Play houses
Our last ride! At breakfast, the usual last-day comments fly around about how fast the days and kilometres have flown by.
The ride back into Amsterdam is only a short one of a little over 20 kms. Still, by 9 we are again enthusiastically ashore, temperature 9 degrees but forecast to rise to 17, and ready to enjoy the last leg.
It’s an easy, downwind cruise out of Purmerend via the modern buildings of a new housing development. Even the playground houses for children in this country are narrow and tall, like the houses in the major towns.
We cruise through familiar countryside marked by lines of trees in spring colour and narrow canals.
Your humble Rapporteur realises that he has not yet taken a photo for the ‘Summary’ page of the small sign posts that mark the network of directions and intersections, each with a point number, that covers the whole cycling map of the Netherlands.
A sole shop assistant in a small general store finds herself fully occupied producing coffee when we descend in strength for mornos. Being yet another Much Younger Person, she is readily able to show Tav how to get an app to read a square scan code for a local walking site.
Reaching the open area north of Amsterdam we recognise the terrain where, on arrival for the tour two weeks ago, we had conducted our first trial ride to check out our allocated bikes.
Nico stops at a striking memorial consisting of two bent and blackened blades of an aircraft propeller. This turns out to be a memorial to the crew of a twin-engined 99 SQN RAF Wellington bomber, manned by six aircrew from England, Canada, New Zealand and Australia, lost after a raid in northern Italy. The crew had to bail out on the long flight home but all perished in the North Sea. The aircraft flew on to crash in this spot north of Amsterdam. The memorial was surrounded by wreaths and cards left on National Liberation day yesterday by the Veterans of No 99 Squadron and other visitors.
The final run ‘home’
Several of us have been once more reminded of the 2015 Bruges to Paris ride through the rolling hills and memorial graveyards of the Somme, as well a other personal visits by one or other of our troupe to the WW1 battlefields. These are inevitably sobering moments but ones which remind us of our good fortune in this life.
Unlike the dedicated crew of Wellington T2879 in September 1941, we are fortunate enough to make it back to ‘Homeplate’ Amsterdam without injury or serious mishap. The map shows how close we have been to the water during this, and indeed all of our rides in this lovely countryside. No-one has fallen in!
The full map (excerpt shown at left) and other stats are HERE>
The final few kms take us across the now-familiar pedestrian and cyclist ferry to the busy area near the Centraal rail station, from which we swing around the waterfront to Oosterdock.
We have beaten the barge by a country mile, as they have stopped to refuel before finally arriving at the allocated pier.
Saturday night, accompanied by all three crew members this time, we again walk south through the Red Light district to a well-appointed Italian restaurant suggested by the indefatigable Nico. Our Italian host, grand in style and body, has clearly enjoyed his own pasta. To the full.
We again pass a warm vote of praise and thanks to our crew who have been perfect exemplars of hospitality and cheerful cooperation. Skipper Michel responded with a characteristically humorous but heartfelt response. Is it a concession to the advancing years that, unlike the sentiment after Paris, we do not swear to reconvene for another barge/bike on the Elodie in two years time?
Elodie Spring 17 