Day 14 - The day we made a Dutchman in a suit break into his own shed with a crowbar

Before this post...I have to come clean. There's something I haven't been telling you about. It's called Hagelslag "Hah-gell-shlag." It's what the Dutch eat for breakfast, and it's magic. What is Hagelslag? Is it a meat paste made with goose beaks? Is it ground-up pig toes with cranberries? No. You take a piece of bread and you cover it in.....SPRINKLES. Yes, sprinkles! (jimmies if you prefer - but if you do, you're wierd #sorrynotsorry) They have various flavors of sprinkles from the rainbow plastic-y ones to milk chocolate, butterscotch, dark chocolate, vanilla. Oh yeah....it's soooo good! It is the perfect way to start your day! Try it at home! I think that Jessi dies a little on the inside whenever I eat it. She finds it repulsive. (He's right - it's disgusting. Cold bread with paste & sprinkles. EW!)

Today had a rather humorous start. We emerged from our hotel room for breakfast and scurried back to pack our bags, check out, and retrieve our bikes. All of those events went just fine EXCEPT for the last one. The night before, we had locked our bikes in a beautiful shed behind the hotel. The shed has built-in bike racks, charger ports for e-bikes, and complimentary air pumps. Folks, welcome to an evolved society! Anyway, what caused the problem is that the shed is locked with a pad lock, and that pad lock has only one key. Perhaps you can see where this was going?

So we locked our bikes in the shed the night before and dutifully immediately brought the key back to the reception. We're good people I like to think. We ensure that communal things are returned when we have used them. Well, it seems that someone else wasn't so thoughtful. in fact, someone else was a massive jerk, and they must have biked off with the key to the shed after dutifully locking it behind them. Fast forward to our check- out and the moment when the hotel staff realizes that there is no key behind the desk for the bike shed (Fietsenhok)....

There was a search....a mad search all over and under the desk. Other employees were questioned. We were enlisted to search the grounds out back to see if it was dropped. The receptionist's husband made a couple of trips with other keys in hopes they had another copy. All of this to no avail. The key was gone. Our bikes were trapped behind 1.5 inches of wooden shed door. I inspected the mechanism on the door. It's of a German design, made with steel,  and none of the screws are exposed. Rats! I go into the lobby to report to the receptionist that we were unsuccessful in finding anything. At that moment I get a message from Jessi on my phone about a man in a suit breaking into the shed for us. The receptionist tells me that her husband is breaking into it and offers me a drink. Ummmm maaam, I think your husband is going to need the drink! I tell her that I'm going 'round back to help her husband, and she is both thankful and apologetic. I round the corner and see a Dutchman in a full 2-piece suit hacking away at the lock on the shed with a crowbar.

And here's where Jessi picks up with how this all happened:

So, we had been searching all over the back of the hotel looking for the key. It was on a rather large hook. We hoped that it had been dropped. We searched the grass and the yard area. Nothing. Finally, I sent Josh back inside to let them know - no luck. Also, I wanted to make sure they remembered we were still outside.... It felt like we had been out there for hours. It had really only been a few minutes, though! While Josh was gone, a Dutchman in a 2-piece suit came out of the back door with a key in one hand and a crowbar in the other. He says to me, "I hope this is they key!" He holds up the key. He tries the much-too-small key in the padlock, and it does not work, of course. He looks at me, holds up the crowbar and announces, rather proudly, "This is the key!" I looked at him for a moment and said - "I can wait a little longer! Do you want to keep looking?" To which he announced, rather proudly, and for a second time, "This is the key!" and began hacking away at the shed door with the crowbar in his two-piece suit. I took a sly picture of him - because it was rather hilarious. I wanted to offer to hold his jacket, but I opted not to. It would have destroyed the moment. Eventually Josh arrived and the two men together broke into the shed and our bikes were freed! 

Ok so we finally got on the bikes and we're off. The wind was against us again and my bike chain had dried significantly. it was badly in need of oil. So we trudged along the coastline of the Ijsselmeer viewing the same beautiful scenery as we went south towards Enkhuizen. On our way to Enkhuizen we biked on top of the dike wall, which holds back the Ijsselmeer. As we biked, we watched large ships with their huge sails traverse the water. Many looked to be fishing boats and many more of them looked to be recreational craft out on the water, crewed by adventurous vacationers. We happened upon an old lighthouse just outside of the town of Medemblick, which is no longer in operation, but stood out beautifully against the lakeshore. Speaking of the word "lakeshore," have you ever hear that song "Lakeshore Drive?" It was running through my head the entire time. I couldn't help but see the relevance, sans the obvious drug references.

We made it into Enkhuizen. We had made the cardinal mistake of saying "we'll eat in the next town" when considering lunch. So we were hungry! After checking into the hotel and taking my bike to a shop for some quick maintenance, we quickly found the tiny town center and plopped down at a restaurant and had lunch. We walked around the town along the shoreline through Snouck van Loosen Park and then back to the town gate. We walked and walked until we built up an appetite, and then we returned to a different restaurant in the town center. We walked back to the hotel for drinks. As we walked to the hotel, the bell tower in the Zuiderkerk (South Church) opened up into song. it was 19:34 and there was no reason that Jessi and I could think of why the bells would be ringing now. Further listening revealed the tower to be a carillon. Someone was up there giving a concert! The light was on in the tower and the bells rang and rang! We walked to the hotel to sit down for drinks and to enjoy the music. We arrived to find the owners of the hotel sitting outside enjoying the evening. We had a wonderful conversation with them about all kinds of things. They told us all about the region and about all the farming going on. They told us about the city hiring carillon players to come and play concerts in their carillon to ensure that the thing remained functional and tuned. They told us about big businesses like Monsanto, Microsoft, and Google investing in the area. Guests from each of these companies and more stay here while in town. We marveled at the beautiful music coming from the carillon, and we had a wonderful conversation with the owners, until we decided it was time for bed. One of the last songs that the carillon played was "The Sound of Silence."

Jessi here: This was REALLY AWESOME. I looked up some info on carillon towers that get regular play and it seems pretty rare. This carillon is played nightly for an hour by a society here in town! It is a partnership between a local charity and the town government to keep the bells in the 17th century tower in working order and usable! That's really cool! The owners explained to us that the town residents are split about 50/50 on whether they like the bells or not. They all like the concerts, but along with the concerts come a regular ringing of the clock tower bells, every 15 minutes long all night! Some of the residents don't really like that!

Tomorrow we will be on our way to Alkmaar, which we heard the owner pronounce as "Alek-maar." We will be passing through the city of Hoorn, which the owner pronounced as "Hoor-en." That particular pronunciation made me do a double-take. In German, that would mean "whores." Tomorrow is our second to last ride for this trip. We are stunned at how quickly this has all gone. Before we know it, we'll be back on an airplane, hurdling across the ocean towards DC. See you guys tomorrow!