After an anti-climactic entry into the Netherlands we head towards the coast so we can camp by the ocean. I’m disappointed by yet another mediocre European beach – I need to stop expecting Australian quality beaches over here. I still go for a swim, and then we cook and eat dinner while sitting on the dyke (I’m not sure how a small boy could block a hole in one, they’re enormous things) as large ships meander past us at a distance.
Working our way up the coast of the Netherlands involves catching several ferries, and cycling along a few long sea walls, through towns with canals and locks and unsurprisingly covering a lot of very flat terrain. On the plus side we catch a lot of nice tailwinds, although there are a few less nice days, filled with rain.
We miss the cycling route into Rotterdam which involves a ferry, and instead end up in an industrial area and take a bike tunnel UNDER the canal to get into Rotterdam! It’s very exciting, except the lifts are broken so we have to use the escalators to get the bikes down and up at either end, which is always an interesting proposition with a fully-loaded touring bike.
Arriving in Delft, we wander round and find a coffee shop to sit in and dry out after a morning of persistent wet. The rain showers are petering out, and we set off into the city (where I find a bakery with 4 muffins for the price of 3 – bargain!) and then gradually pick our way along bike paths to Amsterdam. There are lots of birds with young, as well as small goats and ponies.
Hunting for camping, we cycle through Amsterdam and admire all of the bike lanes and cycle friendly infrastructure. We end up first in the Zeeburg campground: to the east of Amsterdam city centre, it’s more like a festival than a campground. There’s so much smoke hanging in the air you’d only have to walk through the place to get stoned. So we cycle back and out to Gaasper, south of the city, it’s a much quieter proposition, even if it’s 9pm by the time we arrive. A long day.
Cycling is a great way to get around Amsterdam – especially on a quiet Sunday morning. There is already a queue of over 130 people outside Anne Frank’s house and it’s not even 10am. The backpackers are thronging, so we flee the city by afternoon. Well, attempt to flee the city. We cycle and cycle, and the gravity of Amsterdam is pulling us back. Finally we reach Haarlem, and eventually the ferry across the Nordzee Canal to Velsen/Beverwijk.
It seems we’ve finally escaped Amsterdam, so we start picking our way north, stopping at a market in Castricum (a town name which disturbs both Alex and I) where we find poffertjes and ham burgers (not hamburgers – these are burgers full of shredded ham, very tasty too). Bergen has a nicely wooded area surrounding it, very unlike the farmland we’ve been in until now. We’ve been passing lots of growing flowers and lettuces and such, but still no tulips. We follow the handy Netherlands cycling numbers (they have numbered junctions, with signposts pointing you to the junction with that number, and general maps at most junctions, showing you where you are, and with all the other numbered junctions too – so you can just write down a list of numbers and follow them to your desired location) up the coast and across to Den Oever, past lots of flowers and farms and tractors, but no tulips still.
From Den Oever we cross the great 30km dyke/bridge. I’m not sure what it should be called, but it’s a very long, very straight bit of road, and it’s easy to cross it quickly as there’s not much else to do. There’s just road, and then sea on either side. With some boats. Oh, and there is a statue and a service station in the middle of it. Otherwise it’s just an awful lot of straight road.
Thirty kilometres later, we keep following numbers, mostly along the coast, which means dykes. Green grassy dykes with sheep on them. As we cycle through Friesland, both in the Netherlands and Germany, the sheep and green grassy dykes are a recurring theme. At least Germany believes in public toilets though.
Distance cycled: approx 614km
Flaginess levels: Moderate (lots of flags and pennants on boats, more common to see regional flags on houses)
Public toilets: Public what? (Virtually non-existent)
Bike friendliness: Very high, bike paths are everywhere, and when there’s no bike path there are bike routes
