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Police! Cycling beside the dike afforded us some wind protection. We were doing fine until we reached the thirty kilometer stretch with IJsselmeer Lake (formerly the Zuider Zee) on one side and Waddenzee on the other. On top of the dike we were exposed to the wind blowing off the lake. Our map marked the route as scenic but there was nothing to see except dike on our left and water on our right. After a few minutes we were passed by a group of seven cyclists. We tucked in behind them and rode in their windbreak until they stopped in the middle of the causeway for a Coke and a banana. There was a view point and a campground. Those Dutch thought of everything. We stopped too and our wind blockers gave us refreshments and fruit. They were police from Utrecht and rode a round trip once each year. That day they were cycling two hundred thirty kilometers and another one hundred sixty kilometers the next. They all had light weight racing bikes with clip-in racing shoes. That didn't detour Sharon or I from tagging along for the last half of the ride across the dike though. They told us that during low tide it was possible to walk over to some of the Wadden islands. I didn't believe them until I spotted people with rubber boots walking in the muck. The policemen said it took four hours to walk across. On the other side of the dike we were out of the province of North Holland and into the province known as Friesland. The Dutch made a point of telling us that Holland was just a part of the Netherlands, but it had become so famous that tourists often referred to all parts of the Netherlands as Holland. That seemed to irk some of the locals who weren't from the provinces of Holland and they let us know, in no uncertain terms, that we should make that distinction. I did a double take when I looked across a flat farm field and saw a huge sailboat skimming the land. The farmer worked blithely away on his tractor. On my second take I realized the sailboat was in a canal running through the farmland. Multiple bridges crossing roadways lifted vertically to allow water craft to pass. Tractors hauling hay went up and down the bike path. We gave them right of way. Sharon made chili at a lone picnic table beside a lake. Just as we finished supper a group of cyclists resembling our police friends passed. Just out for an evening spin. That was why we hardly ever saw police -- they were all out cycling! Being at a geographic juncture we looked at the map and chose to go south to Belgium rather than north to Denmark. From Belgium we would cross over to the u.k. and cycle England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland. Then catch a ferry to Norway in August and cycle south through Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany. Perhaps even Poland and other eastern bloc countries depending on how difficult it was to obtain visas. |
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