Around the world in 100 days

Men from Netherlands stop in Fergus Falls on cross-country trip

By Jeff Hage (Contact) | The Daily Journal

Published 11:20 a.m., September 19, 2007

The accents filling the City Bakery Tuesday afternoon were unfamiliar.

They weren’t the hard Scandinavian dialects one might expect to hear in northwestern Minnesota.

Instead, the three men in leather jackets and motorcycle helmets brought about images of tulips, wooden shoes, and white windmills as they laughed over hot cappuccinos and recalled stops along their journey that now included memories of otters seen in the county museum in Fergus Falls.

Hans Heinsius, Edy Breukers, and Jan Mulder hail from The Netherlands and have embarked with eight other motorcyclists on a 100-day motorcycle trip around the world.

The trip began Sept. 8 with the four-day process of getting their motorcycles shipped to New York, Mulder said. They then began their tour from New York to Niagara Falls, N.Y. and then into Canada where the trio made stops in Wawa and Thunder Bay, Ontario, while they made their way around the northern section of the Great Lakes.

From Thunder Bay the men made their way into Minnesota and a short stay in Brainerd. Tuesday morning they left Brainerd and found Fergus Falls by the noon hour. It was almost as if by accident that Fergus Falls was playing host to its latest foreign visitors.

“We’re here on our way to Aberdeen,” Mulder said. “We figured we’d get off the highway because we thought it was time for a cappuccino.”

And if there’s one thing Mulder, Heinsius and Breukers have learned during the first week and a half of their journey across America, it’s where to get good coffee.

“The best coffees are in the towns along the way — not at places along the highway,” Heinsius said.

“That’s why we drove to your downtown — to get a good cup of coffee,” Breukers said.

They also did a little sightseeing while in town, too.

“We stopped at your museum hoping to find some cowboys and Indians,” said Breukers, who was disappointed he couldn’t find a postcard featuring the American icons to send back home.

“It was very interesting and we learned about otters and beavers,” Mulder said.

They also drove around town admiring the buildings, houses and their architecture.

“We like to stop and look at the houses and buildings. Back home every house has a white picket fence and a little garden. Here most houses have a wide-open yard with no fence,” Mulder pointed out.

The men were also excited to learn that they wandered upon the chance to see an architectural gem in Fergus Falls’ Kirkbride Building on the grounds of the Regional Treatment Center. They were going to make a point to wander off the highway a few blocks to take in the building’s sights.

Then it was off in the direction of Aberdeen and then Spearfish, S.D. where the men intended to take a day off to see Mount Rushmore, drive the Spearfish Canyon and possibly take in some cowboy action for Breukers down in Deadwood if time permits.

If the men stay on course they will pull their BMW motorcycles into Los Angeles on Oct. 3. It will then be off to Australia for a month before reaching their destination of Katmandu, the capital and the largest city of Nepal. They will travel along the edge of the Himalayan Mountains, which can’t be crossed by motorcycle, before traveling across India, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Syria and then back to Europe for the final leg of the journey back home.

“We’re just setting out to see the world and visit places,” Mulder said.

“Jules Verne wrote about going around the world in 80 days. We hope to do it on our motorcycles in about 100,” Mulder said.

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