The Year of Expeditions.: An Expedition in The Waterlands

One of the reasons that we chose to go to Amsterdam was that Doreen once flew into that city when the tulips were blooming. She thought that this might have been late enough to see them in person. We were planning on biking through the tulip fields.

Sadly, it was too early for the tulips.

So we decided to ride a little closer to the city, and chose a route suggested by National Geographic, but it is a pretty common ride for both tourists and locals.

I have not talked about the weather during these last couple of weeks. I can say one easy thing about it - 47° and overcast. For the whole trip, through three different cities.

But of course, the morning that we decide to ride it is in the 30s. We really hemmed and hawed before we decided to spend the €24 (for two bikes for all day!) and take the risk. Honestly, it was more that we were worried about freezing to death than anything else.

The bikes we got were typical Dutch "granny" bikes. What we would call "girl's" bikes in the US (no top tube) and very, very heavy. Mine was a coaster brake model with no gears, Doreen's had gears. Not sure that made too much of a difference.

But we headed out through the mean streets of Amsterdam. Keep in mind, no other biker cares if your are a tourist or new. They fuss and cuss if you break any of their (sometimes obscure) rules. I suppose that is OK. 47% of Amsterdamers cycle to work. They don't do this for fun, it is an economic decision for them.

But we eventually got to the ferry that would take us out of town.

It was so cold that Doreen had to wear my watchcap! I wore the new hat I had purchased the day before at the market. I was assured it was a Dutch design. It fit really well, and I like it.

I like maps and understanding the logistics of an operation. Doreen is much more of a "seat of her pants" type of rider. So I never really knew exactly where we were going, but I don't think it mattered much. We didn't (really) get lost, and we saw some great things.

Once out of town, we even saw windmills.

and more of those great double leaf bridges that they have in Amsterdam

A lot of the ride was on dikes that kept the sea out of the land. It is sort of hard to capture, but you can see it here:

Notice that the sun did come out.

These are all agricultural fields, and in some of them, they were crazing geese:

We eventually made it to Broek in Waterland, where there is an old, old inn called The White Swan, where we had lunch. Pancakes. Ham and cheese pancakes.

Outside of Broek, we rode across a very small double leaf:

and made it all the way up to what used to be the Zuiderzee (but it was dammed out of the country) and it is now called the Gouzee.

There are plenty of those white swans here in The Netherlands, and sometimes they showed up with rabbits:

We rode on the Gouwzee dike:

This was the far point of the ride. Up to now, we have been riding into the wind, and I can say it was hard going. I was ready to get the wind at my back.

But it was worth it. We saw all sorts of birds, some of which you can see here: