July 2024 – Below you will see why I started this blog in 2018/19 – as a school project. After our cycle trip to the Netherlands, I decided to continue with my blog and continue the focus on travelling. There are so many beautiful places to visit, and there is so much more of this world that I would love to see. I hope you get inspired when reading my blog to go and visit some of the places I have been. And I hope that you will share your favorite places and inspire me to see what you have. Cheers to vacations, holidays, the people we share them with, the people we meet along the way, and all the fun things we see and do!!

Why I started this blog……

“The best times are when I am riding my bike!” — Sonya

I have dreamed for so long to do a bike trip in the Netherlands and it is finally a reality. My blog is all about the planning of our cycling trip around Ijsselmeer Lake in the Netherlands. I will be travelling with 3 sisters, and we will be biking 500 kms in 10 days in May 2020.

I grew up in a large family in Niagara on a dairy farm. I am the youngest, having 9 sisters and 2 brothers. I am very proud of my dutch culture – my parents immigrated from the Netherlands in the early 50’s. I grew up with the love for many dutch things – food and goodies such as stomppot, dropies, hagelslag, gouda, boterkoek, bitterballen and frikandellen; games such as sjoelbak, drinks such as Heineken and Bols, and I think the love for biking! As I research my bike trip in the Netherlands you will learn more about about the country, the history, their food, and probably more about me.

Unfortunately I lost both my parents when I was in my young 20’s but from what I learned from them I always knew I wanted to visit their homeland. I first went in the Spring of 2014 with 5 sisters, loved it and went back the same year in November as I insisted my husband had to go visit as well. I visited again in the Spring of 2018, and am looking forward to May 2020!

Growing up in a large family my parents needed to be “frugal” but never did I feel I was at a disadvantage. I was happy in that I had lots of sisters and lots of fun!!! and I had a bike! So, other than tricycles and things when I was a little kid, my first 2-wheeler was a men’s 10-speed bike. (actually it wasn’t mine – my older sister bought it when she got her first job), and us younger ones could only use it once she got tired of it. Lol – I couldn’t even sit on the seat. But I jumped on that bike and rode down the grass lawn over and over and over again until I learned how, and many scars later. I so wanted to cut that darn bar out of the middle! So now I finally could ride a bike but felt like a prisoner on my own property. Both farms on each side of us had many very large and viscous dogs that all I could do was bike around and around our driveways. I am sure if anyone was watching me they would say “what a crazy girl – riding around in a circle for 2 hours day after day!!”. When I started grade 9 we moved to a small village and I felt free! I could now venture out on my bike.

I moved to Hamilton when I was 19 and have made this my home with my husband Bart, our 4 sons, and our newest addition – Lilly our Bichon Poodle. My family shares a love for camping and hiking and being in the outdoors!

I love Hamilton! Over the last 33 years it has been great to see Hamilton become more and more bike friendly.

I started working at Hamilton Health Sciences very soon after moving to Hamilton. Now that I had some money, I decided to start taking night courses, first at Mohawk and then later at McMaster. Computers were coming in and I wanted to know everything about them so I would always be relevant. So I bought a computer in 1990 when I didn’t even know how to use it – lol. I have never stopped taking courses and never stopped learning. Since I always worked full-time, was raising my family, and socializing lots, receiving my diploma in Web Design and Development was a slow process but I received it in 2015! I then decided to apply to move those credits towards a BA in Humanities, and started another diploma course in Marketing/Business Administration. And that is what brings me here writing this blog. I am taking “Building Social Media Relationships” and the major part of my mark is to write a (new) blog. Since I needed to research my bike trip to the Netherlands in 2020, I decided it would be a good topic. I do have another blog http://brucetrailadventure.weebly.com/ – I am hiking the entire Bruce Trail with 5 girlfriends and I share our pictures and blog about our trip!

I thank everyone for not only reading my blog, but commenting, sharing your stories, and helping me in the planning of this cycling trip.