Biking the Netherlands

The beautiful weather from yesterday vanished and the morning greeted us, gray, foggy and cold. We braved it to the car to get our bikes and found the tourist information office. When asked what we could do indoors that woman directed us to the next town over with lots of museums. Well this isn’t really our style so we decided after much debate to put on all the clothes we brought and bike to this town.
The town was Leiden and it is a university town about 12 kilometers from Noordwijk. For us it was about 16 km because we followed road signs instead of the bike signs initially and started by going in a giant circle. The landscape is beautiful but it was a bit cold to be adding to the ride.

Windmill in Leiden
By the time we hit Leiden we were ready for lunch and a thaw. One of the first restaurants we saw looked promising and warm. Lunch of paninis and fries hit the spot but the best was yet to come. The cherry fly pie is a Netherlands dessert. It has a soft bottom sort of like a cheesecake and then cherries on top – delicious!!!
Haarlam street was a main street full of shops and we hit pay dirt, of all places, in a lamp store. They had a stained glass lamp of a giraffe and elephant which we had to have for our African digs. The only problem arose when we had to figure out how to get this giant box 12 km home on our bikes. In the end Curt found a way and wore out his forearm trying to hold it. But he made it and we were back in Noordwijk for dinner.
For some reason we always want Chinese and of course they are everywhere. The buffet in town was great and we ate our weight in Chinese food. Unfortunately it was too cold to stroll on the beach so the day was done for us.

Mermaid marking hotel in town Noordwijk.