I return triumpant from my week l;ong journey into the deepest, darkest, greenest heart of north holland, spending 8 days out with 6 full days riding. My journey started with a rainfull amble over to Haarlem, which surprisingly did not look at all like Harlem, NYC. But, i did get a coffee and got me and my stuff waterproofed for the onward journey, which ended up being further west as i got lost.
After some gripping, headed north. Took a free ferry across a large canal, and the rains seemed to had let up at that point. I also started the long northern strech through the Dune Reserves (http://www.northseatrail.org/show_single_article.php?article_id=2595&lang=uk&) partly a protection from flodding, partly naturally created but 100% beautiful and nice to bike through. Stopped for my first night of camping in Petten. The enxt day went to the tippy top of the mainland to Den Helder where i caught the ferry across to one of the many north sea islands that are part of the Netherlands, Texel.
Texel is small so i burned through Texel as i was secrelty trying to get to Vlieland, which i did after waiting around a while for the little, little ferry. The island if Vlieland (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlieland) is small, and about half is all sand, which we had to traverse in a large truck that took us from the ferry 10km inland to the little depot. From there, i hit a nature camping spot and also stumbled into the one and only town on the island, Oost-Vlieland where i got me a dark, dark, strong belgium beer. Yum!! Vlieland was so nice i decided to take a day reast and wander the island, canberry bogs and beaches and the one town, and well thats about all there was. It was biking heaven there, nearly no cars.
But duty called and i headed east to make my way deep into the heart of north holland, from Harlingen to Leeuwarden and finally to the univeristy city of Groningen (http://gemeente.groningen.nl/english), where i camped a night. being that i was really tired i decided to do one of my longest days, heading south south south all the way down to Vlisteren, a nothing town with a big church and anature camping site which turned out to not be free the way i had thought they were, so it turned out that i simply just didnt pay in Vlieland...
Anywho, i wanted to get to Utrecht so the next day i headed out once again for another 10 hours of biking, south and then west thrugh Apeldoorn to Amersfoort (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amersfoort) where i ended up staying since Utrecht didnt have any campsites, and Amersfoort was really nice. Nice enough that i spent two nights there, and while this time i knew i had to pay, i couldnt, the office was never open. Oh well.
The next day i breezed through Utrecth, in fact, i went around it, through the really cool named town of Meerkerk (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meerkerk) and onward to the bustling, new, clean city of Rotterdam (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotterdam). Most of the city has been rebuilt after heavy destruction during WWII, and they did a nice job, a lot nicer than my next stop, Den Haag (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hague). (I did pass through Deflt but didnt see much). Den Haag was dirty, and didnt give off a good vibe, i had wanted to find the International Tribunal and sit in on session, but i decided to skip town and instead ehad towards Leiden. Before i got there though, i decided to camp a night on the lake at Vlietland.
Finally, headed off to Leinden (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leiden), a very charming little city, old and with canals like Amsterdam. In fact, they claim the second most canals after Amsterdam but i didnt count. I did get a really HUGE cup of coffee at this place which caught my attention right away, Bagels and Beans (http://www.bagelsbeans.nl/). I recommend them when in the Netherlands, they make really big coffees. Anywho, from there it was a skip, hop and a jump back to Amsterdam, 8 days after i had left. Now i am back in the library trying to figure out what to do next, as the world seems pretty open right now. I do know wherever i go i might not do it on a bike, at least for a few days to allow certain parts of my body to recover.
Biking in The Netherlands is very simple, i barley even needed the maps i had gotten, there are so many signs, routes, paths, tracks, etc that sometimes it seems its harder to get around if you had a car. Also, the biggest hill i ever had to climb was a bridge over a canal. I spent a week and could spend another, but i shant. If you are thinking of a trip, even if you dont realyl bike, its so easy to do it, i did it on a rented granny bike with 3 gears and a pack on my back.
Info about biking in the Netherlands: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cycling_in_the_Netherlands
This has a map nearly of the same trip i did, but not quite: http://www.micquality.com/cycling/cycling_netherlands/
Well, i suppose thats all for now, just wanted to spread the word about my biking, my long week, the fantastical journey, i cant belive only a little more than a week agao i was still a PCV in Cabo Verde. Life moves on.
Till next time from somewhere in the world, ta ta
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