Friday 21 August 2009

We are having to catch up on the blog as most of our time has been spent cycling, surprisingly enough. We are actually now in Kristiansand Norway but here is the post for the Netherlands which was largely flat, Very flat! The Dutch cycle in a big way, there are cycle lanes everywhere but be warned as they are often shared by mopeds too, which makes for some interesting close shaves. At times I felt like I'd be safer taking my chances on the road with the cars as everyone seems so comfortable riding their bikes that they don't seem to think you need much space. Bikes in the Netherlands seem very much the vehicle to use so they are all cyclists, not enthusiastic lycra clad types, it's just a part of everyday life. In the cities there are bike garages where, for a small fee, you can leave your bike for the day and into the evening. Very handy for us as we camped a short cycle ride out of the city in Amsterdam cycling in each day, leaving our bikes at the garage to explore the sights and smells. Resuming the route in Harlem the much of the riding was flat alongside the dyke.
Lovely stretches of coastline, even if the flatness starts to get a bit monotonous after a while. We stayed a lot in campsites, which seemed to fall into two categories with the 'small' campsites being family run affairs, cheaper and more suitable for us with our tents. There are also larger sites which are exactly that and you're more likely to see electric hookups and caravans etc. On the whole camping was pretty cheap in the Netherlands expect to pay between 5-7 Euros for the smaller campsites. We found them to be friendlier affairs and some would have their own eggs for sale or berries you could pick.



Additionally to the route we initially decided to take in some islands, it's possible to island hop before returning to the main route. We travelled to Texel via bike where we stayed a night only to find that the next day the small ferry wouldn't leave till five in the evening and was fully booked till the next day. Some of these smaller ferries are used fairly frequently by locals with vehicles. Take this as a warning, if time is no object they are worth a look, however it can be tricky lining up space on a ferry with your riding times. We begrudgingly returned the way we had come rather than waste a day on an island fairly exposed to the elements. The islands are quite windswept and flat with sand dunes, beautiful but very exposed. Back on the mainland, we had an amazingly strong tail wind which got us across the 30km or so 'Afsluitdijk' in 50 minutes (with a short break!) I pity anyone who was riding the opposite way and some people have told us that it took them three hours to cross. Lucky us!