{"id":13049,"date":"2012-10-18T10:45:20","date_gmt":"2012-10-18T08:45:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/?p=13049"},"modified":"2012-10-14T20:57:15","modified_gmt":"2012-10-14T18:57:15","slug":"su-story-cycling-below-the-rivers-above-sea-level","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/2012\/10\/18\/su-story-cycling-below-the-rivers-above-sea-level\/","title":{"rendered":"SU Story: Cycling below the rivers, above sea level"},"content":{"rendered":"

On T-shirts of this Travelling Summer University (TSU) we put bullets on the back which\u00a0say: 1 summer, 5 cities, 25 bikes, 150 km of cycling and unlimited fun. Most of these turned\u00a0out accurate, especially the fun part, but apparently we have cycled more than 200 km and saw dozens of additional villages and small towns in the South Netherlands. It was possibly a\u00a0welcomed extra since instead of complaints, there was a lot of happiness.\u00a0The ultimate plan was to cycle through Tilburg, Eindhoven, Roermond and Maastricht.\u00a0This was the longest cycling route among the three editions of Below the Rivers, Above Sea\u00a0Level.<\/em><\/p>\n

An Unusual Dutch Summer in Tilburg\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The sleeping place in Tilburg was a student church of the Tilburg University, which created a\u00a0rather \u201cunique\u201d atmosphere during the first part. Also, the weather was clearly confused since\u00a0we had five days of sun without a single drop of rain. Call it luck if you will.<\/p>\n

This part was a solid introduction to the TSU with its packed program. First big item\u00a0was Roze Maandag (Pink Monday) held in the biggest fun fair of Netherlands. Tuesday was a\u00a0beach and live music day. During the concert, we, AEGEE people, even fired up the sleepy\u00a0audience of the Boogie Boy and sometimes attracted more attention than the artist!
\nOn Wednesday, there was the Pimp My Bike challenge with lots of spray paint and
\ncreativity. Later, a private concert at the church by the artist Mr. Sick Speck followed. He had
\nquite catchy songs. Everyone still sings: \u201cIn Germany, in Germany…\u201d
\nThe only non-cycling trip in the program was a day-trip to Amsterdam. City tour in\u00a0Amsterdam was slightly ironic since the guide was the only organiser who is not Dutch. After\"\"<\/a>\u00a0the touristic route, a group picture was made in front of the \u201cI Amsterdam\u201d sign. Free\u00a0time, boat trip on the canals, a restaurant stop and Red Light District walk completed all the\u00a0Amsterdam cliches. It was then time to prepare for the first cycling challenge.<\/p>\n

Road to Eindhoven: First Long Distance Challenge<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was quite surprising, no, amazing in the morning. Everybody was prepared for the road on time,\"\"<\/a>
\nand many of them had sports clothing, even cycling gloves, while organising team (who cycle\u00a0every day) do not even own such things.\u00a0Journey was free of complaints and problems. Midway, in Oirschot, a long lunch\u00a0break followed by a brief town tour made us sleepy, but the motivation of the participants kept\u00a0the party going. When we reached Eindhoven, the rain (finally) greeted us. It was quite welcomed\u00a0on the sunburned skins, though.<\/p>\n

A Little Competition in Eindhoven<\/strong><\/p>\n

This part was planned as a large tournament, first step as the pub quiz after arrival dinner. A\u00a0game tournament and special city rally called Crazy 88 with 88 crazy tasks (obviously) followed\u00a0the next day. All the cycling and super fast tempo had apparently failed to make the participants\u00a0tired. So, they were awarded with a pub crawl, including few free drinks.<\/p>\n

There was still no sign of tiredness, but they were let sleep late anyway. All charged up took part in
\na cute tour in an eco-farm and visited the Historic Open-air Museum with actual residents
\nchopping wood, making swords and baking breads, which balanced our rhythm a little. This day
\nended with the European Night, which not many of us have vivid memories of. However, we
\ndid try to recall things the following day in a swimming centre, while either riding the slides or
\njust sitting in the hot tub. As the grand finale of Eindhoven part, our last night was \u201cTypical Dutch<\/p>\n

Night,\u201d as named by the participants. That was probably the night that coined one of the most
\npopular phrases of the TSU: \u201cTypical Dutch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roermond: Introduction to Limburg Culture\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

This time, there were 60 km ahead, as opposed to 40 during the previous one. The weather\u00a0was also \u201cTypical Dutch,\u201d except the missing rain. Although there was a clear decrease in the\u00a0motivation, the scouting in Roermond, our sleeping place, had quite the view next to the Maas\u00a0(Meuse), which turned the exhaustion to a peaceful calmness.\u00a0Program started fast with a traditional Cantus, which involves a lot of singing and even\u00a0more beer drinking. Next evening another private concert by Loek Tonnaer\u2019s band Dageraad\u00a0followed, for the occasion of Limburgish Night. Having a hardcore, solid introduction to the\u00a0Limburg way of living, TSU was ready for the capital of the province: Maastricht.<\/p>\n

Crossing the River in Maastricht<\/strong><\/p>\n

After the last and the hardest ride, last destination was reached.This time everybody easily
\nadmitted that they were exhausted. But there is no exhaustion a four hour sleep would not solve, is
\nthere? Next day, we had the most extensive city tour within our TSU, including a visit to provincial
\ngovernment building (where the Maastricht Treaty was signed). Maastricht did not have a hard time
\nmaking an impression. Same can be said concerning the ten KM ride back to the sleeping place
\nafter the pub crawl. Damn, the only province-with-hills of this flat country!
\nOn the last day, we visited the limestone caves of Limburg, but the ones in Valkenburg.
\nDark and cold caves were a really good break to the sun and for the exhaustion of two weeks. As
\ntradition, the day ended with voting, an award ceremony and a goodbye party.<\/p>\n

And the Curtain is closed<\/strong><\/p>\n

This was a first for this series in terms of biking distance, and crossing one of the rivers that we
\nhad been previously below (on the map, of course). Program started fast and kept the tempo untill
\nthe end. This was our secret for a \u201clong, aimless waiting\u201d free TSU.
\nContent-wise, seeing different cultures even in a small country was the strongest
\naspect. \u201dTypical Dutch\u201d was a humorous phrase but they knew there is more in culture than
\nmeets the eye, as they cycled through this two southern provinces. If you see how people,
\nculture and even landscape change even as you bike, it gets easier to realise the same on a
\nmuch larger region.
\nConsidering most of the participants were not very familiar with AEGEE yet, this TSU
\nshowed them that they need to keep exploring and observing the world and people around. And
\nwhile doing those, you can have genuine (in our case \u201cunlimited\u201d) fun. So join us next year in
\nthe new chapter of the adventure book!<\/p>\n

Written by Haluk Can Yasan, AEGEE-Eindhoven.<\/em><\/p>\n

Thank you to\u00a0Marina Roche Arroyos,\u00a0Eero Vegmann,\u00a0Bal\u00e1zs Kov\u00e1cs,\u00a0Elena Martino &\u00a0Marina Roche Arroyos for contributing with photos!<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On T-shirts of this Travelling Summer University (TSU) we put bullets on the back which\u00a0say: 1 summer, 5 cities, 25 bikes, 150 km of cycling and unlimited fun. Most of these turned\u00a0out accurate, especially the fun part, but apparently we have cycled more than 200 km and saw dozens of additional villages and small towns in the South Netherlands. It… Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":13051,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[5,17],"tags":[622,38,728,42],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13049"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13049"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13049\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13180,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13049\/revisions\/13180"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}