Had a good day. Went exploring with the kids, checked out the saturday market, sampled a bunch of cheese, bought some good dried fruit, cheese and bread. I had a Hooibloem cheese that was super good. Came home for a nap and lunch.

Then went out again and found an awesome park with multiple cats, playgrounds with awesome climbing structures, slides, windmill slides, zip lies and tire swings. On the way back we grabbed some food at the grocery store, ate dinner, washed up and went to bed. I think I’ve nearly adjusted to the time zones now.

We packed up our stuff, I took Naomi out for a morning cat walk and then Renee, Stanley and I walked over to pick up the rental car. It was a fairly long walk but we went through some really charming little neighborhoods in Alkmaar. Stanley ran into a pole. He eventually thought that was funny.

We picked up our car and uneventfully made it back to our place where we packed up, said goodbye to Gabriella and made our way to Groningen. The drive was beautiful, so many wind turbines! We pulled into our place and the house is absolutely amazing. Beautiful yard, trampoline, pool, sauna, record players, nice speakers, huge CD and vinyl collection.

We went across the canal to have a beer and a snack, I ordered a breadboard, nachos and a fry cone for Naomi. I had the Texels beer which was quite good. We went to pay and realize the place doesn’t take credit cards and only takes debit for netherlands-bank credit cards. They insisted that someone stay there while we went and got cash to pay. Anne stayed as our hostage while I rode my bike down Bedumerweg to a Primera store to use the ATM to get cash. I came back and rescued Anne and we went home. She watched the kids play in the pool while Renee and I want to Albert Heij grocery store for frozen pizzas and essential groceries. We ate, hung out outside for a bit and then went to bed after watching part of a world cup game.

Rode to Winsum. It was a nice ride there, although difficult on the trike box bike. Went through beautiful rural fields, animals, windmills, a very Dutch experience. Winsum is a charming little town. We had a nice lunch at a cafe in the city center facing a big windmill.

On the way back we took a different way home. In general the bike paths are really good but we got to a more rural bike path with two skinny paths (one for each direction). There was a canal on one side and an irrigation ditch on the other. I was trying to find the best way to ride along this path as the wide wheelbase (two wheels on the Bakfiet up front) would not fit on the path. I transitioned back and forth from right tire on path, left tire on grass, to left tire on path, right tire on grass, and then the bike started to move toward the irrigation ditch. Due to the bike steering like a car, once it was moving toward the ditch I couldn’t do much to stop it, the old brakes did pretty much nothing and the bike cut across the grass barrier and into the irrigation ditch.

This was traumatic for the kids but they were ok. The cargo box filled with some water and Stanleys mp3 player got soaked. I quickly realized the kids were ok, just quite scared, and did my best to hold on to the bike to prevent it from slipping further into the irrigation ditch. While holding with one hand I was able to lift Naomi out, and after yelling for help, Renee arrive to help hold the bike so I could get Stanley out. We then were able to pull the bike out and calm the kids down. The ride home was a bit tough as the kid were worried it would happen again but we made it.

I think that wide wheelbase trikes are really not a great fit for rural bike paths, they are meant for cities. We got home, had popsicles, swam in the pool and then had leftovers for dinner. I rode again to the grocery store for a few items and it felt good to go fast and steer properly.