day 15

Back on the ferry today. The main fly in the ointment being that we needed to be at the port 16 km away by 10 am and breakfast doesn't start till 8.  This means a very rushed breakfast and out the door by 08:30 just to be sure we make it in time to buy a ticket first. The notes for today say follow the signs, but fail to specify the green ones, red ones or blue ones.  The map shows a route, but the scale is such the fine detail is lost.
So when at 08:50 we finally leave the hotel room and get on the bike we have a certain amount of work to do.  This is somewhat reflected in the stats for that section of the ride, average speed 12.6 mph and max speed 26.4 mph.  We were fortunate that althought the route was along the lake edge the wind had so far failed to get out of bed which made it an easy ride.

Once at the port (we did make it in time) a very strange thing happened.

In this photo there are 3 tandems, ours, a British made touring tandem (Dawes Super Galaxy, Ben) and one of the odd Dutch ones with the child seat at the front.  3 tandems being used in the same place at the same time.  You need to move in very specialist circles to see that in the UK.   The owners of the touring tandem wanted to know if we were Swedish, something Ed and I have been accused of before.  Apparently Orbit is a manufacturer the Dutch associate with Sweden.  They were of moderately advanced years, and substantially fitter than either of us. No surprise then that they've notched up 50,000km on their bike, and they're still going.

The crossing was calm and it was very sunny so Ed took some lovely bird/boat pictures.

As we reached the other side the boat took a detour to drop off a couple of passengers and we passed this

Does anyone have any idea?  To me it looks like some sort of intestinal parasite, but it has windows and doors, and is about twenty foot long, and occupies a prime spot with wonderful views over the Zuider Zee.

The rest of todays ride was also along the edge of the lake, or would have been if they hadn't been digging it up and relaying it.  The normally impeccable cycle path became this

A well sign posted diversion later and we ended up in the town of Hoorn.  It is another very pretty place that would certainly warant further inspection if we had the time.  The down side of this holiday has very much been not enought time to look at places you are passing through.  It is basically giving us a list of places to come back to.  Our destination tonight, Edam is another one of those.  We have a very sweet hotel room which is only the second to provide tea and coffee making facilities in the room (must be a continental thing).  It also has a set of musical bells which are struck by hammers from the outside and hang outside the bell tower rather than within it.  There will be pictures tomorrow, but for now have the audio:

You've eaten the cheese, now listen to the bells...

Finally for wotd.  Somewhat different to previous offerings but none the worse for that.