The Old and the Restless

What does one do after finishing a two week bike and barge tour? Rent a bike at the Amsterdam Central Railway Station and explore the area just north of Amsterdam, called The Waterland! Pretty Durgerdam is the first seaside town north of Amsterdam harbour. Looking inland from a dike at the reflection of the threatening Dutch sky. A rest stop by the lake in Zuiderwoude Crossing the bridge leaving Zuiderwoude in the Waterland. We stopped for lunch at an old inn in Broek in Waterland that specialized in Dutch pancakes or crepes. Paul's cheese and mushroom crepe looked to him like a pizza.

Dutch humour? What you can do with your worn out wooden shoes. Beautiful thatched-roof houses lined the canal in some of the towns. Houses like this were built ouside of Amsterdam in the heyday of the Dutch empire by the rich who acquired their wealth in Indonesia.

Leaving Bruges; The return trip to Amsterdam took a slightly different route. Some of the towns such as Ghent were re-visited, but at a different time of day. For example, this time we spent an afternoon in Ghent rather than the evening. The sheep seemed to be eating the onions. Does this give extra flavour? Some mornings we sailed to the next place to begin the day's cycling. It was interesting to watch the heavy river traffic. If there was fog in the morning, the barge couldn't leave until the fog lifted. It had radar but would have needed a second skipper to use the radar. Going Through a Lock: Bas, the chef, secured the barge to the side of the lock. Often several other boats tied up to us as we waited for the lock to fill. Bruinisse is a town known for its fresh salt herring. You hold it by the tail, suspending it above your mouth to eat it. Willemstad, which owes its name to the first William of Orange, was built as a fortified town. The Biesbioch Nature Reserve: Ap...

As we crossed over the first bridge leading into Bruges we went through elaborate gardens. A building that looked like a convent was for unmarried daughters who tended the sick and the poor. In the 15th century Bruges came under the rule of the Dukes of Burgundy who brought luxury and prosperity to the city. Every five years there is a celebration of the Burgundian period. We happened to be in Bruges on the day of the celebration. These pictures are from part of the 4 hour parade which wound through the town. As well as bands, there were choirs and dancers in the parade.

On the 70 km trip from Ghent to Bruges we passed our barge, The Sailing Home, as it was going up the canal.

The old city of Ghent, with its (now landlocked) city centre harbour is magnificent. The canals are lined with medieval architecture. Now it is a lively university town with busy squares and cosy pubs. The Treaty of Ghent formally ended the war of 1812 between Great Britain and the United States. I read that it was a totally useless war because nobody won. The main losers were the Native Peoples. In Canada we think it was an important war. Gravensteen, a medieval castle, is in the centre of town. We chose not to tour the torture chamber.

From Middelburg, we descended the canal in a convoy, passing through locks and bridges to Vlissingen (for which Flushing in New York is named), until we reached the salt water Schelde River. It was a rapid ride through Dutch Flanders to the Belgium border where the local "Homeland Security" force to greet us was non existant. Then, it was on through a Belgian nature reserve where an old man stopped us to ask which countries we were from. We variously replied; Germany, United States, Iceland and Canada. When he heard Canada, he told us he had been liberated by Canadian troops during the fierce fighting at the Schelde and that there was a large Canadian war cemetary nearby. Then, he started to hum the Canadian national anthem, Oh Canada. We all (including the Germans among us) were suitably impressed.

After the 1953 floods when the dikes broke, the Dutch built extensive new dikes, the most impressive of which is open most of the year to allow salt water in to traditional mussel and oyster beds. However, on stormy days, huge blocking sections are lowered to prevent a storm surge from threatening the Delta islands. We were lucky in two ways. First, the day we crossed the new dike, there were force 6 winds (over 30 km per hour) from the north west. So, we saw the dike closed. Second, while we had to ride north east from Zierikzee for 10 km (partially into the strong winds), our main route was south west. The whole column travelled at over 30 kph with the wind at our tail and we arrived 2 hours early in the historic town of Veere!

The Delta was originally the swampy area where three large rivers, the Rhine (draining northern Switzerland and western Germany), the Maas (draining eastern Belgium) and the Schelde (draining northern Belgium) met. The area was subject to regular disasterous flooding, the last of which killed about 500 people in 1953. Now, the Delta islands, safely behind a large impressive system of dikes, form the "market garden" of the Netherlands. In addition to fruits and vegetables, flowers are grown commerically for seeds and bulbs. Here are vast fields of phlox. The centre of the town of Zierikzee has beautiful gardens of flowers - with many butterflies.

The Alblasserwaard, near Rotterdam, was a peat bog reclaimed around 1400 by draining canals using windmills in sequence at Kinderdijk. Now there are elongated rural villages, fields full of cows, birds and houses with beautiful gardens as well as the original preserved windmills of Kinderdijk.