So as I promised in my post since moving to another part of the Netherlands I would keep you all up to date with exploring my new province! And after this weekend I have plenty to update you guys on!
A Day at the Beach
We decided to start the weekend on Thursday with a nice ride through the dunes with a good friend who happened to be in the neighborhood. Alkmaar (the new hometown) is about 10km from the dunes and the beach, but we decided to make it a 50km cycle ride.
As you might be able to see from our happy faces it was a beautiful day and felt fit and strong, we all felt pretty energized still at the end, despite just having cycled 50 km. (I would later come to regret how fit I felt here as it led to gross over confidence later in the weekend....)
Especially the route around Bergen aan Zee is beautiful, if you ever find yourself in the area.
Off Camping
The day after our ride we decided to go camping near Medemblik, an old harbor town at the IJsselmeer, a lake that used to be a sea before the Dutch decided land was much more useful than water. We cycled 40 km to our campsite and I went in feeling confident from our ride the day before. But regretted my confidence quickly: it was one of those days were you just can't seem to get comfortable... My but was sore, I was hungry, started to get more and more grumpy and well.. I just wanted it to be over haha. Luckily after 40km of struggle it was over and the reward was great....
We got a beautiful spot on a super green campsite and after eating a nice meal I could feel grumpy me disappear and sleepy me appear haha.
Castle Time!
The next day neither of us felt like being on our bikes for long, so we decided to just do the 5 km cycle to the town of Medemblik. This medieval harbor town was a lot of fun, it was windy so we got to watch all the sailboats go by, walked around town and visited the local castle! As a historian there are few things I enjoy more than castles and this one was nice!
The Radboud castle was the home of the counts of Holland who were sent there to keep an eye on the West-Frisians, known to be trouble makers that did not like the Hollanders one bit!
We had a great day and managed to get some rest to get ready for the next leg: going home...
Oh Wind....
The next day we woke up ready to cycle the 40km back home when we realized that it was pretty windy... and then realized the wind was going to be straight headwind for all of those 40 km....
Good thing is we got a rest for the legs the day before, so actually it wasn't too bad in the end and the route was really pleasant going through the Leeghwater area: the earliest part of the Netherlands drained of water already in the 17th century.
That means windmills of course, as those were used to drain the land and keep it dry. Nowadays these were turned into houses: how cute would it be to live in a windmill?!
The Spa
We decided that the last day before the end of Matt's vacation (I still have another week yay!) we should chill in the spa. It was a 25km cycle to get there and since it was remote and we don't have a car we climbed back on our steel friends. The way over went very smooth and before long we were chilling in a fortress that had been converted to a spa. How cool is that!?
It was just what I needed and I spent hours in the water turning my fingertips into little raisins! Unfortunately all good things must end and we headed home after about 6 hours of bliss.... Only to be having a horrific headwind for 25km....
Let me tell you, not the perfect ending to a spa day.
Anyway, we had a great weekend cycling about 200 km, but having chill moments as well and having explored some really nice parts of our new province!
Thank you for this free virtual tour my friend..😊 It looks very nice, as well as refreshing. Especially because of its nature view..😎