and we headed west to Haarlem, a beautiful historic centre with a cobblestone town square, lined with cafes of course,
but the playground on our way in was probably the kids favourite part.
The next part of our journey looked easy on paper - just follow the path up the coast - but our many wrong turns added significant mileage to the day. At one point we found ourselves at the dock for the giant ferry to Newcastle, England which would really have been a detour. It was a bit of an industrial port, much less scenic than our previous routes,
but variety is good too and it was interesting to bike by the giant factories, and across the series of bridges over the locks.
When we finally got to the town of Wiijk an Zee we were happy to see a sign for a campground, and even happier when we saw the quiet but lovely site with a small playground, where we could catch up on our journals and castle building.
We met some other cyclists and absolutely loved the cycle car one camper had, powered only by pedals.
We've seen several of these futuristic bullet-shaped projectiles on the road, they are incredibly fast and perfect for travelling in the flat Netherlands. We decided we should get five of them and travel in a convoy for our next trip - Jacob suggested we converge in stealth attack mode on anyone in our way.
When camping we often don't arrive at a site until 7 or even 8, but thanks to the many hours of daylight there is still plenty of time left to set up our tents and prepare our meals, though it means the kids don't go to sleep until 11 or later some nights. The advantage works in the morning too - when I got up at 5 am because I was so cold (we decided not to spend the money on a cold weather sleeping bag - back in Toronto with a heated home and warm duvet it didn't seem like we really needed it) there was lots of light for me to go on an early morning walk around the dunes, up to the scenic viewpoint where I could watch the sunrise, somewhat unscenically over the industrial complex we'd cycled past the day before.
and the next morning after feeding us breakfast to power our journey she and the younger three went off for their regular 10 km bike ride to school
- meaning her 10 year old has a 20 km daily cycle commute. Pretty impressive.
I was freezing most of the night, and when I heard the patter of rain on the tent and noticed the light of dawn I decided to get up and get ready to go. I called to Paul (he was sleeping in our leaky two person tent - not so good on rainy nights, but does provide some sleeping freedom) that we should all just get up now and pack up before it rained too much. He replied that it was not even 5 in the morning so maybe not such a good idea. I went for a morning walk to try and keep warm and was rewarded with another sunrise - I've probably seen more sunrises on this trip than I have in the past ten years or more.
After a camping breakfast of bread and peanut butter, fruit and cheese, we packed up, the kids diligently helping as usual,
and set off for our ride up the coast to Groet, where Monique, another generous host we met through the warmshowers website, awaited us. The ride was different from what we'd already seen of the Netherlands - the flat fields, canals and farm animals replaced by scrub covered dunes and grazing bison.
It was a fairly short ride with the wind at our back, though we took time for a short picnic on top of the dunes on our way.
We arrived in the tiny and lovely village of Groet in time for the kids to play a game of soccer with the children and for Paul and I to chat with Monique and her partner Rembrandt about their cross Canada walking and hitchhiking adventure and their previous year where they and their four children lived self-sufficiently in a village in France. Monique took us on an evening walk through the dunes so we could stroll the shore of the chilly North Sea
Monique also recommended that we check out a website called couchsurfing, so with her as a reference we sent out a message to the family forum about our planned itinerary, and ever since we have been flooded with offers to stay with people. It will make a nice change from camping but even better is the chance to meet local families.
Our next stop was Enkhuizen on the opposite coast, it was raining when we arrived so we went to the library for some down time, then to the campsite where the reception was closed so we were able to stay for free. We set up our tents and relaxed for a few minutes
before heading into town to have a quick dinner in the old centre and see the marina
to check out the ferry schedule.
The rest of the family did get up relatively early as we had planned to take an 8:30 ferry across the waters to the province of Friesland, but the high cost of the ferry and favourable winds made us decide to cycle 30 km across the dike instead. We love crossing the scenic bridges in the Netherlands, like the little one in Enkhuizen
but to be able to cycle such a massive stretch over the water was amazing. We started out up the hill and past windmills to the entrance of the highway,
the kids thrilled to watch hundreds of bunnies scampering across the grass and into their burrows. The cycle path started off right next to the road,
but had long stretches separated by an embankment where it was just us, the water and the seabirds.
We often need to cycle single file so it was nice to be able to ride together for a change.
We made such good time that we decided to cycle the rest of the 80 km to Weeribben National Park, a bit of a gruelling journey, especially the last part where it rained as we got lost trying to find a campsite, so that we were all the more grateful to arrive at the camping cabins in Kuiner just outside the park. Cold but dry and with nice comfy bunk beds and a restaurant where we enjoyed hot waffles and apple cake with cinnamon ice cream the next night.
We spent two nights at the cabin so we could have a full day to explore the national park. On our short cycle to the park we were beset by hail, and some of us (me) were not in high spirits when we got to the park and sat shivering and wet eating our packed lunch at a picnic table. But we rented a canoe and a kayak and once we hit the water the sun came out and it turned into a beautiful warm day. The landscape around us was different - a fairly small river with branching canals,
(Tom not looking happy at the beginning- he took a few minutes to get accustomed to being in a canoe again)
some of which were lined with trees,
and others amidst reeds
- the same reeds that are regularly harvested and used for the country's thatched roof houses
but as we paddled we felt a little bit like we were back in Ontario.
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