The Netherlands

We just finished day 2 of biking through the Netherlands. We're a bit tired and sore but we both agree it's been an amazing experience. I can't imagine there's a better way to see so much of the Dutch way of life in such a short time. Before I go into our biking experience though, I should tell a little bit about our experience in Amsterdam.

Amsterdam is an experience like none other. Coming from Dublin, which was a rather small city, Amsterdam is huge. I had done my fair share of research on the city before we came, but no matter how much I read or how many pictures I saw, it's not the same as the real experience. There were bikes everywhere. I'm not even sure there are enough people to ride them all! The city is built around 4 major canals, one of which our beautiful hotel room looked over. There are tons of restaurants and "coffee shops" all around the city. The atmosphere is very lively and reminds me a lot of a "college town" in the states. As I'm sure everyone has heard, it's a very liberal city but there is plenty of other attributes. The architecture is very unique and there are lots of cool museums. We were hoping to stop by the Anne Frank house but the line was ridiculous. We were still able to see the outside and the surrounding neighborhood which was enough for me provided our time frame.

Onto the biking... Day one was fun and the weather somewhat cooperated. We didn't have any rain but the wind made some of the ride quite treacherous. We saw some really cute, quaint small towns. It was a culture shock to stop into these towns as the English speaking population was not near as prevalent and it is much more conservative outside Amsterdam. I would say it feels like 2 different countries. After about 40 miles, we ended the day in the small town of Schoonhoven. We were hurting pretty bad from the ride at this point so we headed to the room and took a nap and rested our legs. By the time we woke up, it was about 8:00p and we were starving. I should mention that for lunch all we had was a small pizza brood from a bakery that we split. I was too freaked out to try anything else but pizza brood was safely translated to pizza bread so that was safe for Becky standards. Back to dinner in Schoonhoven... at 8:00p on a Friday night, most restaurants were done serving. Finally on our third stop (and last chance) we were in luck. Not only were they open, they had an English version of their menu. Oh thank god! I was able to safely order a beef steak and chips. Danny went for some lamb steak & white asparagus. After that we were off to bed. We didn't set an alarm as we were still trying to get caught up from the jet lag.

I was pretty nervous starting day 2 after the wind we had previously. Luckily, day 2 was much more calm. We biked another 40 miles through the countryside and passed about 12 functioning windmills. The countryside is incredibly beautiful. There aren't fences as everyone's yards/pastures are separated by a system of canals. The landscaping on the homes is amazing. The Dutch most definitely have a green thumb. Our final destination was the city of Gouda. Yes, just like the cheese as this is where it originated. Gouda is much bigger and more lively than Schoonhoven (but still not the liberal city of Amsterdam). We had a great dinner in the city and enjoyed some live music played by a woman from Sweet Home Chicago. She plays at piano bars in Chicago as well as all over Holland. She said she rarely sees foreigners outside Amsterdam, which made me feel good that we're venturing outside the box from typical tourists.

Tomorrow is our final day of cycling and we have lots of ground to cover before we say goodbye to the Netherlands and hello to Italy. Time to rest up!