August 5, 2023
Day 16: Sneek to Zurich
- not THAT one!
Of course, we could've made our way to Sneek by bike yesterday rather than taking a pitstop in Leeuwarden last night and finishing by train this morning.
Truth is, hotel prices in Sneek (pronounced Shnake) on this Friday night were around double those of the bigger town so this seemed a neat solution- with the added bonus of having done our (very wet) laundry last night in Leeuwarden.
So this morning, we are up early, have time for a video call with family and get ourselves across the road to the Leeuwarden train station for the 15 minute ride to Sneek. Cycling for the day begins at the Sneek Noord station and takes us out to a lovely wee lake where – eventually - people in hi-viz turn up to erect signs and lay out cones. Hurray, we’re at De Potten parkrun!
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It’s a beautiful lake, as I said, and the course is three times around it. I’m intrigued by the system of aerial pulleys across the lake but, as we’re looping around the course, the water sports centre opens up. People are hiring water-skis then hitching themselves to a pulley in order to ski around the lake. All without the roar of a speedboat. It’s such a peaceful experience for the observer, so different to home.
There’s a café right at the finish line and it’s very pleasant to chat with other parkrun tourists over coffee and cheesecake. Cheesecake? While my back is turned, Bruce has gone into the café to order a surprise. All by himself! When I turn up, the server asks me quite sternly, ‘Are you the wife?’. Hmm. I nod. She shakes my hand and wishes me a happy birthday. When the coffee arrives, she makes sure I have the larger piece of cheesecake. Lovely!
Eventually, we have to move on. Following last Saturday’s post-parkrun template, we cycle into the centre of Sneek, and find a place outdoors to sit, eat and watch. There’s plenty to see too. We’re in the middle of Sneek Week – an annual cultural highlight of this small town. . .or a week of drunken revelry, according to who’s telling the story. This probably explains why accommodation prices were so high for this weekend.
It’s only a short ride to our destination so we have time for another family video call before setting off. With a 10-hour time difference between home and here, birthday calls take some organisation.
We need to get back to the coast so we point our bikes north-west of Sneek for the 90 minute ride. It’s very much as each of recent days in the north of the Netherlands have been - easy riding through small towns and farmland until we reach the tiny hamlet of Zurich and turn left into a motorway service centre, where our hotel is hidden behind the fuel pumps.
Right on arrival at 2pm, there’s a clap of thunder, with the ensuing rain hounding us as we unload the bikes into our small ground-floor room. No fancy hotel storage room for them tonight; they’re locked up in the rain outside our window. We had plans of cycling up the coast to Harlingen later this afternoon for a look-around and dinner but there’s a better way, one that avoids getting wet and sweaty . . .a bus!
This is what we saw -and ate:
Today's ride: 40 km (25 miles)
Total: 839 km (521 miles)
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