Well then, it’s been just over a month since I made the big
move, said Du-bye to Dubai and Hola to Holland, and so far so good. I have to
admit that I miss my friends and training groups back in Dubai, of course, but
I’m absolutely convinced that it was the right move at the right time. I like
that I left Dubai on a high (no Dutch jokes here) and while things were still
good – my memories of the UAE now will always be positive, and I’ll definitely be
trying to get back for occasional visits.
And what of Amsterdam? Well, the obvious thing first – it’s
bloody cold, but, other than on a couple of occasions (more of those later),
that’s not bothered me so much. Maybe it’s because I’ve spent most of the past
decade living in Spain and the UAE, but I’m kind of enjoying the novelty of an
actual, real winter. Coats, gloves, cappuccinos, hot chocolates and oliebollen…
winter has its advantages. And for every mind-blowingly crappy day, there are
days – like today – when the sky is blue, the cold is crisp and the leaves are
on the ground… it really is beautiful.
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| Amsterdam |
I really feel like I’m finding my way in the city/country
now. I have my bank account and citizen’s number, so I’m official. I really
like our apartment and the area it’s in too. The first few weeks maybe felt like a
bit of a extended holiday but now it’s real life doing real things (with the
exception of the working from home everyday part).
And, while Dubai had its advantages, I’m really lapping up
all of the proper ‘European’ things on offer in the Netherlands. The parks and
canals, stopping in cafes for beers and bitterballen (the Dutch, it seems, have
a strange but tasty obsession with food in ball shapes!), heading to small art house
cinemas (Pretentious? Moi?) and just wandering or cycling around the streets to
discover new places and see new things.
We’ve visited Glow in Eindhoven – a cool, week-long art
experiment when the buildings become light shows. We have tickets to a couple
of festivals and music events next summer. There are weekend breaks planned.
Gigs to be watched. And I haven’t even gotten around to seeing the museums,
markets, the Heineken Experience or the pancake boat yet! But all in good time…
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| Images from GLOW in Eindhoven |
But this isn’t some fancy-Dan (or fancy-Dam…groan!) travel
blog or expat relocation guide, is it? It is, or at least it tries to be, about
triathlon. So, how’s that going?
Well, we live in a great place as far as training
goes. Firstly, we’re between a few parks, all of which have run tracks around
or through them. I can do a lap or two for short runs while they can be combined
(usually by following a canal or two) to create longer runs. There’s even an
official 22km trail through three of the parks, while the nearby Amsterdam
Woods (I’ve not been there yet) has 12, 15 and 21km trails through it. I’ve
also tried a city run and a run down the Amstel river – after the same one or
two loops of Dubai, this feels like an embarrassment of riches. Especially when
the backdrop is misty parks, canals with ducks, geese and herons perched
nearby, and woodlands with a thick carpet of autumn leaves underfoot.
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| The Vondelpark has a nice 3.5km run loop |
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| Came across these dudes while running along the nearby Nieuwe Meer (the lake is pictured below) |
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| The local 22km loop - we basically live right in the centre of this |
Running has been the main focus just to keep a little fit
for the time being. I’ve ridden twice – once a couple of weekends back while
visiting my fried Joe in Spain, we headed out and did a nice 90km jaunt through
the hills of Andalucia, stopping only to experience the ‘traditional delicacies’
of the world’s worst tapas restaurant. And then, last week, I tried a ride here
with Hamish, who also recently moved to Amsterdam.
At this point, I should explain that I only began the whole
riding/triathlon thing in Dubai so cold conditions have never really featured
too heavily. Expecting it to be cold out, I dressed in my warmest cycling gear –
the sort of thing I’d wear for a cold winter morning in Dubai. Turns out that
there’s quite a difference between a cold Dubai winter morning and a cold
Amsterdam winter afternoon… we only made 45km in the end as the heavens opened
and sent a downpour; I, of course, had absolutely no waterproof clothing on. To cut a long story short, I had to get a
neighbour to let me into the apartment as I couldn’t use the keys, so cold were
my hands, and it took me 25 minutes of being inside before they thawed enough
to take my gloves or shoes off.
Anyway, never one to need telling twice, I remedied that
situation by immediately going online and buying proper winter cycling gear. Of
course, I haven’t ridden since!
My favourite place for training is called Sloterpark. It has
a +6km mainly woodland run track around a giant lake. Being around 1.5km from
the apartment, this makes a perfect 10km run. Better still, on the far side of
the lake – around 10 mins bike away – is a giant sports centre with a 50m swim
pool. This is home to the De Dolfijn Masters and Tri Clubs. It’s also where my
awesome gym is located. Just over the road is the running track where the tri
club holds weekly track workouts. During the summer, you can do open water
swims in the lake. Oh, and there’s a pretty good annual triathlon in this area too. I
love having all of this so close to hand.
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| Running in the Sloterpark |
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| Canalside path leading from home to Sloterpark |
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| The lake at Sloterpark |
Triathlon is a pretty expensive sport, but it’s much more
accessible here in Europe. De Dolfijn Tri, for example, costs €365 a year, which
can be paid in monthly instalments (and includes an annual race licence). This basically means that €7 per week gives
me 5 coached swim sessions, a coached track run per week, a
couple of bike rides per week between April and September, plus all the other
social and support benefits of being in a club.
There’s another bike and tri group called Cylodam – which is
maybe a bit less formal but bit more social – and their fees are just €25 per
year, so I’m joining both; I love the social element of training and triathlon,
while also needing as much variety as possible in my training, so the more
options for rides or runs I have the better, is how I see it.
So, basically, I’m back in training now. Not tri training
per se (or at least, not in the way I've done it in Dubai), but training to maximise the potential for 2013 being my best season
yet. What does that mean exactly? Well, I’ll get into that next time.
