Netherlands bike ride with Debbie and Dan 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 September 

6 days riding, 300 kilometres, around Lake Ijsselmeer, north of Amsterdam .

This ride was generally fun and sometimes, surprisingly, hard work.  We experienced all seasons most days, or should we say most hours. We had plenty of head winds, the occasional tail wind, rain, sun and everything in between.  We saw some lovely villages, lots of canals, dikes, bridges and boats of all sorts, windmills, polder and more polder.  The food was quite nice and very plentiful.   We grew very familiar with Dutch apple cake and various delicious cheeses.

Traditional Dutch boats in a village harbour

Dike and polder!  A polder is a tract of low land reclaimed from a body of water.

Marken

A traditional lifting bridge.

Canal, Edam.

Joy's birthday at De Fortuna, Edam.  A special meal and a day to remember. 

Windmill!

A street scene Hoorn.

Yarning at the Zuiderzee museum, Enkhuizen.

Five Gapers at the Museum - used to indicate pharmacists in the Netherlands.

Cheese anyone!

Taking a ferry ride across a river.

Imagine our surprise when we saw groups of Dutch folk singers, singing English and Irish sea shanties at a festival.

Boat ride under the high bridges and past thatched houses in the lovely town of Giethoorn.

Saw a lot of wild roosters around and finally worked out that they were cattle grids.

We started and ended the journey in the forest.  Even encountered a bit of a hill here, on the last day.

The triumphal return to Mooi Veluwe, Putten.