Day1: 77km / current location: LINK
We both didn't have the most restful night before our first leg of the trip. Not sure exactly why but did have many cups of strong European coffee the whole day before, so maybe.... We did manage to get up and finish the remaining packing duties and getting the bikes ready for the trip. The hotel manager kindly offered to store our bike suitcases until our return in mid October. Even as a Dutchman, he was pretty surprised how far we planned to go and the amount of luggage we were taking on the small bikes. He definitely didn't pump up our confidence based on some of his comments. We'll see...
Took off from the center of Haarlem looking to connect to the preplanned route stored on my iPhone. However, the navigation app would crash every 2 minutes which was extremely inconvenient while you are in the middle of a big town during rush hour traffic! Luckily I had a different application preloaded and switched to that one after a while. Not all the "bells and whistles" of the other one but it was functional. Couldn't understand why the first one didn't work since I had done a few test rides with it in N. Carolina and all seemed well? European atmospheric/ GPS interference radio waves at play here? I found out later that the problem was with me trying to preload the whole 2,100 km route for our trip. I guess the little iPhone just couldn't swallow all that data with all those turns, twists, loops, etc.. It was fine in smaller chunks..
We were blessed with another day of nice weather as we rode through Dutch farm country along rivers and canals in the direction of Utrecht. Had to take another "Do It Yourself" ferry across one of the rivers where you have to turn a crank to get across. We were waiting on one side of the river watching another cyclist crank his way towards us. He seemed a little irritated that we were not helping him. Apparently there is another secondary crank on shore which he was pointing to as he pulled up. Oh well, we know next time... I let Linda take the honors of doing the crank and she did a great job! I'll post a small video if technology is cooperative..
Made it safe and sound in Utrecht around 16:00 after dodging many crazy bike riders in town. Holland is all about the bikes, cars are secondary. Checked in to our wonderful little hotel right in the middle of the old part of the city along one of the canals. It is a small boutique style hotel, called "Mary K" in a very old building built in the 1700's. They had a nice little garden in the back to store our bikes and a lovely room with a window overlooking the canal.
Explored the town a little before having dinner in one of the restaurants the hotel manager recommended. Great Asian fusion food! Highly recommend "Umami" if you ever visit Utrecht. Utrecht itself is a very nice town. Very lively with lots of younger folks around enjoying themselves. There must be a University nearby.
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| Linda cranking the DIY ferry |
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| Waiting to cross the bridge |
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| Our future vacation home (with boat) |
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| Linda found this Poffertjes stand and pleaded to stop |
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| She had her Poffertjes and me another apple pannekoek (pancake) |
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| Found our afternoon beer stop near De Haarlem castle |
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| Happy again waiting for our beers |
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| The castle.. |
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| Lovely gardens around too.. |
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| Our hotel.. |
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| Linda quickly trying out the bed after a long day in the saddle.. |
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| There was a Yoga place right across the canal from us. Susan our Yoga master would be proud! |
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| Great place for pre-dinner cocktails |
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| Famous Utrecht Dom tower. It has some huge bells inside (total weight 70,000 lbs). However it takes 465 steps to get to the top so we'll do that another day. |
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