Thursday 8 August 2019

May the wind be with you.

The prevailing wind is a pest
Cause it blows hard from the southwest.
It hindered our pace
Cause it blew in our face
And now we don't half need a rest!




Days 56 - 60       Distance 266 km

Lubeck - Amsterdam

Well, we thought Lubeck was impressive with its ancient buildings, but Bremen was even more amazing. 


And we ate some very good pea soup here in front of the huge cathedral...


And of course, it is the home of the Town Musicians of Bremen - a 12th century fairytale retrieved and republished by the Brothers Grimm in 1819. 

(Yes, Steve really IS wearing those sunglasses in public...)

We left the manic holiday buzz of Germany behind us and entered a very refreshingly peaceful Holland - our 10th country. The campsites were small, family-run affairs where nothing was too much trouble, the toilets were manually operated, and the traffic was minimal ...



The Dollard route takes you on endless cycle paths along the man-made dykes that keep the North Sea from flooding these flatlands, and weaves in and out through numerous sleepy villages, where, if you're lucky you might even find some frikandel, and chips with mayonnaise...


We were delighted to discover that the 32km cycle path across the Afsluitdijk - a man-made feat of engineering built between 1927 and 1933, was closed due to maintenance works and you had to go on a free bus instead. The wind was so strong that day it would have taken us all day to cycle it and all the next to recover!


We also camped by the quaint town of Edam, full of canals, wonky buildings and luckily for us, the weekly cheese market - with reenactments of how the market was in the middle ages...




And on to Amsterdam. And it is cycles paths and waterways all the way - right into the campsite that's just a tram ride from the city centre. I feel a city tour coming on without the bikes...and hopefully without any rain!

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