A Musical Tour By Bike Through The Netherlands
Ben Weaver: What Might Find You
When I first attempted to make a living as a musician I was driving around the country playing in little coffee shops and sleeping at rest stops in the back of an 1985 Ford F150. Those days were fed by an ambitious romanticism for a ragged, hand to mouth life on the road.
It wasn’t long before the romantic edge wore off and I began growing tired of playing to tiny audiences in sad bars. Luckily after releasing my third record, Hollerin’ at a Woodpecker, I got a break. The famed British rock and roll magazine MOJO gave Woodpecker a 4 out of 5 star review naming it Americana Album of the month. Suddenly I had all kinds of invites to go across the pond and perform. This was long before I had started riding to my shows by bicycle while carrying my instruments.
Back in March of 2016 I received an invite to come perform at a festival in Katowice, Poland that coming November. I forwarded the offer to my European booking agent who recommended we add additional shows to the festival making the trip into a mini tour. I was excited by this prospect. I had not toured Europe sine 2011 and had been eager to do a musical tour by bike there ever since.
Rather than give a blow by blow recap of my ride and route, which aside from the festival, was contained to the Netherlands I’m gonna share a story from the first day of riding that speaks to what it was like out there, and also casts a bright light on the serendipitous experiences which keep me riding to shows.
A concern I had preparing for this trip was navigation. Loaded, I needed to allow eight hours to travel the 100 or so miles between shows. Most days soundcheck was at 4 pm, followed by dinner, and then the show. I also had to fit interviews in as well. People were intrigued by my traveling to shows by bike and even in a country with so much bicycle infrastructure what I was doing was not considered normal.
When all said and done I was typically not back in my hotel room until midnight making each day a jigsaw puzzle of hours. How I put them together made all the difference in my surviving the following day.
Ultimately the day will come, but until it does I’d like to maintain my record of never missing or being late to a show. Having spent plenty of time lost in a car over on the European continent during previous tours I knew the threat getting lost presented and it would be fatal to my timeline if I wasn’t careful. To ensure not getting lost, I brought a GPS and Garmin was kind enough to donate a Euro map chip to my cause.
A very good friend of mine and incredible guitar player Mark Ziljma, lives in Amsterdam on the third floor of a very old building. For those that have not climbed up or down Dutch stair cases, particularly the old ones, they are nothing like the giant rectangular stairwells we have in the US. The Dutch built their stairs steep, narrow and winding. In order to get my Marrakesh down Mark’s stairs, I had to hold it from the rear rack dangling it almost vertically while Mark took the front wheel and together we guided it down the stairs and out the front door.
On the first day of my tour I left Amsterdam planning to ride 103 miles to a town called Middleburg in the south of Holland. Immediately after loading my instruments on the bike and heading into the wind and rain I began having problems with the GPS. Each time I deviated from the course it froze. I ended up using my phone to get out of Amsterdam.
Near mile 45 I took the Maasluis ferry across the Nieuwe Waterweg, just west of Rotterdam. The GPS was still acting up and while taking shelter from the rain beneath a breezeway on the ferry I decided to stop following the preplanned course and try typing in the address for the venue in Middelburg. My hope was that the issues I was having were in the preloaded course and that maybe in bypassing it the GPS would stop freezing up. Quickly the unit built a new route, and I had some temporary relief.
I trust my intuition and sense of direction more than any computer or GPS and after about five minutes following the new course I had a feeling something wasn’t right. I stopped and checked the heading against my phone and sure enough I was veering considerably more southeast than made sense. My original course had followed the coastline down to Middelburg. Now I was being led inland.
Normally this wouldn’t bother me, but the area of Holland I was entering into is known as the Zuiderzee (one of the seven wonders of the modern world). This area is a former bay of the North Sea and now holds what is known as the Delta Works, a series of giant dams and dikes that have been constructed to control the flow of water, both in and out, from the sea to the country’s canal system ensuring the entire place doesn’t just get washed away.
In short, it is all water. I was confused as to why the GPS was leading me inland and not down the coast (which was the shortest route). In addition, I was skeptical it had found the necessary bridges and or ferry’s to get me across all the water between my current location and Middelburg.
I tried to zoom out of the course to make sure it was actually leading me to Middelburg, and the map, albeit very hard to read, showed that it was. So, despite my feelings of uncertainty I decided to trust the computer.
The Netherlands are the epitome of a developed and engineered landscape. The Zuiderzee and Delta Works being the most extreme example. Throughout all my riding there was never a time where I felt anywhere even remotely close to wilderness. That isn’t to say it wasn’t beautiful much of the time, but even when riding through national parks and wildlife areas everything felt highly managed, weighted and purposefully constructed toward the benefit of civilization.
As the new course led me further inland the population density decreased. I spun further and further into the strangest kind of nowhere. The landscape so full of human sign and manipulation yet humans themselves nowhere around. Just field after field, bordered by canal after canal.
The way through this landscape on a bike was across narrow concrete paths about eight inches wide that ran along the spines of the dikes. At a certain point into this strange nowhere I ceased being mad at myself for trusting the GPS instead of my intuition. I was content to be right where I was, in the grey wind and rain.
It was at this moment that the dike I had been riding along dead-ended at the base of a steep hill. A narrow road T’d off to either side and on top of the hill three sheep stood looking down at me through the rain. Still in my moment of contentment I looked up at them and smiled.
The GPS told me to turn right and quickly I found myself atop the hill where less than a football field away was a huge river, five or so times as wide as the Mississippi is close to my home.
The sense that something was wrong, returned. To my right as far as I could see there was endless fields and dikes. To my left, barely darker than the fog, way off in the distance loomed what appeared to be an extremely long bridge.
I continued on the GPS course which was now leading me straight towards the giant river. Quickly the road turned to gravel and ended at a locked gate. Here the GPS said, “Go to dock A and get your ferry.”
Not only was the gate locked but from what I could see all that awaited beyond the locked gate was a handful of sail boats, a couple parked cars and a small house. I didn’t see anything resembling a ferry. I shook the gate and called out. No one answered. I called again, still no answer.
I knew from having studied the map in Mark’s apartment the evening before and from my knowledge of the Delta Works that if I couldn’t get across here my day was quickly going to go from 103 miles to 103-plus-many-more miles. This was not an issue for my legs but my concert schedule did not have time to accommodate a delay of that kind.
I shook the gate once more and hollered. This time louder.
A lady emerged from one of the parked cars in the lot and said, “Yes.”
I hollered back, “I am looking for the ferry.”
She said, “There is no ferry here, you need to go 1000 meters that way.”
I thanked her and headed off, my stress about time temporarily at ease.
A few minutes later I spotted a ferry pulling away from the shore. I raced down onto the landing and waved at the captain. In seeing me, he backed up lowering the gate. As I pushed my bike onto the metal ramp he stuck his head out of the pilot house and said, “Are you going to the island to go camping?”
I said, “No, I am going Middleburg.”
It is never a good sign in these circumstances when the response someone gives you begins with a laugh. Chuckling, the captain told me this ferry only went to an island in the middle of the river. It did not go all the way across. He then pointed off into the rainy, windy, foggy distance at the long bridge I had noticed earlier. There my fate awaited. I thanked him as I turned my bike around and began pedaling towards the bridge. I thought of Salsa athlete Jay Petervary and his moto of always pedaling forward. I was thankful for that mantra.
A few moments later a car pulled up alongside me and stopped. The driver door opened and a woman got out. It was the same woman from the marina. A funny thing to note here is that she didn’t just roll down the window, but stopped, shut off her car, and got out to talk to me. This was a dead giveaway that I was deep in the Dutch countryside.
She asked if I was okay or needed anything. I confirmed with her that this bridge off in the distance was indeed my best and only way to Middleburg. She confirmed and also noted that the ferry my GPS had sent me to only ran in the summer.
She wanted to give me a ride but I refused. I asked to use her phone to call my friend Tonnie in Middleburg and let him know I would be late for the show. However after dialing his number the call didn’t go through. There was no reception. I thanked her for stopping and headed towards the bridge.
For a long time this bridge, known as the Zeeland Bridge was the longest bridge in Europe and today is still the longest in Holland. Two days before my crossing it there had been 40-plus mile per hour winds from the south. A group had staged a championship bicycle race against the wind across the bridge.
It turns out for my crossing of the wind had dropped to 26 mph but ended up aligning with the sunset. One of the more spectacular I saw on this trip, have to say. Watching it go down into the water I felt some redemption for following the GPS over my intuition. The sky like a bonfire above the river.
In the end, I made it to Middelburg half an hour before dinner. My GPS-induced detour added around 36 extra miles to my day. Despite those miles and the headwind I managed to maintain my record of never missing or being late to a show.
The next morning I woke up to a 20 mph tailwind and sunshine. I rode the 93 miles along the ocean up to Haarlem in just under 7 hours, a great change from the day before. I arrived at my hotel in time to shower before heading to the venue for soundcheck and dinner.
Before my set I was standing in the back of the room watching the opening band play their set. I noticed a woman walk in and at first glance I thought she looked a lot like the lady from the day who I had taken to at the marina and on the roadside, but that seemed impossible.
My show that night was one of the best of the tour. I played a bunch of new and old songs and the audience felt like a room full of old friends. After the show I was standing at the merchandise table selling CDs when I heard a voice say, “So you already forgot me from the side of the road?”
I’ll admit I was a little freaked out until she told me that because I had called my friend Tonnie from her phone, his number was still on the screen when she got home. She felt responsible and decided to call him and let him know she had run into me, that I was okay, but would be late.
Tonnie hadn’t mentioned this when I saw him in Middleburg but it turns out they had a fairly long conversation. Her father had just passed away and in their talk Tonnie had shared with her who I was and what I was doing out there on my bike. She was curious about my music and looked up my tour schedule online to see if I was performing anywhere close by. It turns out she was curious enough to drive an hour to see me play that night in Haarlem.
I thanked her for coming, still somewhat stunned, flattered and eternally thankful for the mysterious connective energy that follows you around when embracing your sense of adventure by bike.
Before leaving the club that evening she said this to me, “You know, it’s all the little things you do. The tiny chances you take, the detours. You never know what you might learn, what you might see, what might find you.”
And there you have it. The reason we ride.
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MORE ON BEN WEAVER
Ben Weaver is a songwriter and poet. He has released eight studio albums of music and four books of poetry.
Read more about his adventures by bike here.
Listen and purchase his music here.
Follow Ben on social media:
Instagram @despoblado
Facebook @benweavermusic