Day32, 2106km: Nijmegen, The Netherlands

DUTCH COMMUNAL HOUSING : This Sunday afternoon as we pulled in to Nijmengan and began looking for a watering hole with internet access, George saw Sasha reading out in front of The Klinker. We approached chatting as she gazed curiously through her spunky thin black frame glasses. Inside the shared residence where she lives, a young generation was rotating around the responsibilities of the home they are sharing. Cooking, cleaning, construction- all are the daily regimen here. We caught them glimpsing every so often at us, the two weary travelers. Upstairs, bedrooms fill an old warehouse attic below the pitched timber frame roof. Young residents bustled up and down dark narrow hallways. A line of evening sunlight streaked through the kind green stained glass windows. Down half a flight of stairs, the kitchen was filled with reggae music as a young lady with long burly dreadlocks baked cookies for dinner this evening. It was a delight to peer into Sasha’s eyes as our Dutch hostess answered with calm to the incessant requests and questions of the two bikers. ‘We have come from Athens, this is our 2200km mark and it is time to rest’. First a cold beer, then an offer to clean laundry followed by a bed in the guest room. Dinnertime fast approaches for the Sunday evening public supper, and the large meeting room, filled with neighborhood guests who filed past the two bicycles parked outside. Below the saddle of George’s bike, an American flag waved in a gentle Dutch breeze.