Netherlands/Belgium Bike Tour Day 4: Bloemendal aan Zee to Delft

Posted by Cassie, November 10th, 2009

Thursday, September 10, 2009

We rode down the North Sea coast through the sand dunes and beach resort towns.  It was a beautiful, sunny day with an awesome tailwind.  We met other people that were riding up the coast against the wind.  They were working really hard, and we were barely pedaling.

Riding through the sand dunes

Riding through the sand dunes

We saw some people on the beach, but Zaandvort and the other beach resort towns must be completely packed on nice summer days.  There was a sign before the beach parking lots that listed how many parking spots were still available, and they had over 4,600 spots!  There was also a race track by Zaandvoort, which surprised me.  I thought that auto racing was mostly a “sport” for the United States, but it appears to be an international “sport”.  We also rode by a sand sculpture contest in one of the towns, and all the sand sculptures had a Disney theme.

Sand Sculpture Competition: Snow White and Seven Dwarves

Sand Sculpture Competition: Snow White and the Seven Dwarves

After leaving the coast, we rode through the big city of Den Haag, and we got completely lost.  The bike routes are well-marked until you get into the city when you really need signs to point the way, and it becomes harder to find the bike route.  We finally found our way again, and we were glad to get out of Den Haag.  We were thinking of taking a side trip to Rotterdam, which our bike book called the “beast”.   However, after riding through Den Haag, we had no inclination to ride through an ever bigger city.  We rode on to Delft and camped at a campground outside the city.  We rode through Delft on the way to city, and it was a such a neat-looking place that we decided to spend the next day exploring the city.

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