As previously mentioned, weather in the Netherlands had been a little on the cool side prior to and after our arrival. So our first barge day dawned cool and damp and +8 C. Our room was located in the hold of the barge with a nice big porthole. It was a little freaky to see the canal water lapping up that close to that big pane of glass. Nonie likes to sleep with a window open, no matter what the weather. Not going to happen here.
Thankfully the Magnifique II was well fit out for a warm and comfortable nights sleep, that is as long as the windows don't leak. We had sailed from downtown Amsterdam, the night before to the town of Zaandam where we moored on a small side canal. As it happened the moorage site was about three blocks from the hotel where we had just spent the last four nights.
I must admit, I was a bit skeptical about the quality of the barge, despite seeing the pictures and reading all the brochures about how nice everything was, especially the evening meals.
Well, my skepticism was ill placed as the pictures did not lie, the Magnifique II was to be a great home for the next four days.
But I digress. Let me repeat, the first morning dawned cloudy, misty and definitely looked like rain. For two weeks before we left, I had been religiously checking the long term forecast for Amsterdam so no surprises for us as we came prepared for cool and wet. It was + 6 C when we started and managed to get to a high of +12 C for the day.
Today's trip was to be a distance of 30 K with a visit to Zaanshe Schans. Zaanshe Schans is a living museum populated with old, well preserved windmills, traditional houses and warehouses.
The rain started shortly after we started the ride, so we arrive a little wet. Not the most comfortable ride, but we have had worse. Several years ago we biked Saltspring Island and it rained so hard, we had 4 inches of water in our supposed waterproof panniers plus several other orifices that are normally dry.
All the windmills at Zaanshe Schans are working windmills. One is used to pump water from the village into the canal, one crushes pigments for paint, several mills make oils from various seeds and the one we visited is an operating sawmill. There is a waiting list for wood produced here. Today they were milling replacement lattice that would be used in the vanes of a windmill.
The rain continued and now a pretty good headwind had come up so the "Slow Group" (speed not intelligence) unanimously opted to return to the ship in Zaandam and barge to the next stop. We were greeted with bowls of hot, homemade pumpkin soup and an early glass of complimentary wine in the lounge. The "Fast Group" (speed not intelligence?) opted to do the full ride
No sign of those blooming tulip fields yet.
It was 2 1/2 hour cruise to our new moorage in the city of Haarlem. Along the way we experienced our first of many locks that protect the Netherlands from disappearing into the ocean. The "Fast Group" (speed not intelligence?) arrived soon after we docked. No soup for them.
Harlem, a 1,000 year old city is a 15 minute high speed train ride from Amsterdam with many people commuting into Amsterdam to work. Our moorage was about a 15 minute walk from the old center of Haarlem and across from the 120 year old Droste Cacao factory. There is an illustration of a nurse in the sign and she is known as La Belle Chocolatiere (The Pretty Chocolate Girl) which is the name of Droste's famous chocolate pastel. It is meant to illustrate the health benefits believed to be endowed by drinking cacao.
The weather had improved shortly after arriving in Haarlem, so we opted for a walk into the Old Town
Our goal was to visit the "Grote Kart" (Old Church), a 5 century old Gothic church that towers over Haarlem.
The church is home to a very ornate Muller organ, built in 1738 and played by both Handel and Mozart. It is over 30
metres high with 25 larger than life-sized statues.
Pretty impressive church for a city with a population of only 160,000. It is operated more as a museum now, than a church. They were preparing for an organ recital the next day. Would have loved to here that organ fire up.
Day three dawned sunnier but still cold. +5 C to start our ride today so gloves and layers were in order. We are off on a 30 K ride to the Keukenhof Gardens, home to over 7,000,000 flower bulbs that are planted each year and hopefully some blooming tulip fields along the way.
By coffee break, things were heating up but the only blossoms to be seen were on the table.
Still no tulip fields but we did find a field of blossoming daffodils just behind our coffee stop. Perhaps things were opening up.
Perhaps not. Lots of bare tulip fields that were just being planted.
Success. Well, not exactly to the magnitude that we had had been hoping for. But to be fair to the tulips, it was +12 C so only the red tulips were brave enough to show their heads.
We were putting all our blooms into one basket now, so Keukenhof had better deliver. Alas, that was not to be. Some blooms were blooming but lots of blooms were still waiting to bloom. Still, it was a bloomin impressive place that sees over 1.4 million visitors that visit during the 6-8 weeks that the gardens are open.
There are over 3,000 registered varieties of tulip and many of them were on display in the huge greenhouses found in Keukenhof. Most were blooming but even here in this climate controlled environment, some tulips were playing hard to get. The colours are incredible. To bad they only bloom for such a short time.
Time to head home. The sun continued to shine but as the day warmed up, we were introduced to what is known as the "Dutch Mountains", headwinds that were able to stop you in your tracks. It was going to be a slog to get back to the barge.
Our hard work was rewarded with a beautiful field of colourful hyacinths.
Day five, dawned sunny, warmer with anticipated temperatures in the double digits for our 45 K ride into Amsterdam and our last night on the barge. The morning started with a lovely 2 hour barge ride to a moorage site that would bring us a little closer to Amsterdam before starting our bike.
A last chance to travel through one of the thousands of locks making canal travel possible through out most of the Netherlands.
While the weather was improving, the head winds were not. Great for the windmills but not so much for us cyclists.
The trip into Amsterdam was exciting, with a few lost moments along the way as our guide had not done this leg of the trip before. It included an unplanned ferry ride across another canal.
Just about every road way in Amsterdam has a bike lane but despite that it did not seem seem to make me feel any safer.
Our last dinner on the barge was a culinary masterpiece. Unlike the big cruise ships, you don't get a choice of four main courses and 5 desserts, you get one choice so it had better be good. And it was. A great finish to a great trip.
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