July 23, 2013
Day 5: Near den Oever to Harlingen, Friesland
Even though of course there was no table provided with our patch of grass, Several were set up in the barn yard. This allowed us to cook and eat our oatmeal in comfort, and since it was 6:00 a.m., in the cool as well. We set off through our last bit of North Holland, on the way to the Afsluitsdyke. As with most of Holland, this is an agricultural area, and we passed fields of flowers underr cultivation, as well as lots of sheep and cows.
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The way led through the small village of Hippolytushoef, and here again we were struck by the wonderful livability of this region. The village had a grocery store fully stocked with great fruits and vegetables, cheese, buns, and generally the foods dear to our hearts. It was on a street - the street - of town, with small very cute houses and shops and in the middle a little square with a little church. You could walk to any part of "downtown", or if you needed hyper speed - go by bike.
As we passed out of town we were sort of in the suburbs, with beautiful neat houses, surrounded by flowers, and with the fields just across the road. Te whole thing, especially the town, gave me the feeling of being in a fairy tale. Watch out, though, I have made the same claims for Rottweil, in Germany, the upper Rhine, all of Austria, in fact I guess most of Europe.
As we neared the dike we encountered more and more long distance tourers. All that we talked to turned out to me touring for one to three weeks around their own country - Netherlands. This makes sense, because why would you ever want to leave cycling heaven?
We set out over the dike, whose construction cut off the Zuiderzee andd created the semi-fresh water Isjelmeer. A 30 km dam is quite something, and is credited to a fellow named Lely. A third of the way across there is a monument to the man, not to mention that the city of Lelystad is named after him.
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Up to this point, the temperature which started at 18 hadd moved to 24 and then stalled a bit. This gave us hope for a moderate day. No such luck, and after the slight hiccup the mercury went to 34 degrees. We were confident though. Not only did we have water, but we remembered a great restaurant 3/4 of the way across. Visions of a cool interior and hot apple geback spurred us on. Unfortunately our memory, already having taken a hit at Alkmaar, was faulty again. That restaurant must have been on the other darn dike (the Markermeer dike). So we reached the other side, but seriously wilted (again!). We found another (highly inferior) restaurant, though, and it effectively supplied shade plus a cold water tap e.g. all the essentials!
As we were leavinng the restaurant we ran in to Vitser an exuberant young man who was out for a roller blade from Makkum to Harlingen. He said he was really a runner but had injured his foot, so he was taking this easy exercise. He then shot off and we scarcely saw him again. We retain our status as the slowest thing on the path that does not have horseshoes and a tail.
Before we set out on this trip we made a policy decision that whenever it came to a choice, we wouuld press on, rather than wimp out. So we looked at the map for beyond the dike and spotted camping Termunterzijl. We were headed there when we stumbled across camping Zeehoeve. From the path we could see that this was a deluxe choice. There is a large restaurant, cabins, tent sites with tables, laundry, and a maybe swimmable canal nearby. We looked up our policy book, and it said "press on", so we hung a sharp right, into the restaurant, of course. Sorry Tony (see guestbook for Tony's comments) on camping near here.
Yes, and talk about luxury. The washrooms have toilet paper and the sinks have paper towels, No way! The other sign that we are in the major leagues is that all off our neighbour cyclists have Hilleberg tents. Hilleberg tents are super, with large vestibule areas. They are hand built in Sweden (or Estonia) by a single worker, whose name you are given, in case you have any issues. All you need to get one is about 800 euros. I looked at the 50 cent piece in my hand, looked at the tents, and went to squander my resources on a shower!
Tonight we are dining on Canadian noodles again, but there is something else. Real bread and real cheese. Plus juice that has chunks of the fruit in it. In Europe, wholesome food is the norm, and it is soo good. And oh, raw snow peas. One time when we bought snow pea seeds they were labelled "hor lon dow", which is a chinese-ization of Holland peas. How strange that he peas we bought today came from Zimbabwe!
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As soon as we crossed the dike we had left Holland and entered Friesland. Friesland has its own culture and language , though it is part of Netherlands. The flag is a bit strange, as it looks like a field of hearts, like "I heart Friesland". But these red shapes are actually supposed to be water lillies, or something. Anyway the Friesland flag is everywhere, and now even on Dodie's handlebar bag!
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One of our Hilleberg owning neighbours, Lammert (and Akke) van Veen, is actually from Friesland, though they have moved to den Haag. He explains that there are 11 major towns in Friesland, and a major event is a canal skate, of 200 km, among all 11, a distance of 200 km - that must be done in 24 hours. Lammert has done it twice! They use speed skating skates, not hockey skates. Lammert also says that this circuit is also done by boat, by roller blade, and etc etc.
While talking to Lammert, I heard in the distance "You came from Canada? By bike?" I assumed this was Dodie talking to someone, because ten times a day we hear this little joke. But no, it was Peter, another neighbour. He and Barbara are actually from Victoria! And no, they did not come all that way by bike - they walked. Their project is a walking tour of Friesland. We had fun talking to them too - with their ultralight backpacking gear. Peter said to me, about sleeping pads, that we do not have to care about weight. Well of course thay was news to me, but it's all relative. To a backpacker our bikes must look as good as a car for carrying stuff.
Today's ride: 70 km (43 miles)
Total: 226 km (140 miles)
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