verslag Brian, 15-06-2004 Before the start: We arrived at Apeldoorn shortly after eleven, and there were already a few people with bicycles there, plus some media activity. The weather was far from ideal: maybe 17°C and mostly cloudy (threateningly dark grey ones), with a fair bit of wind. After a cup of coffee (indoors) Jurgen went outside to see how things were developing, and didn't come back. When I looked for myself slightly later, there he was in front of a TV camera giving yet another interview. By now there were a lot more cyclists, including a few familiar faces from the naturist walk near Veenendaal a couple of weeks ago. I counted five TV cameras, of which three were of the large, professional sort used by 'real' TV companies. One of these belonged to the Korean team who'd been following Rens over the last few days; I'd been assuming they were in Europe for the football or the elections and had decided to include 'Apeldoorn', but when I asked them later on they assured me they'd come all that way specially for us; it must be very difficult to see naked people in Korea! As well as TV there were several photographers and guys scribbling on notepads (of the paper variety), plus a DJ from radio 538 who'd agreed to cycle along with us (with his clothes on) and do a live report. We set off: At twenty past twelve we finally set off: a very respectable number of cyclists along with half a dozen cars and one motor bike (with a Korean cameraman on the back). After five minutes we reached a field on the edge of town, the designated stripping place. It was only now that it really became clear who was actually going to go naked and who were supporters and journalists. I counted about 26 naked people, including two women. It could have been a lot worse: at least we weren't outnumbered by the press (well, not quite!). There were two fairly young and alternative-looking guys on a tandem plus one guy on a ligfiets (a reclining bicycle, according to my dictionary); these, plus of course the women, got more than their fair share of camera attention. For the rest it was mainly middle-aged men, most of whom looked like typical naturists. Only one cyclist had put any sort of political message on his bike: a small sign saying 'wereldvrede begint binnen in jezelf - blootgewoon', which can be roughly translated as 'world peace begins inside yourself -' plus 'blootgewoon' which is untranslatable (bloot = naked, gewoon = normal, ordinary, obvious; word play on 'doodgewoon', = dead normal). As we were setting off I finally found myself in front of a TV camera; it was SBS6, and about the first thing I was asked was "Don't you have any feelings of shame?"; of course not, what did I have to feel ashamed about? "But most people don't do this!"; yes, that's true, if this was a more normal sight on the streets you lot wouldn't be here, but surely that's no reason to feel ashamed! At that point I had to zoom off to catch up with the other naked people, who were already way up the street. I wasn't at all nervous (in spite of just having given my first ever TV interview, and that while totally naked!) and felt satisfied with my performance; I was even slightly disappointed when I watched the news this evening and found out that they hadn't used my bit! Riding naked: We now cycled for about an hour, mostly along quiet country roads and narrow lanes. Along with our motorised escort we tended to take up the whole street most of the time, but luckily there wasn't much traffic. The weather wasn't too bad; for about half the time the sun was out and it was pleasant cycling weather (even if not quite warm enough for me to normally even have considered cycling naked), but when the clouds came over it got quite chilly. We also had a few drops of rain, but nothing to worry about. The press remained as active as ever. I got interviewed at length by the Koreans, at least the Dutch motorcyclist asked the questions while his Korean passenger filmed me; I may well end up world-famous in Korea! As always, cycling naked was a wonderfully liberating feeling, and very pleasant even in this weather. As well as being interviewed I got talking to various other naked cyclists along the way, and it wasn't long before I started to forget for most of the time that I had no clothes on; regularly realising again that I was cycling along the street naked provided for quite a surrealistic experience! As far as the general public was concerned, I really only noticed positive (or at worst, somewhat surprised) reactions. Not a single person gave me the impression that they were in any way shocked or offended, whereas quite a few smiled, cheered or shouted encouragement. Meeting the police: After about an hour the people up ahead stopped, and it soon became clear that we were slightly lost. We'd missed a turning, and would have to turn round and go back a bit. Right at that moment a police car appeared up ahead, and I thought I could vaguely hear someone shouting something like "this is illegal, get dressed all of you". A perfect moment to cycle in the opposite direction, which is what most of us did. After a kilometer or two we were met by the same police car, and told in a friendly but serious tone that what we were doing was illegal. We'd have to put something on, but the policeman made it clear that the absolute minimum would suffice, and even that the women could go topless. Everyone immediately complied with this request: there were no Steve Goughs in our group, and that included me: I wasn't going to be the only one to defy the law and risk getting arrested. Whereas most people did indeed just dress minimally, I put on my pants and T-shirt: by this time the sun seemed to have disappeared for good and it was cold enough for me to feel a lot more comfortable with some clothes on. After about 600m. we reached the start of some woods, and most people got naked again; I heard from someone later that the police had actually said that we could do what we liked once we were in the woods, and in actual fact they passed us when most people had already undressed again, at a short enough distance for them to see what was happening, but just carried on driving; definitely a low-key approach. I didn't avail myself of the opportunity for some more naked cycling: I'd made my point and it was just too cold for me; some Dutch people seem to have a very different cold threshold than I do! Bussloo: We'd now cycled most of the 17km. to Bussloo, and soon arrived at our destination: the local naturist beach. Some people immediately dived into the lake, while I put an extra layer of clothes on. The sky was now a very dark grey, and it was soon raining heavily. The original idea was that people who didn't want to take part in the first part of the ride (basically the shyer or less radical ones who didn't like the idea of stripping off so near the centre of town under the gaze of so many cameras), would meet up with us here, have lunch and then set out on the second part of the ride. We were surprised at how empty the place was when we arrived, but a few people did show up eventually. We ate our sandwiches sheltering from the rain under the roof of the beach's toilet building, and after half an hour it had pretty well stopped. You might think the press would have had enough material by this time, but no: the filming, recording and note-taking continued unabated, until I actually saw media people interviewing each other (presumably as they'd already talked to everyone else!). Some group photos were made (you won't see me in them), and the radio DJ who'd cycled with us now finally got naked to join in (but with a Radio 538 advert covering his 'naughty bits'!). Back to Apeldoorn: For the return trip (which, we'd decided, would take us pretty well straight back to Apeldoorn), at least about a dozen people got naked, including some who'd missed the first half of the ride (among them today's third naked woman). Needless to say, I kept my clothes on; it hadn't got any warmer, and before long it had started to rain again. By this time the press had disappeared and the bike ride had split up into several small groups who all found their own way back to town. After maybe half an hour our group was met by the same two policemen we'd seen earlier, who now asked all of us, more or less individually, if we'd please stay dressed from now on (saying that "we'd made our point and it was getting rather chilly"!); the few who were still naked got dressed now. I heard later on that another group had managed to cycle naked pretty well all the way back to Apeldoorn. The TV news this evening and most of Monday's papers would say that the police had firmly put an end to the naked bike ride, and give the impression that this had happened pretty quickly too; as often, the truth is more complicated and subtle, and in this case much more positive.