Den Haag to the Delta
Trip Start
Jun 08, 2005
1
44
69
Trip End
Ongoing
Middelburg,
Netherlands
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
The Hague was interesting, but not what I expected! It was Queens Day on Monday, so people were generally out and about sporting either something orange or the national flag but I wasn't really expecting leary circus rides and 'I like to move it move it' blaring from the center of one of the worlds key peace keeping cities! That aside the city was predictably nice and although I was tempted to check out the 'Girl with the Pearl Earing' I kept to wandering around with my bike at close quarters. Hmmm the candy floss was tempting though....
On the point of leary circus rides - all of the cities seem to have them?
Europol - Den Haag
! I'm not too sure if it's something to do with the fact that it's somewhat of a holiday week here, or if it's just normal? Who knows, must find that out before I go.Ok, so south I continued and onward bound into the delta project. The delta project is basically a massive sea fearing dam that the dutch use to control tidal surge in the particularly low lying region of Zeeland. If you check out the map you can see that Zeeland is almost more water than land and what land there is seems to be below sea level. I must say that it's a bit disconcerting when you look up at the masts and sails of boats sailing by! Anyway, the dam is about 3km long and the road goes along the top of it. To put it bluntly, I found riding across the thing freaky - it's really really windy, the windmills make loads of noise and the water on the inland side of the dam cuts up savage. The photo's I have taken all look very serene, but the atmosphere of actually riding across the thing is far from it! The whole concept of controlling nature in such an overt way is a bit disconcerting to me, I really struggle with the idea and I silly as it may seem I was riding over this thing feeling as though it was going to crumble at any minute.
There are constant reminders all the way through Zeeland of keeping the sea at bay - massive concrete stop banks support the coast line and of course there's always the dyke's
Kite surfers in Zeeland
. The stop banks look amazing though (for cyclists!)- they'd be absolutely perfect for motor pacing and I saw a few people practicing their track starts on the banks.Zeeland is a funny area of the country though, the towns are all really beautiful with big old beautiful churches and buildings that for some reason seem far to big for the population that they currently support. Sometimes it feels as though you're going into a village that has Saint Paul's Cathedral in the middle of it! The people are pretty layed back and easy going - in fact I was meant to write this last night, but got chatting and never made it to the Internet and they can make up a pretty good coffee! It just seems to be a nice little area of the world, not as touristic as the north.
Anyway, today I'm having a day off the bike. The first few day's I was pretty tired, but I seem to be over that now. 70km under my belt yesterday and I feel as though I could ride forever. However, I just need a day away from my steel companion and although I'm picking up strength and fitness faster than I anticipated I realise that it's best not to push these things. In fact I will probably even jump on a train for a bit over the next few days as there are a few things that I want to see in Amsterdam before heading back to the UK - time is running short.
