Sunshine and bike riding!

---

---

Once it was time to leave Amsterdam on our bikes the sun was out and shining brightly. Perfect timing. The plan: ride north to the giant dyke, ride across, then head back south. No big deal, right?

The first day of riding lead us along the Markermeer (the bay-like body of water above Amsterdam. The ride was quite breezy with a constant Easterly wind. We now understand, from a first-hand perspective why there are so many windmills in the Netherlands... wind is a plentiful resource here.

The riding was, as usual, flat. No hills in sight. After battling some headwinds and crusing along with tailwinds we decided that the wind acted as Holland's "hills." Our bike paths took us along the dyke which held the water out of the land. The dyke appeared as a small grassy knoll between our path and the water. Often these little grassy areas were public, and we could climb on top to see the water (which was at higher elevation than the ground on the other side). Other times they were private areas for sheep to graze. An efficient use of the land. We often passed Harbors filled with sailboats (again, utilizing that generous wind).

The first night we camped at what appeared to be a trailerpark, just north of Hoorn. We occupied an otherwise vacant lot between two trailers. The people were friendly and the ground was flat. What more could you ask for? Maybe a hot shower. That, however, was not possible. After a frigid shower we made some pasta with tuna and turned in for the night. We needed our rest for the next day.

We woke up just in time to pack up and check out. Yes... some campsites here require checking out. This day we continued our little shortcut away from the coast heading dead north of Hoorn, and meeting up with the coast again at Medemblik. This was a quaint little coastal(?) town with a nice marina and a cute but touristy main drag. From here we headed up to the start of the longest dyke imaginable... don't even try, you can't imagine its length. Along the way we passed the usual sheep, cows, and windmills.

Then... the dyke. This proved to be a great test of our thighs, will, and morale. It seems we didn't quite do enough research to learn about the pravailing winds that ended up blowing against us for the entire 18 mile stretch across this artificial land mass. Nothing exists here but a highway, a bike path, and 2 or 3 rest stops along the way, with one gas station. There is one or two slight bends in the road, but it is otherwise dead straight. If ever you have the desire to bike across this dyke, go the other way.

Not 1 mile past the end of the dyke we found our campsite near a small town called Cornwerd. A farm with a grassy area to pitch tents, we thought. The farmer only spoke Dutch and German, so we got to practice our German a bit. To our surprise there were showers, toilets, and a kitchen for our use. Quite a nice establishment for €13.

The next morning (today, actually) we decided to head in towards Sneek just so we could find the internet so we could update all of you.

Hope September is treating you all well. Vaarwel!

-Paul and Sara

---

Photos

The dyke
Paul standing on the endless dyke.

Windmills
...as far as the eye can see.

Holland Forests
The last stand of trees that we will see for 20 miles as we bike across the biiiig dyke.

Comments

[Mom]

great Blog!
This is fun! What a great way to keep us informed, and you have details written down while they are still fresh in your mind. I look forward to your next entry. Looks like the weather is cooperating so far - Just out of curiousity, why are you headed North?