After 'The Big Crash' we arrived by train into Holland in the city of Dordrecht. We were both tired and Sarah was pretty sore, but the campsite we were staying at was really friendly. We were camped between two cycle tourers; a Basque guy and a Belgian girl so it was fun to chat about our adventures and take our minds off the rather stressful day we'd had.
Sarah wasn't too stiff the next morning and was keen to keep moving, so we headed off into the very Dutch, and very flat, landscape of windmills and canals. Passing through the city of Rotterdam we started to get an impression of just how good Dutch cycleways were - complete with their own centrelines, traffic lights and place signs.
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| Delft |
As we got closer to our destination for the day it became obvious there was some sort of party on in the pretty town of Delft. We had a bit of a run in with a guy who obviously had a problem with foreigners and/or couldn't handle the strong local beers. He grabbed the small NZ flag we'd been flying on my bike the whole trip as we went past. After some heated words I got it back without being 'thrown in the canal', but it rattled the both of us.
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| Flower fields and rainstorms |
The next couple of days we made our way to Amsterdam via the coast along some beautiful cycleways in the sand dunes. One evening we woke in the middle of the night to a huge thunderstorm. The next couple of hours were spent hoping the tent wouldn't get struck by lightening and wouldn't leak in the heavy rain. We survived and the sun even came out in the morning to dry us out.
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| Rush hour in Amsterdam |
Next stop was Amsterdam where we'd booked into a hotel for a couple of nights. It took a bit of convincing the hotel staff that we weren't going to leave our bicycles out on the street, especially in a city where around 200 bicycle thefts are reported every day. We eventually broke them down and they let us store them in the hotel room with us.
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| The Anne Frank House is the one with the green doors in the centre |
After seeing the massive queues for the Anne Frank House we looked at the online ticket sales and somehow scored two tickets for the first entry the next day. It was great to look around the house before it filled up with visitors - it was very moving but obviously quite small! The rest of the day we spent following a self-guided walking tour I'd found online; taking us to the Jordaan area, Dam Square, Central Station, and the Red Light District.
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| Typical Amsterdam scenes |
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| Body painter getting a telling off in Dam Square |
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| Dam Square |
The next day was rainy and grey so we decided to check out the Van Gogh Museum. Unfortunately we didn't get as lucky with the crowds as we had at the Anne Frank House the previous day. It was full to the gills and I had had enough after about 15 minutes. Sarah managed to keep me going around the whole museum but I can't say it was a pleasant experience, even with the masterpieces everywhere. Dinner at a Turkish fusion place and the next day we were on our way southeast as the Amsterdam suburbs slowly morphed into canals and dairy farms.
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| Epic Dutch cycleways |
We eventually got onto the Rhine River cycleway which we planned to follow into Germany right up to Switzerland. Our last camp in Holland was at a family run campground about 20km from the German border. The family was really friendly and gave us the prime spot right on the waterfront away from the summer holiday crowds. It was pretty interesting watching the barges go past on the Rhine with all sorts of stuff - a sign of the industrial areas we'd soon be cycling through,
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| I'm guessing there's a John Deere tractor factory somewhere up the river... |
Next stop, Germany.
- David
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