KICKING BACK AND RELAXING!..

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KICKING BACK AND RELAXING!..

(we'd just come back from France the day before, so we all just intended on resting the legs today)



DAY TWELVE:
Today i woke up with the intention to do absolutely nothing, besides eating and lounging around. And that's exactly how my morning began to pan out. My cousins uncle and aunt left to go to an amusement park to celebrate a birthday which meant that we also had the house to ourselves. We said goodbye to them in the morning and wished them all luck on their mini holiday then went back to lounging around. At about 11:30 my uncle rang the home phone and mum answered. It was my uncle! he was planning on going to a race in Germany with the minibikes, but the owner of the track lost his hosting license. So now my uncle had a complete day that he'd had work off and we offer to take me out on the motorbike with his new Ducati! Last time i was in Holland i asked him to take me on a trip but back then his Ducati was only a one seater so it wasn't possible, but now the newer bike could hold two people.. not comfortably i might add, but it was awesome.

Mum took me and my little sister to my Uncles house where we sat down with some apple juice and just chatted for a while, then he brought out all this leather for me to suit up for the bike. I had the real deal, the jacket, the boots and a pretty awesome helmet too. So we geared up and jumped on, i wont lie.. i was a little nervous. I love motorbikes, but I've only been on dirt and off road bikes, so to be on a road bike in a place that i knew the speed limit could get to 130km/h was a little intimidated. The bike itself was a manual bike, so you could feel all the gear changes, and all the momentum of the changes it was insane. In the beginning i got a bit of a rush, because at that stage 50km/h felt fast, but then you adjusted to the speeds and became more comfortable with them it was really relaxing. My uncle took me through Hoorn, to Schoorl, along the coast towards Petten continuing to Callantsoog, and then Grote Keeten, Den Helder, Hippolythushoef, and then back to Slootdorp. We only managed to see glimpses of the ocean along the coastline, but it was all behind the hills.

We stopped first at Klim Duin in Schoorl it's sort of a foresty area and it has this massive sand dune that kids just try and run all the way up, then run and roll all the way down again. it's actually just cheap entertainment. We sat at a cafe just opposite of the sand dune, and had a coke to cool down a bit. We watched a few of the kids attempt the hill i was kinda waiting for them to go face first into the sand but somehow... they didn't and made it down the hill still standing!
My uncle and i just chatted, we talked about the possibility of him coming to Australia, and if i could see myself living in Holland. We talked about his new bike, and he mentioned how he'd taken his kids for a spin recently and that everyone is the same the first time one it.
They all hold on for dear life..
Because i'm tallish two, our heads on the back are sort of at the same level and with the momentum of the bike when you break or accelerate we kept bumping helmets! and that got a little bit annoying, because you couldn't help it. The first little bit of the ride was difficult, because you don't really realize how close to the ground you get when you take corners and it's only natural to fight the urge to fall. So he gave me a few tips of advice when we sat, just to relax a bit and go with the bike. I thought it was all reasonable advice, so i did my best to follow it. As for holding on, i wasn't going to loosen my grip the slightest bit. Especially going at high speeds, the wind would get in between my gloves, which where wrapped around my uncles waste, and it would actually push your hands apart, which is something i did not want to do..

From Schoorl we continued to ride, we stopped for an ice cream along the way and had a chat to a man riding what looked kinda like a canoe on wheels, there where 3 wheels, the inside was set up to look sort of like a bike. He insanely proud of his bike thing, we actually couldn't get him to stop talking about it all. Eventually we managed to escape and get back on the bike, we rode around through a few more towns enjoying the wind and the sun, and we arrived home around 4 after about a 3 and a half hour ride. Taking the motorbike, is such a different experience compared to just driving, you feel a lot more in the scenery rather than just watching it, it feels a lot more natural. Nearly arriving home, my uncle popped two wheelies. Which scared the absolute crap out of me, and he wonders why i was holding on so tight!

The rest of the day consisted of finally lounging around, and mum was nice enough to buy us a frikandel and chips for tea, which was delicious.. AS ALWAYS!

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