Warm up ride in Amsterdam

Warm up ride seeing the outlying sites - Day 1

74.9 kms
Total distance 93.2

Moving time 

93m elevation
Total Elevation 225

The weather started pretty awful with storms and consistent rain. Had a late & long breakfast then thought we may as well do a warm up ride in Amsterdam before our travels tomorrow.  We rode from Amstelveen north to the Zaanse Schans where there is a cluster of nine very old windmills on a river. We started out quite late after the rain stopped (11am), it was still very cool on the bike, needing multiple layers, but at least it was not raining anymore.

To get where we wanted to go we had to ride through some industrial culture north of Amsterdam at Westpoort before we crossed the Noordzeekanaal on a ferry. This part of the ride was not as pretty as others in the Netherlands, it is the main shipping port for Amsterdam. Not a lot of photo opportunities.

We needed to cross the Noordzeekanal on a free ferry and beside the ferry point there was this cute kissing dutch couple....

We wound our way next to the train lines north passing through the southern part of beautiful Zaandam which has the name of Russische Buurt - translated into "Russian neighbourhood", and is the case with most parts of the Netherlands it was really old and had an important story. It had the most amazing architecture, all painted in different colours and shades of the same colours. 

These are not my photos, we travelled too quickly through the town to get photos - these are 

from wikipedia. It was so pretty. The story is that Czar Peter I of Russia resided here in 1697 during his Grand Embassy to learn ship building and many Russians stayed to build ships after he left.

Onto the windmills just up the road - but before we got there I had a seat mechanical which needed to be fixed at the very convenient bike shop. As we were not fully laden for this day trip, we did not have to required tools that were packed in our panniers. But, thankfully I had the mobile mechanic on hand who was able to utilise the borrowed tools to rectify the seat issue efficiently.

Turn the corner and cross the bridge and there were the windmills in all their glory.

We stopped for some photos on the Julianabrug Zaandijk (bridge over the Zaan at Zaandijk) with many others, then headed down the the historic village.

Photos from the precinct of the windmills. There were many people walking and biking along the canals to see the windmills. These windmills have been preserved very well with many little artisan shops inside. There is also a museum and some lovely gardens to walk around.

One of the best parts about this visit about it was the smell of chocolate wafting from the chocolate factory nearby. It was very strong.

We rode back into the little town to have lunch outside at Proeflokaal De Kruis, in the front courtyard which was lovely.  
They also took credit card which  was a bonus as many places in the Netherlands do not 

accept credit card, or only Dutch based ones. 

 After smelling the chocolate all morning we also needed to purchase some of the 

locally made variety aptly named "Smells like chocolate"

After purchasing the delightful goods we decided not to ride back the way we came but to head to Haarlem which is a really old city similar to Amsterdam but without the tourist invasion and a bit cleaner.  

The ride there took us passed some farmland, some interesting architecture and of course, more canals. There were bike paths everywhere, even this far from a town.

We needed to cross the Noordzeekanal again on another free ferry, we had to wait a few minutes for a barge to go by. On the ferry we met some first time bike tourists from the UK, who had got a bit lost, and felt they had travelled about 30kms beyond where they were supposed to be. They were using paper maps,  and had no electronic gadgets to help them. We did mention they really needed to help themselves on this front. They were joining a group tour the next day, hopefully they found them!

We made to Haarlem and what a beautiful city this is with a rich history - first walls built in 1270. We came in on the train station side, and found our way to old town. Due to an appointment with our daughter in the evening, we did not have as much time as we would have liked to explore much except for the Markt. We will make sure we visit this city again.

 Some of the beautiful buildings of Haarlem Markt. 

We rode out of Haarlem on a very busy route. Many people commute from Haarlem to Amsterdam for work as it is a 15minute train ride, and about 30-40mins on the bike. As we approached Amstelveen where we were staying, the route took us on some beautiful tracks along canals, through mini-forests and along some beautiful streets-  all on dedicated cycle paths. 

The pic in the top right of the collage above shows a canal bridge built just for cyclists and pedestrians. When boats go past it 'draws' into one of the banks of the canal. 

I love cycling in this country!