We had a couple of nice days in Amsterdam, roaming around the canals and visiting with an old friend. Tried to go the Van Gogh Museum, but we needed to get tickets well in advance. It seems like everywhere is busy, and the ticket in advance thing is required at anyplace of interest these days. On one of our days in Amsterdam, a group of us went to a nearby restaurant for an amazing dinner. The restaurant was floating, and was filled with real and artificial flowers, candles, small colorful glass bottles, and was just so pretty and elegant. So much fun, and delicious food.
Our friend Yvonne, who we've known since our first TDA trip in 2016, in Australia, picked us up at our hotel on our second day in Amsterdam and took us to her lovely, historic city of Narden. It is an old "star fort", and one of the best-preserved. I couldn't get a good picture because we were always too close, but at the visitor center I took a picture of an aerial view of the town. Yvonne also took us to Muiden Slot (castle), which was interesting, we walked around Narden, and she cooked us a delicious dinner. Such a nice way to spend the day.
We had 4 days from Amsterdam to our rest day here in Hamburg. The weather has finally turned sunny and warm. Some people are complaining about the heat, but it's fairly comfortable for us Arizonans, although there is more humidity than we used to.
We continue to be impressed with the cycling infrastructure, although much less so in Germany! At one point, still in the Netherlands, we were on a lovely cycling path, with a tractor road next to us, and a road for cars next to that! Pretty amazing! However, there has been a marked deterioration in the cycle paths once we entered Germany, and the drivers are significantly more rude! In The Netherlands, cycling is an equal part of the transportation infrastructure, and in some cases, it has precedence.
The paths in Germany seem to be an afterthought: "Here, cyclists, don't complain, we have this crappy path for you, just don't get in the way of the cars!" People on our trip are having problems with their hands because of how rough the paths are, and there are so many curb cuts, which are just lower, very rough, curbs, so we are constantly bumping up and down. If there is a cycle path we not allowed on the road, and will be told to get off in no uncertain terms! And most of the time they are narrow, can be bi-directional, and are shared with pedestrians. Stress!
Fortunately, once we are out of a village we're usually the only ones on the path, although they are still bumpy and narrow. And, we are riding through some very pretty farmland. We saw lots and lots of corn, as well as wheat and other grains. And since the sun was shining, some farmers were busy making hay! Reminded us of Ohio, and a couple from Iowa said it felt like riding through Iowa, except for the lack of soy beans! And the German villages are lovely - lots of brick homes with large brick barns attached or nearby.
No cafes or bathrooms, though!
Our entry into Hamburg was pretty easy. We had been worried, since it is a very large city, but it was actually quite nice, going through parks, and on cycle paths. We had 2 special things, also. First was a bridge built from 1897-1899, for carriages and pedestrians to get across the big river, and still used by cyclists and pedestrians. Second, we had another amazing elevator, tunnel, and elevator ride, under another river. This elevator was quite large, and you could see out as you were descending and ascending. It gets heavy use - the elevators were full both ways. Very fun, and apparently one of the things to do in Hamburg!
I attached some pictures of Amsterdam, as well as some of the countryside we've been riding through.
Yvonne
2024-06-26
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Patti
2024-06-26
Beautiful country. Thanks for sharing your journey.