Thursday 9 November
The Pilot recommends a pleasant bike ride through the National Parks sand dunes West of Haarlem to the beautiful long, clean, sandy beaches of the North Sea coast, and as Mate needs a regular fix of the sea, and the weather forecast threatened wet and windy weather for the coming weekend, today was the day to wiggle Daisy and her brother out from their hidey-hole behind Trevver’s cabin and brush off the cobwebs. The nice lady in the tourist information office had provided a helpful map, and agreed that it was a great route, of around 20km, or so Mate thought she’d said.
Well insulated in particularly fetching winter cycling tights (well padded, I’m told) and multiple layers, and that was just Mate, they set off to find the right road out of town, and were soon enjoying the attractive outskirts of Haarlem and its very smart neighbour, Overveen. Holland is amazingly bike-friendly, with dedicated cycle lanes on every road, and often tracks are completely separated from road traffic, and from pedestrian paths. Drivers are also more tolerant of bikes than is often the case in the UK, and maybe cyclists here are less reckless.
It was a lovely morning, fresh air fragrant with Autumn, and the route sheltered from the Westerly headwind coming off the sea as they approached Bloemendaal aan Zee. It’s easy to see why so many Amsterdamers escape summer weekends here, with many campsites tucked into the dunes.
They treated themselves to coffee on a sunny (glass walled) terrace right on the beach, before continuing South along the shore to the less attractive town of Zandvoort aan Zee, where they chose a dubious ‘street food’ lunch of deep-fried mixed fish with skinny fries and three shades of mayo for Skipper. Mate selected North Sea brown shrimp with a side of cucumber salad, also heavy on the dressing, split with coleslaw…and all for 18€…not the best bargain so far.
Eventually they tracked down the homeward route beside the railway line, which led back through the South side of the Dunes National Park, was completely traffic-free and most enjoyable, at least until the now grey sky started leaking, first a soft mizzle and by the time they were nearly home it was pretty wet. However, it was worth it for a great day’s cycling to the beach – in November!