Posted by Elizabeth. When I pictured Holland I imagined canals and green spaces, farmland and healthy attractive blond people on bicycles. All of that is certainly true but what I didn't imagine was a beautiful coastline along the North Sea.
We have spent the last 16 days in Haarlem just 15 min by train west of Amsterdam. It's a lovely town full of bike lanes and canals with a picturesque town square and an old fashioned windmill. We just loved it. Every day we rode into town or to the train station to hop the commuter train to Amsterdam. But yesterday we spent the day on the coast. Just outside of town between Haarlem and the sea (or zee in Dutch) is a national park full of sand dunes and wildlife. As expected there are ample paved bike trails through the park and a loop of about an hour and a half that goes through wonderful scenery and ends at the beach. Biking in Holland is easy because there aren't any hills. There were a few small ones over the dunes but we mostly rode at or below sea level. We saw bison, deer, tiny ponies and beautiful swans. There were wetlands and lakes full of birds. At the end there's a popular beach with an outdoor restaurant and a wide soft sand beach full of kids, parents and kites.
Just down the beach is party central--a section of the beach about a quarter mile long that is made for the 25 year old Dutch model and her surfing boyfriend turned start up mogul. It's all comfy lounges with overstuffed furniture, bikinis galore and dance raves at the weekend. They were setting up for beach party that night and cars, mopeds and bikes were streaming into the area. We decided to skip the festivities. Maybe if I had the right bikini...
On the train headed back to Paris today. Can't get enough of that city. We have some big plans including a visit to the cat cafe, Versailles, a literature tour and a World War II tour.
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