Bicycles Built for Two

One day Sister Lucero and Sister Lechtenberg had a great idea….”do you want to rent tandem bikes with us?”  Of course, with us, the answer is always YES!  We have done it twice now.  We have decided if you want to have fun, grab a bike and go!

There is a large bike rental store at the Utrecht Central train station.  This young man has helped us both times….even getting the bikes down the stair ramp and printing a map for us!  (We are not very good missionaries….we can’t remember his name!) 

Our first outing we biked from Utrecht central southeast to Bunnik, 18 kilometers round trip (11 miles). We stopped at one of the fresh fruit stands for strawberries to eat with the cookies I brought.

l. to r. S. Lechtenberg, S. Lucero, E. Jeanfreau, E. Mancer, E. Lewis, Joe eating strawberries.

Then on to Fort bij Vechten to explore.  The fort was closed on Monday, as are many businesses and tourist spots in the country, but we walked around and enjoyed the warm, sunny day.

As you can imagine, in a country with more bikes than cars, the country is covered with bike paths.  Some are major bike routes that crisscross the country and many are connectors that follow almost all the rest of the roads/streets.  There is a signing system.  Here is a bike “road sign”.   We were looking for route 37.  The bike “road signs” are green numbers in a green circle and the bike “street signs” are printed in red with a little bike on them.  We didn’t get lost this time but we have on occasion! 

 

On the way home we stopped for frites, one of my favorite snacks here!

Our Bunnik bike group : )

 Our second tandem bike trip we headed northwest out of Utrecht to the Kastel de Haar.  It was a 26 kilometer round trip (16 miles) but thankfully flat!  We had transfers so E. Mancer & E. Jeanfreau were no longer with us but E. Watson had joined us. 

 

 

We decided the kastel tour was too expensive (16 euro/ticket) so we paid 5 euro to visit the grounds.

We visited the deer park.  They are little deer but with huge racks! 

 

           We got lost in the maze : )

And dubbed us some knights in God’s Army : )   Great p-day companions and amazing missionaries..... We love them so much!