Dutch Suburban Living - Bike along the Dike

Sorry for this belated post! It actually happened several weeks ago but we've been busy finding a new place in Amsterdam. Yes, we have our own little place and will be moving in soon. To top it off, I fell off my new bike and scraped my hands pretty badly, so I'm pretty incompetent right now... Nothing broken, just superficial but inconvenient injuries... :'(

Anyway, as you can tell from the title. Graham, Tristan and I had a very pleasant biking tour along the section of the IJmeer Dike in Almere. I didn't have a bike then, so I was riding on the back of Graham's bike, like a kid. It was fun but tough on my poor butt.

To show you our biking route, I have meticulously prepared a map displaying the landmarks we went past that were somewhat worth a mention. It'll also help to relate the chronological order of the photos with the locations on the map, I hope. :) I am very proud of my map! ^^

So to explain, we started from 'Home where the cats live' and rode along the train line (blue) to Almere Poort. We went through the development areas of this town, indicated by the 'Pile of Sand' (literally and figuratively), to get onto the bridge that connects us back to the mainland towards Amsterdam. Basically, Almere is a giant island reclaimed from the lake in the 60's - 70's.

Anyway, the bridge is the A6 Highway that EVERYTHING goes on (Motorway, I don't know what they call these things here). We only rode halfway to the middle of the bridge to take some photos. Then we rode back along the 'Doggie Beach' (its actual name is Muiderzand) where every man/woman and his/her dog within the 10 km radius come to bond!

We were already riding along the dike, this country is made out of dikes ffs, but the official IJmeerdijk starts just past the 'Marina'. It felt like we were riding forever, and it doesn't help that this freaking dike literally goes on for MILES. Well, it runs the whole circumference of this 'island'...
We decided to call it a day when we reached the 'Wind Turbines' and went back towards home through some farm lands and a 'Forest'. Seriously, I couldn't wait to get home by the end of it, my poor butt!

I think we did about almost 20 km of riding, Graham did all the hard work while I kept stopping to take photos along the way. :P The dike is very pretty and I definitely recommend some sort of bike riding experience along one if you have time, and a nice cruising bike, and nice cushioned seats, etc.

Now the photos!

The road that suppose to connect to the beach/dike ended up in a construction site, and we had to go over a pile of sand to get to the bike tracks again! 

The beach also looked like a construction site... If you'd even call this a beach in Australian standards. :P

Finally got on the bridge, only occupying 2 of the 6 bike lanes! Actually, it is a car lane but cars don't usually use these lanes. 

Trying to take a photo from the divider, but all I can get is this tiny island in the middle of the lake.

Back at the beach, and this time around, everyone is walking their dogs! Hence, 'Dogie Beach'.

The Dike officially starts right here! Skipped the Marina, because who wants photos of a million boats?!

Last stretch of 'beach', and Amsterdam is on the other side, where those tall buildings are (might need to zoom in).

     

Onwards to the wind turbines! Apparently there's a '1 bird per stick' policy!

At this point, it's just water everywhere you look, except for where we're standing of course. Oh, and Netherland's other specialty - Clouds! 

Passed this strange building, still don't know what it is... Anyone?

OMG, we're finally here! Just dump your bikes on the side of the road!

     

And for size comparisons, they are actually huge!

Fastly, some farm lands (so exciting, not!). Not sure what they're growing, but kale and endives are traditional Dutch... 

Netherlands First Impression - Almere

So we moved the the Netherlands for Graham's work. There's definitely a mixture of feelings regarding this change in our lives. There was a lot of stress leading up to the move because we were pretty rushed into this, but we got there at the end.

I got a new camera for this journey. It's a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ110. The other contender was the LX-100, which has a better lens but much heavier, therefore, less travel friendly. I thought the x10 optical zoom would come in handy, and I was correct.

Our Mascot, Captain Squeaky, approves of the not-so-blinding flash

The cats came with, of course. They had a much tougher journey than we did, since they had to be fasting for the entire trip. I can assure you that they have definitely forgotten about this ordeal and are back to being lovingly needy as usual.

Anyway, we are currently staying in this cute little village called Muziekwijk in Almere, approx. 40 km northeast of Amsterdam. People refer to this place as the Milton Keynes of Netherlands, and I can see why but don't think it's that bad.

I find it quite similar to the outskirts of Sydney really; quiet and nothing happens around here. At least the local shops are less than 10 min walk away, which is better than most Sydney suburbs. The buses are frequent and they take you to the town centre in about 10 min as well. Almere Centrum has a town market and lots of retail stores and eateries, so again, much better than most Sydney suburbs. I so guess you can say that I like the place? Lol.

It's unusually sunny for a Dutch autumn, and we are out to explore the neighbourhood.

A nicer shot of the street, it's so European!

The local canal is like 2 blocks away, so 2 min? I mean, I have to post canal photos!

Spot the little blue boat down the river in the photo to the right. No filters or digital editing, the new camera is doing well pretty I think. :)

Testing out the macro function on this little guy in the local pet shop! It kept focusing on the bars rather than the hamster though. :( I'll need to figure out how to fix that.

Didn't get to take many photos of the town centre and the market, this swan in the lake should make up for everything though? (with slight contrast and colour level editing)

The sun is in the wrong spot for taking photos of anything! The water looks good though. As you can see, the Eurasian Coots have nested on this ledge/wave break in the artificial lake.

Hope you enjoy the photos. I'll have a comparison to Amsterdam in the next post. I took a lot more photos so have to cull it down a bit.

There are a few things that aren't great, which I can tolerate, but one thing I really can't stand is the smoking. People smoke everywhere and they just throw the cigarette butts EVERYWHERE! Definitely not great for an asthmatic... :(