Dutch Treats: A Visit from Louis

As I begin to write this post this evening, I am overwhelmed as I reflect on the gift of the relationships we developed on our World Tour. It truly is the best part of the traveling. I just read a few of the comments on our blog, one from our French friends who are preparing for their own cycling journey, one from our Polish friends who hosted us and our bicycles in Dublin. I also just re-read a Facebook post from our friend Ong who recently received the postcard we sent months ago (yes, thank you, world postal services, for such a timely delivery).

And perhaps all of this feels so fresh and even meaningful because this past week we had the chance to host a friend we met on our Tour. Let me back up and introduce Louis.

Louis has traveled more of the world than us on his bicycle. He has logged nearly 100,000 kilometers (that’s 60,000 miles!) on his trusty Santos bike over the years.

Louis is from the Netherlands, and has been retired since 2006 (I think). About every two years, he embarks on some kind of major bike tour… and that’s how we met. We crossed paths with Louis on the road in Bolivia. When we first met him, we thought he was going the opposite direction, but a few days later, he showed up in the same tiny village where we had stopped for the night in Peru. He had taken the long way around Lake Titicaca, and ended up looping back around to continue north. He was headed to Lima, Peru, and had been cycling for many months exploring much of the same territory as us throughout South America. We didn’t exchange contact info at the time, but wished each other well as we part ways. About a month later, Dave and I pulled into a random hostel in Lima–a city of nearly 10 million people… and plenty of hostels to choose from. We asked if we could park our bikes somewhere, and sure enough, when they showed us the storage space, we saw Louis’ bike! By complete chance, we had stopped at the exact same place.

Well, from Lima, Louis headed back to the Netherlands, and this time we had sense to switch e-mails, as we knew our route through Europe might take us in his direction. Sure enough, nearly three months after our stay in Lima, we had a reunion in Winterswijk, Louis’ hometown in the Netherlands. We were delighted to see a familiar face at that point in our journey, and Louis showed us around the highlights of his area. Unfortunately, our visas had us crunched for time, so we were only able to stay a couple of nights in Winterswijk.

Us out on a ride (the “Green Border Tour” as he called it) with Louis in the Netherlands, July  2012.

So when we found out Louis would be setting out on another bike tour, this time from Lima, Peru, up to Boston, we knew there was a good chance our paths could cross again. We followed his travels up through South and Central America, and messaged him persistently on Facebook to encourage him to come visit us in Nashville. And sure enough, this past Tuesday night, I came home from work at REI to discover that Louis had officially arrived in Music City!

It was completely awesome having Louis in town for a visit. We did our best to show him the highlights of the city. We went out and enjoyed great live music, we dined on some of the best food of Nashville, we sampled some of the finer coffees of the area. There was of course a hike in Radnor Lake State Natural Area (just down the road from us), and we made sure to spend an afternoon roaming around the streets of downtown Nashville.

We enjoyed the amusement of walking past all the Honky Tonks and boot shops on Broadway.

Dave and Louis in front of the historic Ryman Auditorium.

Louis and me, with the pedestrian bridge over the Cumberland River

And perhaps the best part of all, Louis rode into town just in time to catch to Tour de Nash this past Saturday. I already was going to this event to help out at the booth representing REI. So we all three did the 31-mile ride which took us on some of the best greenways and bike routes that Nashville has to offer. It was a fun (non-competitive), relaxed and beautiful ride around and through the heart of Music City. We were so glad Louis opted to stick around long enough to join us for the fun!

Here we are after finishing the ride. It was a surprisingly chilly morning for mid-May, but we enjoyed the “fresh” temperatures as we toured the city by bike.

On Sunday, Louis loaded back up his bike to continue on his tour. Like I said, he’s headed to Boston, but not before he swings over to South Dakota (NOT on the way!) to check out Mt. Rushmore. His visit to Nashville was certainly a detour from the most direct route, but we’re grateful he traveled an extra 250 miles to the east just to come visit us! What a treat! We rode to the edge of town with him on Sunday morning and sent him on his way. We knew that all-too-familiar feeling he had of being ready to be back on the road, back on the move after several days of resting and staying in one place.

Farewell Louis!

As Dave and I rode back home, we couldn’t stop talking about how cool it was to be able to reconnect with Louis once again. We’ve now spent time with him on three different continents! And here we were, able to share with him some of our life here. Of course, he’s invited us to come back for a visit in the Netherlands, and we’re always looking for an excuse to take a fun trip! We’re sure our paths will cross again one day. And for now, we’re again so thankful for the blessing of the relationships our journey gave us. It is truly the most beautiful part of traveling the world.