Holland - the Ups and Downs

As you would expect of a country as flat as Holland , there are not many ups and downs, but the title appealed to me so we are stuck with it.

It is now Tuesday, and we have cycled ever day for the last 6 days. Not always for very long but every trip has be interesting with its own particular character.

As you saw, our first day was a charming route through the forest and dunes in a very strong north westerly wind.


Fiona in Texel

On Friday we crossed to Texel and cycled all over the island, climbed the lighthouse, went to the top of the highest hill and saw lots of unusual birds (spoon bill, rough legged buzzard to name two)...... in a strong north westerly wind.

The island has a long and varied history. It was one of the last point of the continent to be connected to the UK before the North Sea arrived. It was also a centre of whaling and Den Hoorn, where we stayed, was full of quaint old whaler houses.

On Sunday we returned to the mainland and drove over the huge causeway that crosses the Waddensea to the charming province of Friesland .....and the wind continued to blow.

Oudega -Boat in the centre of the village 

Now Friesland is a little know gem of a place with picturesque villages, a never ending network of canals and lakes full of the most wonderful boats, and very friendly people.

Our cycle ride on Monday took us from our campsite near Oudega down to the coast at Hindeloopen and back by the ferry at Gaastmeer in a strong north westerly wind (for a change).


Hindloopen - old port still on the coast

Fiona inspecting a Lemster Arc

Friendly ferryman at Gaastmeer

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Then on Tuesday we went sailing on the Aleisa Hendrika, a dutch sailing barge built in 1905 and now running trips for cyclist from Heeg to Balk. 

It was a beautiful day and with a spanking northerly.  We sailed down the canals and across the Slotermeer in fine style . As you would expect John bounced about, pulled all the ropes he possible could, and got particularly excited when he was allowed to helm. Fiona was far more helpful and worked her passage with her usual focused skill.

After the wonderful down wind sail , and fixing Fiona's third puncture in 3 days , we cycled north into , you guessed it , the brisk north easterly , back to the van.

Woods around Balk

Fiona marvelling at the canal
over the road

As I write the wind has finally dropped, the mosquitos are coming out , so we head south for France tomorrow...

In The Beginning

We are away!

The one thing worse than packing in a rush is having an unlimited period of time to pack! ...

It was good with 3 weeks to go to get the bikes serviced , and with ten days to go it felt ok to make a pile of stuff in the spare room. Then it got hard and I started to lose the will to live. What is in the pile of cycling clothes? How many gloves are in the 'mountain' bag? Where did I carefully put the passports?  Stress and confusion for all.

But now we are away in Holland and it was all worth while.

With all the stress of packing we have not spend much time actually planning what we would do on the continent. There was one fixed point , meeting up with all the family in Argentiere in July, but we were free to be flexible and go wherever we wanted for rest of the time.

So that is what we are doing. We flexibly changed our pseudo-plan of finishing our holiday with a cycle trip to the Frisian islands and are now starting with it. Today was a practice ride around the dunes near Bergen and it was a great success. The bikes worked well, we did not get lost , and the arguments were kept to an acceptable level as they were only about trivial things, and I always had the last words. ( which were 'Yes dear' without an exclamation mark I might add).

The weather is wild and windy with some big wave.

And the cycling was through spectacular dunes and forests

Off for a beer and some food ... then to Texel tomorrow and hope the 40km/hr wind drop a bit. Still it is not raining much.