Oostende (B) - De Bilt (NL) and back

nice. i wonder what you do and what you feel while waiting for your lifts.

i am curious how long it will take me to get back to maastricht via oostende on sunday...

You wonder what I think?

If the waits are short, I don't have much time to think, if they are long it wouldn't be appropriate to write it down ;)

Yeah, that is the point. I always think it is wasted time when I have to wait long... You have to keep attention to see what is going on, reading a book just extends your waiting time. At the same time, you come in a bit of a bad mood, but even when not, not many thoughts can flurish. I tried once some audio books, that worked fine and also music. But what without the technical stuff... I wondered if maybe you know some tricks and tweaks...

yep, wondered the same by myself. if there's much traffic, you have to keep full attention to it all the time. quite annoying of people don't stop even after an hour of waiting....

today i waited at a small "Parkplatz" along the highway with just some cars there, all having dinner or something around. I was just waiting at the end of the parking area and reading a book, and every 5-10 minutes a car came by I stopped and showed my thumb. Took me 45 minutes to get out of there, quite good compared to the traffic and filled-up cars :)

> The trip back today (2008-05-15) took twice as many rides, six, and a bit longer, 5:07 (actual driving time 2:24), mainly due to a bloody long wait (1:21) at the "Galgewaard" liftplaats in Utrecht - during that time I was offered three rides to Arnhem, one to Den Haag and another to Amsterdam.

In which case it actually MAY be worth to have started by taking the sneltram to Nieuwegein and walk 20 minutes to the petrol station at the A27. I've hitched with very mixed results from Utrecht, eg once after 7 min at the start of the A28 to 's-Hertogenbosch, few times to Arnhem from the Galgewaard liftplaats, once without getting away from A12 access lane near sneltramstop (good spot though for Den Haag / Rdam / Leiden) - I think it's really rather hard to hitch down the A2 or A27 from Utrecht. Remains a small petrol station just before the beginning of the Marten Luther Kinglaan, which leads drivers to the A2, they should be mostly south- and westbound...

Anyway... :D

Friday 16 May right after work I parked close to the Maastricht "liftersplaats", destination daddy and girlfriend in 's-Hertogenbosch. Wanted to be there quick, after three minutes of wait got a ride from a counsellor and relation manager / advisor heading for Haarlem. With a cruise speed of 120 - 140 kmh we drove by 's-Hertogenbosch, we had discussed obviously were we would split, suggested the A59 exit 47, twice 1.5 km off the straight way to Haarlem, or the A2 emergency lane right on the way to Haarlem, however the driver kept preferring an A2-petrol station on the way. Although he had asked about the "where is" this A59 exit, we actually missed it because of a changed situation on site. Got out at my most frequented petrol station De Lucht a bit past 's-Hertogenbosch, used the tunnel to change sides to get a ride back to 's-Hertogenbosch, asked one driver while walking through the restaurant, crossed the parking, put up the thumb once, then saw a cab at the end of the parking, and was going to ask him, except that there was another driver, who could take me. Thus stood at the spot about 18.50 and arrived about 20.15, distance 148 km, avg speed should be then about 104 kmh. Quite exceptional somehow...

"All you need to get a quick ride is to put your thumbing hand in bandage*", the counsellor said, who had been travelling the globe for six years, a couple of decades ago. I felt though that the bandage would be some kind of cheating.

* strip of cloth used to cover a wound)