Sitting in Limbo

Do yourself a favor and put "Sitting in Limbo" by Jimmy Cliff on in the background. Beside the fact that it is a stellar song in it's own right, it's really hitting home with me these days. Oh man, did I just write "hitting home"? That's my mind playing tricks on me. I've been living abroad for 7 weeks now and I've spent 4 of those 7 weeks on the road. Don't get me wrong here, I signed up for a life of adventure and I'm still all systems go on that front. I just wish we had a little inkling of what the plan might be. I don't mind rocking out; hell I enjoy living my life in a state of controlled chaos, but it's nice to have some end goal in sight to keep me focused. Like I said, Jimmy is really singing to me these days.

But the fact that I don't know what continent I'll be on in a week hasn't kept me from enjoying the here and now. JJ and his family have gone above and beyond by taking us into their home and making us feel like part of the family.(I guess when you live in somebody's house with them for long periods of time without paying rent you're typically some kind of family or some kind of pest. I hope I'm the former.) If it weren't for them I literally do not know where I'd be. They're amazing, and I feel incredibly lucky to be staying with them.

Their house is absolutely gorgeous and aside from a few flights of stairs reminiscent of an M.C. Escher deathtrap it's exceedingly comfortable. It's close to town and close to some great riding. All in all, it's hard for a cyclist to ask for more. Um, well, I might ask for some slightly warmer temps, or some slightly thicker clothes, but I don't think even the most generous hosts are obliged to provide those. (If by chance someone reading this post does have control of the weather where they live they may have just won the honor of hosting a training camp for (a) professional cyclist(s)!!!! Write me to claim your prize.)

And now, for your viewing pleasure, a Dutch photomix:

Jesus-birds? No, it's just really, really cold.

Nijmegen constantly regales us with classic, cobbled Euro-streets.

...and winding, wooded paths.

This is a photo from Germany. Turns out even the horses in Germany have saucy Euro-mullets. I'm just surprised they weren't shod with leather hi-tops.

This next one is for my brother. He was telling me about how awesome he is because he got a personal tour of the White House. Oh yeah, Dan, guess who else has been to the White House. This guy! Boom! (In case your Dutch is a little rusty Het Witte Huis = The White House.)

The family Janssen has been preparing some amazing meals (I need to get pics from Phil) so we decided to return the favor. We wracked our brains trying to think of a tasty, traditional American meal... and came up with tacos.

Speaking of food, we had heard strange Dutch whisperings of a mythological burger/sandwich that was said to exist in this wondrous, faraway land. Imagine that a Subway footlong made sweet, patty-slapping love to a Triple Whopper and you would get this delicious love-child:

So we decided to set out in search of this fabled burgerwich (and possibly a few pints and lasses) and took traditional Dutch transport:

Double-Dutch (Jeroen and his brother Michiel)

That's about it for now. I'll leave you with this little gem. Below is (I shit you not) a Dutch school bus: