I followed an imaginary coastline today: where the Netherlands would meet the North Sea if it hadn’t been for centuries of land reclamation. Given the recent few months of incessant rain and a fair bit of standing water still in fields, as in England, it wasn’t that hard to imagine.
I started in Zwolle with a hearty Dutch breakfast from my Vrienden op de Fiets host Marijke and left the town on the well-signposted LF9.
Unfortunately it wasn’t quite well-signposted enough to acknowledge roadworks at a couple of points, and I had to improvise to regain the path after going a long way round some blocked paths.
On the other hand, though, the Netherlands has such an extensive cycle path network that it was always possible to do it reasonably conveniently. All you need is a good free map app on your phone with no limit on offline map storage. If you know of one, do tell me.
Much of the day was, like yesterday, easy riding along floodbank tops, with the notional sea on my left, theoretically swamping the flat farmland and soggy plains. On my right meanwhile was, er, flat farmland and soggy plains, with no discernable upland feel.
I enjoyed rolling along the LF9 very much – the bike route along this pretend shoreline – and nosing around pleasant little villages and Hanseatic towns such as Hasselt and Zwartsluis. Reminder to self: when bakeries outside the UK talk about ‘cream doughnuts’, they don’t mean ‘fresh cream’.
Today’s highlight was Giethoorn, where the waterside riding is not just in the mind. The remote peatland village was accessible only by narrow canals centuries ago, making it a refuge for various religious groups escaping persecution. (This included one fringe sect who self-flagellated their sins away.)
Even now the old part of Giethoorn village has no road access: a hundred or more houses lining a mile-long stretch of canal can be reached only by boat or bike, on the narrow paved towpath.
It’s quite a tourist attraction now, known (along with about two million other places that happen to have a bit of canal through them) as ‘Venice of the North’.
There’s boat hire and guided boat trips, though you can do it all for free on a bike, which of course I did.
Giethoorn proved a good place for lunch, sitting on a canalside bench with my supermarket picnic, and language-spotting among the hundreds of tourists. (Roughly in order: Mandarin, Cantonese, German, Korean, French, Swedish, Czech, Italian, Brummie.)
Plus I saw some ostriches in a smallholding: another addition to my Dutch farming menagerie. This was boosted shortly afterwards, back on the road north to Steenwijk, where there were two Highland Cattle in a field. They must have wondered who’d stolen all the mountains.
My Vrienden op de Fiets hosts tonight were Bart and Gera, in the small but busy town of Steenwijk. Another very pleasant evening talking travel over a fine dinner before another early and well-slept night.
Miles today: 31
Miles since Drielandenpunt: 239