Finally, home... Back to the campsite, a warm shower, the prospect of being dry, packs off, food, sleep.
Let's wind back 12 hours -
It's 9:30am, the sun is out, it's a wonderful day, and we have just adjusted the seats on our rental bikes. Map strapped to the handlebars and we were off.
The destination was Edam, the small cheese village some 20km north of Amdam. Glorious purpose built cycleways all the way there.
We took the scenic route which lazily weaved its way through small villages, amongst green pastures, and along small canals; some of which were only held back from the cycleway by a shallow dyke.
Our bikes themselves were classic Dutch Style, sit upright, with big handlebars and back peddle brakes. Built for comfort, not speed... Unfortunately!
As we cycled on it became apparent that the cycleway we were on was better maintained, and altogether nicer than the adjacent roads. New Zealand could take a few notes on how to reduce congestion and increase fitness levels.
The heat of the sun was taking its toll on what appeared to be our blood sugar levels. At least that's what we convinced ourselves was a good excuse for a Dutch Chocolate break.
Ahead was 'CHEESE AND CLOGS' in 10ft letters, sounds good to us. We decided that one person should do a choc run, in what appeared to be a dairy/ motorway pitstop, while the other stayed with the bikes. I was nominated chocolate getter, but as I entered I realised that 'Irene Hoeve' was actually a cheese and clog making farm/ tourist trap.. I guess it did what it said on the box!
So I pretended to bowse, grab the chocolate, inquired about the toilet, and left. Not before the friendly shop girl offered cheese tastings, which I accidentally symultainiously over spoke, interrupting her explaining that I only want the chocolate. Awkward.
Laura's turn, she too toileted, and was asked not only to try some cheese but to also view a clog making demonstration. Since we had only purchased a €2 chocolate and defined their establishment twice we both felt this was more than fair.
It turned out to be amazing, the demonstration consisted of a guy explaining properly the history and reason for clogs, whilst hand cutting a piece of wood into what would eventually become a left hand shoe for a child.
After this is was time to move on. However, two minutes into our ride we realised that the forecast rain might actually become reality.
We peddled hard (remember I have no gears) to try and out run the looming blacks clouds. It was futile. We had to stop and rain jacket up!
Ahead was a bus shelter that we managed to duck under just as the rain started to fall. There we huddled for 15 minutes with a Dutch family and their dog Strudle (I assume it was called Strudle).
After the worst had subsided we contined on, and shortly after reached Edam, relatively dry.
Edam is an incredibly cute little town. Small and lazy, the buildings by the central canal are all miss matched and crooked.
We came for the cheese market, but unfortuantely by the time we watched a guy making wooden shoes and huddled from the rain, we missed it by all of half and hour. So we had to settle for Feugreek Cheese with local salami by the river... What a hard life.
After lunch and a quick break for my new favourite drink - Esspresso - we moved on, in what I would now called rain, to Volendam. Rain on a bike sucks. Because you're in a seated position it all pools at your crotch, not nice. Luckily the picturesque seaside village was only a few kilometres away, and even more luckily the rain subsided as we arrived.
Tourist shops and cheese was again the name of the game. We tasted all the delicious cheese we could until it became obvious that we were just hanging around. In saying that, deciding on which cheese to by is a very important decision, not to be taken lightly. We had our round, glorious Gouda, now we were thirsty. Time to find a much deserved Trappist Beer from a local fishers pub.
Now if anyone know Dad's story of biking in Holland and Trappist Beers you can imagine how the next part of the story goes. Bare in mind our beers were 10% each!
It wasn't as bad a drunkenly getting lost and sleeping it off in a tulip field, by that might have something to do with the very sobering fact of having 20km to cycle in what was by that stage pissing rain (scientific term).
There was no other way around it but to just get on with it. It took about 10kms for the water to penetrate through to my nether regions, and by that stage it was very unpleasant. The rain drove on, and Laura and I slowly continued towards Amsterdam with the knowledge that with every revolution we were one pedal closer to a hot shower.
For the most part we elected to skip the scenic route and head along the 'cycle highways' that run along side the actual motorways. It was at roughly the 10km mark too that Laura informs me that her tiny legs are struggling. This happened to be on the aforementioned cycle highway. So, with 3km of dead straight, a head wind, blinding rain, and still no gears, I put my arm behind Laura's back, dug deep, and told her not to peddle until we reached the next town.
The rest was a rain addled blur, until we looked ahead an saw a sigh '< Amsterdam 2'. So I headed left, Laura was trying to yell something through the now very loud downpour, but I was wet through and just wanted home.
It wasn't until another few kilometres that I realised what I didn't hear Laura say; we don't want to go to Amsterdam, we want to go to the suburb of Zeeburg...
Fortunately for me we were able to weave through suburbia using only my internal compas and return to the correct trajectory. I narrowly escaped trouble!
The clouds began to part much to our exuberance, and we could see the city before us. One last push over the bridge by the campsite and we were finally, home... Back to the campsite, a warm shower, the prospect of being dry, packs off, food, sleep.
Labels: Amsterdam 2016
