the Netherlands: haarlem and national park zuid kennemerland

katie and i both wanted to ride bikes in the netherlands, but both of us were a bit worried about riding in a crazy city like amsterdam...every dutch person rides a bike regularly, kids learn how to ride at a young age...even before they learn how to do it on their own, they are in bucket seats on the bikes of their parents...one day while katie and i were walking around amsterdam we saw two moms riding along with their kids in front seats...one of the kids was asleep, the mom was holding up his head with her hand while riding along...i wish i'd been able to capture the image with my camera but they went by too quickly...

we took a train to haarlem, the ride was cheap and only 15 minutes...in one area of the train station we were able to find a bike rental place...the prices were definitely lower than the prices we'd seen in amsterdam...we both rented cruiser bikes, with foot brakes and not a lot of gears...
almost immediately i regretted not renting fancier bikes...it was windy and rainy, YUCK...we both had rainjackets on, but lets face it, with that kind of wind we knew we were both going to be soaked...for both of us, the only concern was for our cameras and phones...

we were able to follow a main road out of the city, all the way through zuid kennemerland national park, to the windswept beach...sooooo windy, but still fun...we parked our bikes near a police shack, then ran around a bit...we didn't stay around as long as either of us would've liked, as the wind was strong, and the sand being blown into our legs was almost painful!
we spent at least an hour inside a cafe, warming up and drying off with hot chocolate...
we rode back into haarlem and explored the city...in terms of aesthetics, it reminded me of amsterdam...canals, bridges, churches, etc...there was one big difference though: far fewer people...

when we parked our bikes near one of the churches we finally found the locks on the bike, so we weren't stressed anymore about someone taking our bikes while we were inside...(that was why we parked near the police shack in the national park, wouldn't people be less likely to steal from right next to a police shack?)
there is a center platz in the city, with the city hall on one side, a church in the middle, and other cute buildings...there must've been a festival/concert the night before, as it was still being cleaned up when we arrived...

we saw a bridge that turned sideways to allow boats to go through instead of splitting in half and raising up...(we also saw one of the latter bridges as well)...
we saw a windmill that was more for show than anything else...due to the crappy weather, the photos didn't turn out so well...(i spent much of the day trying to keep the lens dry, or wiping water drops off the lens)...

haarlem felt like a small town, very attractive...if it hadn't been such crappy weather we would've walked around more, both in the city and in the
national park...

ukraine: glibivka

easter is a national holiday in ukraine...the holiday is sunday, and everyone gets monday off as well...to celebrate easter, ukraine follows the orthodox calendar (for those in the west who are catholic, i don't know how it works, or maybe they celebrate easter according to the catholic calendar, then get another easter a few weeks later?)...most years this means we get a day off a few weeks after 'western' easter...this year, western easter and orthodox easter fell on the same day...i don't know how often that happens, but it probably isn't very often...it was a bit odd for me to see facebook posts of friends about easter and it matched up with 'my' holiday weekend...

i'd made plans a few weeks ago to travel with a couple girlfriends, we bought train tickets...our original plan was to go east, to dnipropetrovsk and zhaporhysia...unfortunately, political events made that travel plan seem like not the best idea...so we cancelled those tickets and figured out another idea...of course, we waited until the last minute to do this, so there weren't many options...
one of the girls found us a room in a cottage in a resort complex along the kyiv reservoir, a bit north of kyiv...there are a bunch of these resort complexes along the reservoir...they all have recreation options, conference facilities, etc...

saturday morning i was running late to meet the girls, i felt horrible about it...they'd booked a taxi for a specific time...the taxi took us to a complex about an hour from the city centre, near a town called glibivka...the town isn't known for anything, it's just a town...there are a bunch of these resort complexes in the area, all along the water...they offer  bike rental, horseback riding, sauna, massage, table tennis, etc...we checked in, and immediately scheduled massages and sauna time...
the weather was crap, so we sat on our porch, drank tea, and had snacks until it was time for our massages...

the massages were short, but felt sooooo good...the experience was not what i expected, but i would still do it again...when i walked into the room the massage therapist told me to get ready, and hop on the table...he worked on my back the whole time, it felt sooooo good...:) the girls each had their turn after i finished...
after massages we picked up the key to the sauna...we had our own private sauna for two hours, how awesome is that?!?! we tried to stay in the sauna for 15 minutes each time, then cool down out in the sitting room for a bit after each 'session'...i didn't bring enough water, i was a bit worried about getting really dehydrated...i love sauanas...after the sauna, i felt like a queen...

we had dinner in the restaurant of the complex...nothing noteworthy, nothing awful...the only bit of note was that the service was rather slow...all of us were tired after dinner, we all crashed early...
the next morning we'd planned to go to an easter service at a nearby church...we thought a service started at 0645 or so, the complex said they would transport us...it turned out we got the time wrong, we missed it by an hour...which means we woke up at 0600 on a holiday weekend for no good reason!!
instead of going back to sleep we made tea and took it to benches near the water to enjoy...the sun was showing itself beautifully behind clouds, everything was lovely...

eventually we decided it was time for breakfast...since it was a holiday weekend, and this was the holiday, this breakfast was included in the price of our room...easter breakfast...it ended up being quite a bit of food...i definitely ate more than i should've...
after breakfast we had another cup of tea out by the water, then figured out where to go to rent bikes...
after adjusting for size and adding air to my tires, we took off down the road...i think it was about 3 kilometers to the town of glibivka...nothing remarkable about this town, but susannah and i love seeing a 'normal' town...maryna must've thought we were crazy each time we got off our bikes to take pictures...

we saw an unfinished church, a giant wood pile, revolution street, chickens, tulips, wells, etc...as we rode over a bridge we saw lots of men fishing...
2 hours later, we rode back to the complex and turned in our bikes...another cup of tea out by the water to relax...then we went for a walk in the woods across the highway from our complex...maryna told us the woods are really really old...you can see plenty of places where trees have been cut down to be used for someone's dacha, but most of what we saw had been there for a loooong time...you can almost feel the history, it's awesome...i wish we'd had more time...

we loved the atmosphere...at times it was totally silent, at times we could hear various birds...awesomeness...
after we came back to the complex we decided to use the sauna again...this day was warmer, so susannah and i had a much more challenging 2 hours...we did 15 minute 'sessions' again, but it was much more difficult to cool down in between...we ended up turning down the temperature of the sauna, and even then it was really hard to stay in the sauna the entire 15 minutes each time...i think we figured out that we did 6 15-minute sessions...my face was sooooo red!

dinner was again at the restaurant, and again nothing remarkable...
the next morning we showed up for breakfast thinking it was included in our price again...unfortunately, it wasn't...oh well...
after breakfast we had another cup of tea and enjoyed some of our last moments of vacation...we had an extra hour, so after packing up our stuff, we went for one last walk in the woods...
after our walk a taxi took us back to kyiv...

argentina: mendoza and maipu

we took a looong bus ride from salta to mendoza...18 hours...we'd chosen seats at the front of the bus, so we had great views of the scenery the entire time, but it was still a very long ride...we were fed three times during this ride, all three meals were the same...not very tasty...each box had three ham and cheese sandwiches...i know this is a common food in argentina, but really? argh...
we walked from the bus station in mendoza to the city centre, then found places listed in the guidebook...we chose a cute place, it seemed quiet...wifi didn't reach to our room, but that was okay...this place had a couple nice sitting rooms, i'm guessing they would've been lovely if we were visiting during warmer weather...

since we arrived fairly late in the day, there wasn't much daylight in which to explore, or get to know the city...even though we hadn't burned any calories during the day, we still wanted a proper meal...after a bunch of walking we found a local diner type of place...
before walking out of our hotel, we looked at the map of mendoza, and saw that it was built around 5 plazas...one in the middle, four situated in square positions...after dinner, we decided to walk around the outline of the squares...
it wasn't super cold, but i had a hard time warming up and sleeping that night...i have no idea why...

breakfast was included in the price of our hotel, it was nice...a typical spread of cereal, rolls, tea, milk, etc...i ate too much, as i always do in a breakfast buffet included in my hotel price...
we asked our hotel lady where we could get laundry done, she gave us an idea...when we found the laundromat, we discovered the prices weren't great, and neither one of us was super keen to deal with it...we walked to the plazas again, to see how they were different in daylight...there were statues or memorials in the middle of each, bo decided to climb on one of the statues and have me take the photo...i did the same, but on a much smaller statue :)...

of the four plazas, my favourite was plaza espana, as everything in the plaza was decorated with tiles...we had heaps of fun taking photos...there were plenty of other people in the plaza, we had to wait a while to get the views we wanted, without anyone else in the picture...
we found a giant supermarket called carrefour, and decided to check the wine and olive oil sections...bo already knew he wanted to bring wine with him back to the states, i knew i wanted to buy olive oil...we didn't think we would buy at the supermarket, but we were keen to get an idea on prices...

from the market we headed up the street toward a park...a big park...i stopped to get ice cream on the way, then almost dropped the ice cream...the street we were walking is supposed to be a really nice area of mendoza...it was okay, but i didn't feel super impressed, at least, not the way the guidebook made it sound i should be impressed...
the entrance gate to the park was being renovated, and was surrounded by green plastic fencing...boooo...bo climbed another statue for another picture, i skipped my turn...there is a 'lake' in the middle of the park, which was empty while we visited...not only was it empty, there were vehicles in the bottom, digging around...the temperatures were still chilly, and had clearly been cold for a while, as there was still snow on the ground in shady areas...

dinner that night was in another steak house...my steak was overcooked, boooo...
the next morning we checked out after breakfast...we walked to the bus station, dropped our bags at the left luggage office, then caught a bus to the nearby town of maipu...
maipu is basically a wine town...tourists and visitors to mendoza often organize tours of maipu, it's an easy way to see several vineyards...we rented bikes and got maps of maipu and started peddling...
our first stop was an olive plantation...well, not really a plantation, but a place that dealt with olives and products made from them...

our entry fee included tasting several products, an explanation of how olives are grown, and olive oil is made...we got to see the machine that is used to press the olives, and got an explanation about the different types of olive oil...(extra virgin, virgin, etc)
our next stop was a biergarden for lunch...i don't know why bo wanted bier, but i went with it...
our next stop was a french winery...it was the furthest away on the map, and my legs were tired by the time we got there...bo used to be a competitive rider, so he was fine, while i was huffing and puffing...we got a quick tour, then bo decided to do a tasting...since i can't have alcohol, i could only smell and look...even though i can't taste, the smell is usually indicatvie of the taste to some degree...

across the street from the french winery was another olive plantation...i did a tasting of 5 different olive oils...they didn't have a lot of flavour, as olive oil never does, but i was able to taste small differences...i ended up buying a small bottle, i knew i wouldn't be able to get it back in buenos aires...
we pedaled back to the bike rental place, arriving just after we were supposed to return the bikes...at first we were afraid we wouldn't be able to return the bikes at all (the gate was closed) but the wife came out and took the bikes...she also served us juice...my legs were tired, so i was thrilled to have sugar...

we caught the next bus back to mendoza, then walked around trying to find dinner...we found a sushi shop that looked interesting, but it turned out they only did delivery...we asked if we could just wait as they made our order, but that would've taken over an hour (despite them not having any orders coming in at the moment)...we weren't seeing any logic in that, so we walked away...our dinner ended up being at a small place near the bus station...
our bus to cordoba left on time :)