--hardly any time to look around. Dikes, bridges, bike paths, occasional large bodies of water. Roughly tracing the Steenbergse Vliet to Schelde-Rijnkanaal and across for a little bit of Zeeland. Wind-aided to Oude Tonge, then rest stop at Galanthese Haven. Cool little band playing under a canopy: guitars, drums, singer, and ... a tuba. That didn't quite work, but it was fun. Still peeing when the group got going again, so a little chase for good measure. It started to rain about 90 minutes in. Slick roads in Ooltgensplaat, and a few crashes, but then the pace went up going across the Volkeraksluizen toward Dinteloord. It kept raining, the guys didn't like it, and being from around there, they knew where to turn right (it was at the Steenbergseweg) for the beeline back to the Steenbergen Markt. The rain is more than welcome, but not so much on a day like today. 

May 21, 2025

 Wednesday. Left a little before ten. Milder than anticipated, in spite of the thin, gray-white cloud cover almost everywhere. Winds out of the northwest. Leidseweg to Daphne bridge to the canals. Pleasure boats co-determining the route this time of year: straight at Jutphaas to Vreeswijk. There, more pleasure boats, leading to extra traffic in the Molenstraat. Tull en 't Waal, then Elpad, with the sheep only half-visible in the tall grass. Kaaiweg and Korte Uitweg to ARK bridge and Achterdijk. Baled-up hay wrapped in plastic has been out in the fields for a week or two. Odijk, Bunnik, Vossegatsedijk back into the city to Mos. In the newspaper more of the push-back you still hear regularly to the growing criticism of the Israeli campaign in Gaza. "But Hamas ..." is what it tends to boil down to. A variation is: "this all started on October 7." Hamas, of course, is highly relevant, even now, in its diminished state. However, implicitly, or sometimes explicitly, to use its actions and ideas (despicable indeed) as justification of anything Israel does vis-a-vis the population of Gaza (or the West Bank, for that matter) is wholly unconvincing, as is the idea that you could eradicate Hamas. Given the situation in that part of the world, eradicating Palestinian extremism is as unrealistic as thinking the extremists on the Israeli side will soon disappear. The extremists on both sides deserve each other; the tragedy, or crime, is all the innocent people caught in the middle. But we should expect a good deal more judgment from a country calling itself a democracy than we have seen from the Israeli government in the past year-and-a-half. Also, this didn't start on October 7; it's just the latest round in a deeply tragic history going back more than a century, perhaps even longer. There's enough blame to go around there too, which can make the current situation appear even more hopeless. And maybe it is. But maybe the moderate voices in the region can still reassert themselves, maybe enough people still realize that the current course, set by the extremists, leads nowhere. Then you wouldn't have a solution, but perhaps the beginning of a conversation, and that would be something.

May 18, 2025

 Sunday. Left a little before nine. Blacksmith. Almost completely overcast, cool, winds out of the north. Straatweg to Breukelen. Vecht nice and calm after Maarssen. Toward Woerdense Verlaat and Meije; clouds of little bugs alongside Galgerwaard. Wherever fields or road or canal sides had not been mowed, they looked just stunning, with yellow iris taking pride of place. The entire Meije was gorgeous, both people's yards and gardens and the fields, lakes, and marsh areas. Home-made apple pie at our back-up, very local cafe, just to the left after turning onto Nieuwkoop's Zuideinde. Going on eleven, the sun came out, mostly. Kromme Mijdrecht until the vacation park before de Hoef. Little tunnel to Gagelweg and Portengen. Lush, lush. Around the tourists at de Haar castle, then Maximapark and Hermelijnvlinderpad to the Gele Brug. Not very busy anywhere, but only a few places where you could be away from the world.

May 16, 2025

Friday. Left a little before 9:30. Blacksmith. Mostly cloudy and a cool-ish breeze from the northwest. Long sleeves and knickers. In the sun, it was quite nice, but with the sun behind the clouds, or under the trees, it was just spring, no longer summer. De Bilt, around Zeist, past Austerlitz and Woudenberg. Griftdijk and Haarweg extra East-West car traffic. I had not counted with the freeway closure, but in the end it wasn't terrible (other than not getting peace and quiet, the usual state of things there on a weekday morning). On the hill everything was normal, including the hard effort and mediocre time. Another detour behind Leersum, but it led me to do the Langbroekerweg with its forbidding rows of trees on both sides. Then Gooyerdijk to Rodensteijn to Langbroekerdijk, Werkhoven, and Achterdijk. Riding home into the headwind was work. It got sunnier as time went on, but never warm. The drought is now official, farmers are spraying their crops, and Van der Valk still finds it necessary to spray its bushes in the shade. Otherwise, not too many visible effects yet, but with another dry week up ahead, that only seems a matter of time. The news with the talks between the Ukrainian and Russian delegations. Other than the POW issue, these now seem to be mostly about not alienating the White House (any further). Moscow is not ready to give up any of its objectives, regarding Ukraine or NATO, and it probably still thinks time is on its side. It's quite possible that this is another miscalculation by the boss, since Europe, while still having a long, long way to go, does seem to be organizing for its own defense, including that of Ukraine. For its part, that outcome might do just enough to keep Washington on side, politically and militarily. But there are many moving parts, the most dangerous being both the current administration's unpredictability, and its agenda. A new example of the latter is how it is now actively going after the International Court of Justice, to the point of threatening to block the Court's bank account. As much as Europe and other democracies may try to keep the U.S. on their side, recent experience suggests Washington (and the country) really doesn't see itself as being in the same old club any more. 

May 14, 2025

 Left around 9:40. Blacksmith. Partly sunny, with a thin layer of gray-white clouds covering parts of the sky. Northeasterly winds on the cool side. BVC kit, to remember the founder on his birthday. Yellow bridge, to Alendorp, and Rivierpad (glimpse of the Harmelen spire). Grass getting tall alongside the trail. Kortjaksepad to Gerverskop (grebe still on the nest). Toward Woerden and Cattenbroekerdijk to Montfoort. Emerging from Blokland, the Dom was visible to the left of the taller RABO headquarters. Old skyline of Utrecht long gone, and going further. Dom not visible from the bike path after the Meerlose brug, but a ways down the Nedereindseweg (swan still on the nest) it emerged on the right-hand side of the RABO building. Into a milder headwind back into the city alongside the Merwedekanaal. 

May 12, 2025

 Left a little after ten. Blacksmith. Sunny, mild, winds out of the northeast. Bridge in the Adelaarstraat was open, so Troelstra toward Rode Brug, then westside of the Vecht to Daalseweg and Op-Buren. Back on the east side of the river I should have gone right, but instead went left and then, on a whim, turned onto the Sluyswijck, just before the highway underpass (new road). It proved to be a lousy choice, because it led to the highway exit and the N 404. I took that back to the Daalsweg (round-about). Then back on the bike path toward and around the Maarsseveense Plas. People approaching the water, but nobody in or on it. Molenpolder and some baby waterfowl, Nedereindsevaart, to Tienhoven. The trail along the canal beautiful, with on the right very low water where perhaps normally there's more. I don't go there enough to be certain, but it looked like a confirmation of our drought. Egelshoek to Hollandse Rading. Before Maartensdijk the sheep were hiding from the sun behind the barn. Volkskrant at Van der Neut, and home. In the paper, more evidence of populists not delivering, and one plea in a letter-to-the-editor not to be manipulated all the time (I'm putting my own spin on it) by the way these people keep throwing new stuff out every day, just so that they can direct and dominate--be the center of--public debates. The news cycle becomes the thing, most people are distracted or confused, and the con is not exposed.

May 10, 2025

 Departure a little after nine thirty. Blacksmith. Air warming up quickly. Blue skies, not too much wind, never too warm. Later in the day the wind would pick up out of the east. Maastricht and across the river, then toward Eijsden. St. Pieter op den Berg on the other side of the (invisible) river always looks like it's just on the other side of the field. Around Eijsden and Rijksweg into Belgium. I always thought the French-speaking part, Wallonia, started right beyond the line, but there's a little bit of Flanders, the actual Voerstreek, including 's-Gravenvoeren, the meeting place. Lots of groups out on a near-perfect morning. We dropped into Wallonia, well beyond the Voerstreek, riding all kinds of beautiful little roads. Up and down and left and right the entire day. At some point we were within 13km of Liege. The towns all looked more prosperous than what I remember from the 1980s. An amazing, because new and unexpected, passage through Val de Dieu with the abbey on one side and the mill/brewery on the other. Lunch in Aubel, then gradually back to the Voerstreek. From Teuven back briefly into the Netherlands where in Slenaken the group and I parted ways. Toward Gronsveld was a reminder that the West-East passage is much more familiar here than East-West. Climbs to Hoogcruts, out of Noorbeek, and out of Mheer were nasty reminders of that. Across the freeway and the railroad after Gronsveld, and back into the city. 

May 9, 2025

 Left around ten. Blacksmith. Cool but sunny, and warming up quickly. Moderate easterly breeze. Maastricht, southern beltway, across the river and the freeway, then left and right toward Bemelen. Up the hill and left at Gasthuis, left toward Klein Welsden, then Groot Welsden. Very quiet roads, you could hear birds everywhere. Weekday mornings on the little roads here are the best. A bit confused in and around IJzeren, then Scheulder, Ingber, and Gulpen. The best part of the day was next: the little road to Pesaken, then Beutenaken, and connecting up with the bigger road in Slenaken. Loorberg was quiet too, but coming down Schweiberg there were some riders coming up, and some parked vans and moving trucks. Mechelen always has traffic, but I had the Kruisberg mostly to myself. Same with the Eyserbosweg. Looking for a way back, I first aimed for the Sibbegrubbe, but decided to follow a rider, who had just left the Jean Habets bike shop, up the Gerendalsweg. Very nice, until it did become a gravel road for a few hundred meters. (Surely why I had never been on this road before). Then the steep part on some kind of hard pavement, and at the top there was Scheulder again. To Margraten and the main road back to the city. Newpaper back at the hotel, with an entire page on the late Joseph Nye and his concept of "soft power" in international relations. His views of the relative significance of the concept were always nuanced, as was his take on an alleged decline of U.S. power in the world. Still, we're now witnessing what could be called an experiment in reverse soft-power and its possible impact on U.S. global influence. A retreat of representations of soft-power is in full swing in Europe, and it would be illogical if U.S. influence remained unaffected. Currently, however, the administration does not seem to see it this way, since (also in the news today) the U.S. embassy in Sweden has just asked the Stockholm government to quit diversity and inclusion policies. It's only the latest in a series of inappropriate interventions. It beggars belief, and the best explanation I have is either ignorance, arrogance, or a combination of the two. Just imagine the response in Washington if a European government would try to tell the administration how to mind its own business.

May 7, 2025

 Left at 9:45. Blacksmith. Cool, almost chilly and fairly stiff breeze out of the northeast. Mostly cloudy-- grayish-white cover with some variation. Merwedekanaal to Vreeswijk. Beatrixsluis to Tull en 't Waal to Achterdijk. Horses and Apacas and very few, if any, cows there, which may be a good sign, a sign of agribusiness farming retreating perhaps. Shifting views of the Schalkwijk spire and railroad bridge always interesting from the south. Tetwijksepad to town, then across the ARK and around Houten. Whenever the sun peeked through, the temperature went up, but these were marginal gains. Did spot a few people wearing full gloves. Amazing, given that we're in a drought, how lush and colorful everything looked out there. The other Achterdijk fairly quiet. Koningsweg, Kampong, Wilhelminapark, Singel, Meus. Coffee and Algemeen Dagblad, since someone was using de Volkskrant as a placemat for her phone (I found out when I got outside). In the newspaper, besieged local politicians trying their best to sustain a dialogue with their constituents, versus evidence of especially young people seemingly detached from, and uninterested in, society. The common theme may be how the real world is losing ground against the virtual, on-line version--how more and more people spend increasing amounts of time in the latter, thus subverting the cohesion of the former. 

May 4, 2025

 Left quarter past ten. A few raindrops prior. Blacksmith; knickers, long sleeves due to cool breeze out of the northwest. Partly cloudy. De Bilt, Zeist, Griftdijk, Haarweg (fast group for a little ways), Overberg. Hard work up the hill for a mediocre time. Leaves in the woods now almost at full strength. Along the way lots of beautiful colors on trees and bushes the names of which I do not know. Ginkelduin (season now in full swing) to Hoogstraat and Ruiterberg. Road still closed between the two, and without the cars (as always) it's a different world. Occasionally the sun dropped down beautifully through the light green leaves onto the forest floor. Maarnsegrindweg, Zeisterweg, de Bilt. Today we remember the war dead--as in World War II. The controversy over what else could be included is a bit silly given the sometimes explicit, but always implicit purpose of "never again." Anyone just superficially scanning the headlines (probably the majority in our time of scrolling) has to wonder what, if anything, we have learned. 

May 2, 2025

 Left around 9:45. Blacksmith and sun screen. Summer again, though mostly cloudy with various shapes and shades of gray, almost pre-thunderstorm skies. Only light easterly breezes. Easy weather, and thankfully many people still away on their spring vacation. Zandweg (baby grebes), Harmelen, Montfoort, to Snelrewaard and Oudewater. Koot chicks, baby goats, and some beautiful meadows between the road and the river. New road: Hoenkoopse Buurtweg. Hekendorp (wait at the little bridge for one silly pleasure boat) to Hogebrug and, new road, Ruige Weide. Papekop, Diemerbroek, to Woerden. Some waterlilies with yellow buds. Lots of cut grass, and before Woerden the smell of new-mowed hay. In and around Woerden back in the struggling and striving world, starting with views of bunched-up, slow-moving traffic on the freeway, then all kinds of traffic nonsense. Back to peace at Gerverskop. Past the tourists at Kasteel de Haar to Vleuten/Leidse Rijn. The no-traffic crossing at the Thomas a Kempisweg remains a miracle. No food, one bottle, but do-able. Line at Mos, so straight home. 

April 30, 2025

Left twenty after six. Blacksmith. Low sun again, but now warm with just a light northerly breeze. A real summer evening. Blauwkapel, Ruygenhoek. A stork picking its way through a field. Dutch dinner time is always a good time to be out. Scooter on the bike path toward Egelshoek, but 45 km/h is still a tall order in the aftermath of a little virus episode. Grass already cut in a field between Hollandse Rading and Maartensdijk. Chasing a car through Groenekan. The rest very quiet also, but along the Biltstraat everyone was eating outside. The news for Ukraine better than dismal for a change. The "minerals deal" is far from ideal, but one has to take what one can get, and it's certainly not great news for Moscow.