Back in Nijmegen, Salt Herring and Bicycles

Amsterdam is a short 90 minute flight from London, but it still took all day because of the long train ride from Cheltenham. Lucky for us, Volmar (Darren's coworker) picked us up from the airport and took us out to dinner with his lovely girlfriend, Sindy. They also showed us their spiffy new home, which was quite spacious for such a densely populated country. 

Back in Nijmegen, with no jet lag, and feeling much more oriented, we thoroughly enjoyed exploring the city. On Saturday with Darren we found a fun street market, and fun street foods, like salt herring with onions. Yep, that's me, proudly eating my raw fish the way the guy at the stand said it's supposed to be eaten. Grab it by the tail and take a bite. As you can see, Grant preferred his teething biscuit. Also at the market, we found zoute drop (salty licorice), stroopwaffles (thin waffles sandwiched with caramel), and lots of fabric. The fabric was odd to me. I'm used to finding finished handcrafts at markets, not crafting supplies. The prices were great, but my luggage space was limited!

The history would just pop and and surprise me at every turn. Like this ruined tower in a park by the market. Built in the 8th or 9th century on top of Roman ruins from 100 BC. Just, wow.

We couldn't get a picture to turn out well here because of the light. But it is a castle that we visited with Volmar and Sindy. It felt like something out of the Sound of Music, and it was built in the 12th century. It's surrounded by a moat (squeal!). That length of history is just beyond my comprehension.

 You can't visit Holland without remarking on the bicycles! I loved it, they were everywhere. As many bikes as cars. In Utrecht, near a university, there were way more bikes than cars or pedestrians. There are bike lanes, and even bike signals. It took a little adjusting, and I had way more close calls with bikes than with cars, especially when I was walking. But as soon as we returned from England, my first priority was to rent a bike. I only saw a handful of people wearing helmets, but I couldn't refrain from strapping one on Grant. Hopefully he'll forgive me for making him wear his sister's pink-flowered helmet, without requiring therapy.

Nijmegen had a fun little bike museum, with examples of every bike ever invented, starting with a model of a design that was supposed to be by Leonardo da Vinci, but turned out to be a fake. It was an impressive collection though. Crazy high-wheeled contraptions, examples of a half dozen gear inventions, chrome plated beauties from the '50s, and more. 

I especially got a laugh out of the bathroom doors. It took me a minute.