The 21st of July brought another bike adventure with Ronald, this time to Honswijkerplas, a swimming area south of Utrecht. Before our journey to the water, we met at Ronald’s house and were greeted with breakfast treats. The beautiful afternoon from the day before carried through to Sunday, meaning it was great weather to go swimming. We came upon a bike race in the small town of Shalkwijk before getting to Houten. Houten, a suburb of Utrecht, is a town completely designed for bikes. Cars are not allowed on the majority of streets, so everyone bikes everywhere, even more so than the city of Utrecht itself. I was not a huge fan of Houten simply because it seemed too much like a suburb in the states, but I loved the concept of a practically carless city.
We eventually made it to a pancake place called Theehuis Rhijnauwen, but I soon learned that the pancakes in Europe are different due to the grain in the flour being different. The grains in Europe and the United States are different, making it nearly impossible to make American pancakes. Also, Europeans see the pancake as a dinner meal, instead of the breakfast pancakes that Americans make. Nonetheless, I had a pancake with greens, brie, proscuitto, and olives that was truly great. I also learned that the Dutch love to put sprinkles on breakfast food, which I had noticed was out at many of our hostels breakfasts. They will put sprinkles on just about anything to get the extra sugar in their meal. This fascinated me because there is no real problem around obesity or overweight people. Biking everywhere certainly helps that issue for the majority of the population.
We biked home from a delicious meal with the group and we got 15 out of the 17 to all go out and explore a bit of the nightlife, even if it was a Sunday night. We started at one bar and then went over to a tiki bar. We had not had this many of us all go hang out outside of “class time” and it was really special to connect with everyone. We even all gave short speeches, which soon became an inside joke and we begged for more speeches from people as the trip went on. Not everyone in the group drinks, not everyone likes to stay out late or be super social, but we all have found a way to create a community that is inclusive and respectful. We all like to hang out together (most of the time) and it is truly awesome to be a part of such a tight-knit group that has grown to be something special.
