day 12

Schagen to Enkhuizen.  An odd combination of countryside, the first section was all short straight dykes and country roads with loads of wild life and windmills.

The second section was 14 km on a single straight road through the suburbs.  The promised rain failed to materialize, so being British we are going to complain about that and the fact it lead to both of us now being a little on the lobster side of healthy.

We arrived quite early giving us a chance to buy ferry tickets for tomorrow's jaunt across what used to be called the south sea untill they built a dyke transforming it in to an immense inland lake.

Enkhuizen is incredibly pretty so it was a joy to be able to wander around it.  There is so much to see and do here and not enough time so it is definitely on our list of places to come back to.

Bizzarely the hotel tonight is a Chinese resturaunt and we are now in the happy position to tell you that Dutch Chinese food is certainly the equal of good English Chinese food.  Superior, even, if you include the fact that with your fortune cookie you also get a piece of high quality nougat and a hazelnut praline choclate.  You will also be pleased to know that the fortunes are equally baffling (and they were in English as well as Dutch).  Whilst I enjoyed recognition with
"Your endeavours succeed because you work hard."
Ed had the mildly alarming
"Get Ready! Next week will be great!"
It might make heading home a bit easier knowing you are going to have a good week when you get there. Hmm.

I am sat on the bed writing this with the window open and outside a gaggle of teenagers have gathered, one of whom can burp "yabba dabba do" loudly and convincingly in a rumbling bass, some things are the same the world over.

Have some birds and stuff....

Schagen church tower, home of the musical bells

Tower at what was the entrance to the old port at Enkhuizen.

I like the way the anchors give it a slightly "caddish" appearance.

 And not forgetting the ever popular Windmill of the day feature, (something like "molen di dag" in Dutch I think. It was very cloudy when we passed this so picture is not the best, sorry windmill fans. Someone lives in it and so we couldn't get as close as we have been to some of the others.

There is also a big steam pumping shed directly behind it which issomething we've not seen before.

Chimney isn't actually bent, just lazy photography...