Ah Zoetermeer! Deja vu all over again…

I am back in the Netherlands, this delightful corner of the planet where all things are sensible, and where, as a consequence, cyclists rule. I’ve written about this place before, and have rhapsodized especially about its amazing cycling infrastructure. Since that visit which prompted that write-up, I have shown up here several times more, usually on a detour from some pretense of work somewhere else on the continent. This latest sojourn is different though, this one is the first step in a planned year long sabbatical from Duty, Responsibility, and other such Snares set by Life. (Also, hopefully, a sabbatical from Loss.) I have a train ticket to London for four days from now, and a return ticket from the Netherlands for about a month from now (but return to where? home is where? I can’t say), but beyond that, I have no plans. I don’t mind that, in fact, I kinda like it that way.

When shopping for a place to call home, it is imperative that said place affords easy access to the things you like to do. And the things I like to do include simply getting on my bike and pedaling away for an hour (or several), through traffic free paths, and better yet, through verdant nature. And the list includes frequenting coffee shops where you can settle down for hours over an oat milk latte, looking like you are working, hopping through convivial bars where the beer gurgles cheerfully on gleaming taps, and always, a plentiful supply of people to chat up and cheer oneself by. Check, check, check and check. This corner of the Netherlands has them all. With friends Ramesh and Usha who are essentially family here, this is definitely a good place to spend several months of the year.

I jump on my bike (technically Meghana’s, she is their daughter, and she’s family too of course, way family) and in two minutes I am out riding by peaceful lakes and flowing canals full of ducks and geese and swans, passing by cows and sheep looking indeed placid and self-contained as the poet said, darting occasionally into woods lovely, dark, and deep, where, unlike a different poet, I can stop without a farmhouse near, as I have no promises to keep and nowhere to go before I sleep. And Leiden, a university town naturally occupied by an army of young people, is a mere ten kilometers away, and there is no dearth of interesting establishments to frequent. The Hague is close by as well.

Some pictures…

Just thr sort of random scenery one encounters cycling around these parts…streams running through forests no more than a few kilometers from home..

Some trees have begun to change color, it is officially fall now

Tchaikovsky’s muse?

Leiden! My go-to town in these parts..built on the Rhine delta

Leiden..a youthful town..

Leiden City Hall in the background looming over Einstein Cafe in thr foreground … Einstein is big here, it is in Leiden that he gave lectures in General Relativity that made the theory understood outside World War 1 Germany..

Another Leiden scene..