Day 16 - De Fietsers (The Bicyclists)
Today is our final full day in the Netherlands, and we finished it off by coming back to where we started, Amsterdam.
We took off early in the morning from Alkmaar with the intention of using time in Amsterdam to do some shopping and make one last trip to the Skylounge.
It was a sunny and clear morning, as we wound our way through the brick-covered streets of the old city of Alkmaar. We passed the Waagplein (Scale square) where they have a traditional cheese market every Friday, during the summer. There is also a traditional cheese scale inside the building at the Waagplein, upon which they weigh the cheese brought to the market. Unfortunately, the whole thing is mostly ceremonial, you can't buy cheese at the market. The event is meant to be a show for tourists.
We passed out of the city of Alkmaar and made our way along the pre-determined route through more beautiful polders and fields. There were a few windmills (Windmolen) along the way, but there was a particular tourist stop along the way, which really made the ride special. We were delighted to pass through Zaanse Schans. This area holds 8 historic windmills, which were moved from their original locations and preserved along the river with museums attached. The windmills served various purposes such as: oil milling, mustard milling, saw mill, and a dye mill. These mills were not turning like the ones at Kinderdijk, but they were decorated and painted ornately. Each windmill has a name like "het jonge schaap" ("the young sheep") or "De Kat" ("The Cat"). I'm not sure if the names have much to do with their functions.
The place was FLOODED with tourists, and it was about noon when we got there. It was to the point where it was actually difficult to bike through it because of the raw amount of tourists wandering all over the fietspad, convinced that it was a pedestrian road. We muddled through the thick crowds as best we could, taking pictures as we went.
We broke free of the crowds and found ourselves travelling through Zaandam, where things turned a bit more industrial. Then we found ourselves back out in the polders and fields again. This repeated as we wound our way through Landsmeer. Finally we started seeing some familiar buildings in the distance, but before we knew it, we were back in Amsterdam. We saw some amazing blue herons along the way, and Jessi was able to get some really awesome close up shots. Suddenly, we were up against the IJ River int he city of Amsterdam, re-entering the city from the North side. We took the free ferry at Buiksloterweg over to Amsterdam Centraal Station, jumped back on the bikes and made our way through the chaos that is Amsterdam to our hotel in the Centrum district. We locked the bikes up, inventoried all the gear we needed to turn in to our outfitter and I grabbed a shower. That was just enough time for the outfitter to arrive and pick up the bikes, which we locked out front. We helped them get everything back over to their truck and left them go on their way. It was a weird feeling not to have a bike. I, personally, felt a bit naked without a trusty bike wheeling at my side or moving underneath me. Returning the bikes, also cemented the harsh truth that tomorrow, we would be flying home back to the states.
Jessi and I walked the city, did our ridiculous tourist bobble shopping, and dropped everything off at the hotel room, before heading out for one last evening at the Hilton Skylounge, which overlooks the city of Amsterdam. Jessi got some amazing pictures of the Amsterdam skyline during sunset, and we sat at the lounge working on the blog and drinking jenever (gin) and tonic. We enjoyed a lovely meal of bitterballen, nachos (always a Jessi favorite), crunchy chicken nuggets, wagyu beef, and frites (fries). It was a lovely way to end the triip. We grabbed some icecream on the way back and took a walk through the super touristy red-light district to find the ice cream place. Tired and ready for bed, we made sure all of our stuff was packed up and ready to go.
It hardly seems real that we are leaving the country tomorrow and that soon we will be home in our own beds. We have met many wonderful people in the Netherlands, and we have experienced some amazing beauty. We take heart in the fact that there are still things left unexplored and that we will someday come back again to explore them. In the meantime, we are excited about seeing friends and family, catching up with everyone, continuing to try to comprehend the tire-fire that is our government right now, and see the cats again! I'm pretty sure they will hate us for a solid month, but it will be nice to see them again too. Thanks again to the magnificent Kristina for being such an awesome caretaker for the cats.
Just a short post tonight. We will have a wrap up post at some point to tie this thing up.
If this is your jump off point, thanks for reading our blog! We hope that it was entertaining to read about us stumbling through another country on bikes. We sure had fun, and we learned a lot of interesting new things. We hope that you learned some interesting things too!
