Day 29 Amsterdam, Netherlands - A Visit to the North Sea

Tony's View

We started out earlier this morning and had the opportunity to see what rush traffic is all about in Netherlands. We soon entered The Hague, Netherlands which is over 1/2 million people, the third largest city, and the administrative centre of Netherlands. We went right through it and there were bicycles everywhere. Here in the picture, we were waiting on a traffic light. There were as many or more behind us. Actually, coming into this signal, there was a little kid. The little kid was probably 6 years old on a little bicycle, reminded me of our Grandson Luke. He was holding his own, but his dad was right there watching. They learn early here.

It was hectic but exciting at the same time. Pictures were hard to get. I said something about interchanges and bicycles merging in from a direction yesterday and was joking. Oh boy, it was real. You needed to be on high alert and look in every direction. What a cool experience that these people go through every morning. The Hague was a beautiful city on the North Sea. It had a very modern looking downtown.

We finally were able to relax as we headed out of the rush traffic and saw this tower. I wondered what it was, so we pulled over and found out it was to treat brackish water. I took a picture and also a picture of the explanation of how it works. Thought all you geeks reading this would enjoy. 😕😏

We start bicycling through the sand dunes. It was neat to be able to cycle through them. There was a parking lot for bicycles that took you to a beach. It was very cool this morning, so it was empty.

We each waited by the bike so that we could climb up the sand dune and see it. Here are some pictures of the North Sea. 

The beach was beautiful and went on for miles. There was a tractor out in the water cleaning something up, so I took a picture to show you. 

Also, on this very cool morning I took a picture of some swimmers getting ready to go in. They must not think it was too cold.  We are in Europe, amazing.

On the way back to the bicycle, I took a picture of downtown The Hague. The second picture was from a different climb and lookout. 

Riding the bike through the sand dunes was up and down, with more climbing than we expected. We both did agree it was worth it. 

We finished with the North Sea and started heading to Amsterdam. Then the chain popped off, so we got off the bicycle and fixed it.

Further down the road we made this sharp turn, and I almost lost it. The front tire felt like it was flipping off making handling scary. We got off and you could see the tire's sidewall was splitting by the rim. Thinking it was okay until we get to the next Airbnb, we decided to pump it up and see if we could make it. 

We ended up getting less than a mile down the road and it was going flat again. I found a bench and we sat the bike on the bench to make taking the front tire off easier. It was time to get the second new tire out with a new tube. This is the first time after all these trips that we had to use a spare tire, but we always carry them. Yes, we used both this trip. Looking back, we have more than 6,000 miles on these tires, and I usually change them every 2-3 thousand miles. Another thing to think about in the future. We did get it changed, only this time it wasn't raining, and it was cool outside. Yes, we did get a picture. When we break down, Joan hops off and gets a picture. 

A little later, it felt like the back tire was low. Maybe just imagining it, but I did stop and pump it up. Made me feel better. Along the bike path you could smell onions and yes, they were harvesting them. Our daughter Marla loves onions. The next field they were harvesting purple onions.

We stopped for lunch. While we were sitting on the picnic tables by our bicycle, it started to rain. We dodged rain yesterday and kind of dodged it today. It only rained while we were eating lunch. We were using a chair as a table so that we could watch the bicycle in the rain. 

Traveling into Amsterdam we saw several of these unique bicycle bridges, so we needed to take a picture for you to enjoy😊👍

A couple miles left, and we found this dog looking over the bridge at all these bikers going by. Had to take a couple of pictures. First one is a rendition of the saying, "just be the dog." A saying that our friend Kurt Barhorst uses on me to say, "live in the moment." Life is about the journey not the destination. Trying my best, Kurt. 

The second picture is making fun of our dog Luna. She is always on the lookout for squirrels or whatever she needs to protect us from. 😆😜She's protecting Marla and Nick right now from squirrels, groundhogs, rabbits, etc.

This Airbnb might be the toughest fit we have ever had to get our bicycle in. We had to bring the bicycle through their house to get to our room which is off their back courtyard. Had to move some of their furniture to make it happen. In fact, the door to our place is so small the bike needs to stay in the courtyard. The door is less than 2 feet wide. 

Joan's Extras

Glad that we rode the extra miles along the North Sea today, but also glad that Tony only routed us for a portion of the way on the North Sea instead of the full route. Lots of fairly strong winds in our face along the sea. The wind could even slow our momentum going downhill, which with our total bike weight is strong considering that we normally fly down hills.

Also, glad that Amsterdam was much easier to ride into than Cologne. I think it was a lady in Cologne that told us how crazy the bike traffic is in Amsterdam. She repeated over and over, "It's just crazy'" Seemed similar to lots of other Netherland cities to us. Tony also did a great job steering our beast of a bike today. Maybe he is broken in now. 😊

Dinner tonight was sushi at one of the many restaurants nearby. Sushi is a favorite in our family, so we were thinking of all of them as we were devouring it.