After
a very warm night and an early morning wake-up (it’s light here around 5.30am),
the day cooled rapidly from around 9am.
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| Yum - brekky! |
We walked to the local supermarket to get some more cash,
then wandered around the canals and bridges here in Zeeburg. Kiri found the street market and went looking
for a belt. I found the cheese stall to
be the most interesting, and they were happy to oblige our request for photos.
On the corner of our street, there's a few parking spots for electric cars where they can recharge at the same time.
Around
lunchtime the rain eased so we took Ben’s bikes out and rode into
Amsterdam. No maps, just random changes
of direction (which was fun at the end when we needed to know where we
were!!)
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| We rode past the zoo and I couldn't help myself. Flamingoes! |
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| This is the Waag, a gate in the old city wall, built in 1488 |
We
stopped at an eatery (or drinkery, as they seemed to have more beer than food!)
and we ordered some chips. Kiri tried
one of their beers whilst I had a delicious hot chocolate. Why are they are so much nicer in Europe?
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| Back to where we'd secured the bikes |
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| Bubble-blowing in Dam Square |
Instead of riding straight home, we decided to take the free
ferry across the IJmeer and go home a slightly longer way on the north side of
the lake. This was a really nice ride
until we got to the two bridges, when we were faced with a strong
headwind. Ben’s bikes are typical Dutch
cruising bikes, with no gears and a back-pedalling brake. The area around Amsterdam is pretty flat, but
the bridges have quite an incline. I
ended up walking for a bit. Oh,
well.
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| On the ferry to IJplein. The trip takes 5 minutes. |
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| Nieuwendammerdijk |
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| The first bridge. Note the raised section to allow a couple of yachts through |
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