Back to my roots

During the last week the KLR added four new countries to its list of countries where it had been: Denmark, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands. Its odometer is already over 108 000 km now.

One of the highlights of the last week was my three-day visit to Zutphen, a town of about 46 000 people in the Gelderland province in the Netherlands. The reason for my visit: It was from Zutphen that the De Jagers originally came to South Africa. I am not 100% sure about the date. Some sources suggested it was during 1714, other that it was already during 1696.

Pieter Christiaan de Jager lead the group of De Jagers and was seen as the “stamvader”. I am not going to bore you with the details other than that his wife Elizabeth Potgieter had a very interesting family line. Her great-grandmother was a black slave from Guinea in Northwest Africa.

With this piece of information I may declare me for once and all an African, a very proud one too.

Here are some pictures taken over the three days:

Riding in sunshine the tree-lined roads on the Dutch countryside.

I rode next to a big river with maize fields on the one side, and people relaxing on sun chairs on the other side.

Zutphen has one of the best preserved medieval town centres in Northwest Europe.

I felt at home with the many street cafes and people sitting, enjoying a coffee or a cold beer.

I wondered how often did my ancestors walk these streets.

On Wednesday I went for a long ride until I found a windmill close to the road. The picture had to be taken.

This cargo boat passed while a group of Dutch people were sitting on sun chairs, enjoying the sun, making a picnic.

I love the neat gardens and homes which I passed on the countryside.

I had to stop at a pannenkoekenhuis!

The pancake came without anything added. One can then add the layers of syrup and powdered sugar. My pancake was sweet …

I was fortunate to could meet up with Jolien, a GP from Zutphen. She also showed me the old bridge over the IJssel river. Contrary to the popular view the bridge is for her the most beautiful structure. That is debatable. 🙂

And there is our beautiful bridge 🙂

We had glasses of ice cream and fresh mint tea sitting on the bank of the river. While we were sitting there a Dutch barge passed, sporting not only the Dutch flag but also the South AFrican flag! I felt like cheering!

On Thursday the rain returned and I had a very wet ride back to Germany.

I have three riding days left before I am back in Berlin on Tuesday afternoon.