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May 16 Tuesday cloudy sunny rainy 15º C bicycle touring Holland They have a saying in Holland: God made the land for everyone -- except the Dutch. They made their own. The canals run everywhere. Lots of houses have water right in front of them. No basements here. The dike we cycled across on the ferry Sunday -- which we got to ride free since we had no money; the ferry operator decided to give us and our touring bicycles a free lift -- is 50 metres above the surrounding land. It is the only time I have ever gotten off a ferry and cycled downhill. Just a trifle disconcerting. Mikhail and Walter both mentioned that they were embarrassed last spring when it rained so much and the river flooded and people had to be evacuated. They take a great deal of pride in their engineering feat of living below sea level. Rotterdam is 21 feet below sea level. Am I the only one that finds that scary? It's high tide, so the canals are at their highest water level. Tide varies about ten feet. I tell Mikhail not to worry about the flood -- God had one too when he made his land, so at least they're in good company. We cycle towards Den Hague. Den Hague is known as the greenest part of Holland due to all of its parks. We find a park path and cycled it to a small lake. Ducks are paddling about. The little ones scoot after bugs, their flipper feet splashing away in an effort to be the first one to the prize. I guess being second isn't too filling. The sun is shining. Sharon takes her shoes off. She says this is the first time in days her feet have been warm. An octogenarian comes along on his daily walk. He spots our Canadian flag and starts to tell us how he went underground during the war. He worked for Shell all his life and traveled to many countries doing work for them. He says he remembers watching them build this park and now he is so happy seeing Canadian boys and girls here. Canadians are very welcome in Holland. It was Canadian soldiers who liberated the Netherlands during World War II. After lunch we get back on our fully loaded touring bicycles and ride past a bar. A guy on the bar's terrace to us. We turn our bicycles around to check what he wants. He tell us he has a motorhome in Canada at Chilliwack BC and goes to Canada every summer. He's even stayed at the Princeton BC campsite before. I wonder if it was when my mom and dad were caretakers? A colourful rooster struts around the terrace and in and out the open bar door. Feels like we're back in Spain. It's definitely the cock of the walk. We ride our bicycles past fields near Lisse, hoping to see fields of colourful tulips. Nope. We're out of luck. The field only has the green stalks left, where the tulips used to be -- before they shipped them to Canada, no doubt. All of the tulips have been cut. At Kuekenhof, reputed to be a huge tulip growing area, we still don't see any fields of tulips. We're getting a little worried that we took too long on our bicycle tour to get here, and now we've missed the blooming things. We look for a place to free bicycle camp. Holland is very crowded. Forests are non-existent. All the land belongs to someone. I knock on a farmer's door to ask permission, but there is no answer. We cycle off, still on the lookout for a possible free camping spot. Along the bike path in a secluded spot, we see a likely place behind some trees lining the canal. I pull my fully loaded touring bicycle to a halt and look in. Two other bike tourers are already set up there. We cycle off and ask at a house with a yard. A young couple explains to us that there is no free camping allowed in Holland. They look at us like we are lepers. I wanted to ask them if that law was made after the Germans free camped here in 1945 and it took the Canadians to come over and boot them out. But I bit my tongue. The young couple were the first non-hospitable Dutch folks we have met. In fact, most are very encouraging. Many yell out to us as we pass on our touring bicycles: "Liberators!" We cycle back to the canal and set our tiny bicycle touring tent up a few feet away from our unknown cycling companions. |
