I arrived in Amsterdam just after 7:30 and got to Arnhem before 10:00. My room wasn't ready yet, so I decided to go for a walk and check out the area, get a few things I needed, find out about bike rental, etc. There is a whole section of pedestrianized shopping streets right behind the hotel, so I wandered around there for a while. It's always interesting to see the foreign version of different types of stores. Of course, there are also the familiar names, too, but there were fewer of those here than you might expect.
When I came back to the hotel, the room still was not ready. It was a nice enough day -- cloudy and cool, but pleasant, so I decided to rent a bike and ride to Nijmegen. The bike rental shop is at the train station right across the street. It is 7.50 Euros (about $11.00) for the whole day -- can't beat that! You also have to leave $50.00 cash as a deposit.
The bike is a 7-speed with a back rack. I had my backpack, which I strapped onto the back, and I took off. The first thing was to cross the Rijn (Rhine) River, using the famous John Frost Bridge.
I followed the bike route out into the countryside, along this beautiful tree-lined path:
I didn't take a lot of photos, because I figured I would come back at a more leisurely pace and take photos along the way. Right...
The bike route was easy to follow until I came to a little town called Elst. Here there was a roundabout, which was not clearly labeled. It did have a sign for Nijmegen, but it pointed left, so I made a left turn and ended up at a dead end construction site. When I rode back to the roundabout, I looked at the sign again. For sure it was saying to turn left, so I asked someone about it.
No, don't turn left, he said, go straight. Of course! Duh!
So, I went straight and rode until I came to another roundabout. The bike lanes went in all directions, but I thought I should go straight, over a rather high bridge. However, once I had crossed the bridge, I saw signs telling me I was leaving Nijmegen. So, I turned around and rode back to the roundabout. There were no signs here except on the way back to Arnhem, and those signs said I was leaving Nijmegen. I was well and truly baffled.
By this time it was raining quite hard and I was getting very wet.
I knew I shouldn't turn left, so I decided to turn right and see where I'd end up. Until now, I had stubbornly refused to use my phone, as I was trying to avoid the roaming charges as much as possible, but I was so frustrated that I turned it on. Using Google Maps, I was able to find the right way. I did have to cross a bridge, but it was a different bridge.
When I reached the top of the bridge, I decided that I was done. It would not be any fun trying to sight-see while completely sodden, so I hurriedly took a couple of photos, turned around and headed back to Arnhem -- fast!
I'd had a bit of a headwind on the way to Nijmegen, so now the wind was at my back, and I took full advantage. I was passing literally everyone on the bike path, which by now was quite busy with schoolchildren and other cyclists.
Needless to say, I did NOT stop for photos.
When I got back, I decided I'd had enough for the day -- I needed some sleep and it was raining off and on -- so I just went up to the hotel room and relaxed until I was ready to crash. I felt a little discouraged about cycling. The forecast for Wednesday was for 30 degrees and 10% chance of rain, but I felt skeptical. But I figured I would decide what to do in the morning. The forecast for Thursday forward is worse -- for rain almost every day -- so it seems like Wednesday will be my best day to ride.
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