Excuse Me? Where Can I Find Jax Teller?

A few weekends ago my husband came in from walking the dogs and said “You might want to grab your camera, there’s some kind of motorcycle thing going on across the street!”.  The sound of motorcycles is nothing new here in Rotterdam, especially in this area.  So I didn’t even notice the sounds of them coming and going, but I did grab my camera and walk over to see what was going on.

Apparently a Harley club had a gathering in our hood.  I considered going over to inform them that this was MY turf, but I decided against it.  I was probably better to have them on my side rather than against me, so I went exploring a bit in their world instead.

There were a lot of bikers.

There were also a lot of bikes…

Beautiful bikes.

Bikes that my husband had a mild cardiac over whenever I got too close. Apparently he had visions of me knocking over an entire row and getting my ass kicked.  Seriously, it did his nerves in so bad he ended up going home.  Remember when I suspected he wanted to kill me?  Well apparently he thought it’d be better to leave it to the bikers, because when he feared me doing something to get myself dead, he thought it was better to go home and not be a witness  than to stay to protect me. Nice.

I wasn’t too worried though, I figured if they didn’t beat this guy… they weren’t going to bother with me.

You can’t see it in the photo, because I preferred it in black and white, but the dude is on a pink bicycle with pink flowered saddle bags.

… in a sea of Harley riders.

Pink.

That is one dude who is very secure in his masculinity.  I loved the look on his face though, like he was mentally going over every decision in his life that landed him with a family and a pink bicycle, rather than a motorcycle and the open road.  Sorry man…

I also wondered with this old timer was thinking as he cruised along looking at the bikes.

Was he once a biker too?  Was he pondering life and living vicariously through these bikers?  I guess we’ll never know.  One thing I do know though, is that he made those bikers his bitches.  At one point he decided he was going to turn around and go the other way, just as a really huge bike club came tearing in.  He just looked at them and kept going as they all came to a grinding halt, waiting patiently as he made his way across the street.  It was a sight to behold…

Anyway, being a big fan of Sons of Anarchy, I thought perhaps they might be able to tell me where to find Jax.

These guys didn’t know.

Neither did these ones…

I gave up after a while.  Clearly whoever these bike clubs are, they aren’t cool enough to roll with Sam Crowe.

Another thing I noticed is that where there are bikers, there are not only bikes, but also biker dogs.

Big, giant, scary, I’m gonna get you kind of dogs.  You won’t see one of these guys walking around with a Yorkie or a Teckel, that’s for damn sure.

You will, however, see them with very cute little mini bikers.

Children of all ages were there sharing in mom and dad’s passion for motorcycles. This little girl really stood out to me, sitting on a curb watching the events.  Such a contradiction in her leather Harley jacket and pigtails.  Someone’s future ‘old lady’?  Will she one day be the Gemma Teller of Rotterdam?  I guess it’s possible, but for now she is just one really adorable little biker kid.

Are these the Gemma Tellers of Rotterdam today?

I sure as hell wasn’t going to ask them.

It’s funny because my father has had motorcycles and belonged to motorcycle clubs.  They wore the leather jackets with the patches and the whole nine yards.  They were, from what I know anyway, just average every day guys who shared a common interest.  There was no gun running or any of the shenanigans they get up to on Sons of Anarchy.

Still though, I couldn’t help but wonder how close I was to that world as I walked through the gathering.

I’m sure that stuff does happen with bike clubs in some places.  I’ve heard about issues with the Hell’s Angels here in the Netherlands in the past.  Was I possibly walking among thieves and murderers or a group of IT guys, construction workers and accountants who just like to ride fast, loud bikes on the weekends?  It’s probably the latter but it was fun to pretend that they really were like the bad boys of SOA and that I was taking a walk on the wild side.

You can see more photos from the gathering here on Flickr.