Day 2. Egmond aan Zee to Hilarides via the Afsluitdijk contd.
As I looked round I noticed two older gentlemen in tight lycra cycling clothing, and asked about the route we were going to take. It turned out that they were out on their racing bikes for a gentle hundred and twenty-five kilometre practice run. They were building up to doing the Ijsselmeer Circle in one day, a mere three hundred and forty kilometres. We wished each other good luck for the rest of the day and they sped off into the distance.
Despite our poor timing, tradition had to be adhered to so we went into the large restaurant with the sea view and ordered some refreshments. The coffee was surprisingly good for a Dutch cafe, and the apple tart was tasty enough. By the time we had finished it was midday and we headed back to the bikes to eat a sandwich or two, and take in the view. The strange tourist in the red jacket made his first appearance in this video panorama. After ten minutes larking around and eating sandwiches it was time to go.
We passed a sculpture before heading out to the route. There followed a good fast section with a favourable sea breeze on the outside of the sea dyke. Much of the coast is fortified against the sea, and the top layer is a huge expanse of asphalt. This surface generally makes for fast cycling and we were enjoying ourselves. As Damae, Karen and I cycled in formation, Paul spent some time whizzing round us taking some great cycling photos.
This was definitely fun, but like all good things had to come to an end. The route left the sea dyke and we had arrived at Petten. The signpost, surrounded by litter, claimed that Petten was the 'cleanest part of the Netherlands', the irony was rather amusing. Still, inland meant once again a slight change of scenery. We hit the tulip cultivation area properly around this time as we cut further inland, following the LF on the other side of the sea dyke for the first section.
The fields of tulips and hyacinths were a riot of colour in the early spring bareness. The scent was at times overpowering but still wonderful. We stopped momentarily at this tree after turning: note no leaves, but bulbs in the background in full bloom. I remembered this tree tunnel from last year's trip, it was strange to see the same but with no leaves on the trees.
The LF10 runs in a zig-zag manner across the top of North Holland, so we alternated with side and tailwind (except on one short section where we turned back on ourselves and ended up head to wind). We mostly had the less favourable side wind but we were still making good progress. At around two o'clock we stopped for a sort of late supplementary lunch in a spot we'd paused at last year.
On that trip we stopped as result of a strange accident. Richard's ancient and much abused Gazelle racing bike got a twig stuck in the derailleur and locked the bike up. He stopped immediately and fell over slowly, not having had time to get his feet out of the toeclips. This time we stopped deliberately to sit in the steep sides of the embankment and eat whilst enjoying the bright spring sunshine. Paul got the urge to do some bicycle related art with his camera. I think I must have brewed some tea.