Hide and Seek

Our night in Utrecht will be hard to top I suspect, in terms of hosts and accommodation at least. As Chris mentioned in yesterday’s blog, we stayed in a converted industrial/office building, with a group that is paying a tiny amount of rent to basically ensure OTHER people don’t take over as squatters and destroy the building. In a building big enough for over 20 people to play hide and seek, we each had our own room, there was free laundry, a working kitchen, fun hosts…definitely off to a rocking start.

After heading out, we visited an amazing dutch bank today called Triodos, heavily involved in funding microfinance, alternative energy, organic farming, and other sustainable initiatives locally and globally. Free coffee and an enlightening presentation/q&a later, we were on the road and set for the afternoon’s adventures. The ride into Ede today was easy/very hard, depending on the pod you were in, whether your bike exploded, and whether you managed to ride 50km or 80km (stopping to ask directions is definitely highly advised!). All safely in for the night, we’re currently staying in donated Dutch army barracks space, complete with 8 to a room dorms with fresh linen, 6 computers, tons of shower space, a bar….you get the picture, we’ve been extremely spoiled on day 1 and 2. No major concerns yet, and the team really seems to be coming together strongly…all good news!

Off to Vreden, Germany tomorrow, our first country behind us – this also means a 6:30am wake up and our first 90km+ day ahead of us tomorrow, and we’re getting together for a quick group check in before shut eye… so I’ll leave it short.

 Shawn