Holland by bike - 7

The trip we were making was not just about the cycling, which we enjoyed, but it was also about immersing ourselves in another culture, although we had not expected to get so much pleasure from this. Each night we spent in the house of a Vrienden was an experience all of is own. In the small town of Bergen we found ourselves welcomed into a large historic monument of a house designed in the style of the Amsterdamse school of architecture, perhaps the equivalent of our 'Art Deco' movement. On this occasion the owner was not home when we arrived but we had been invited to use the garden so made ourselves comfortable until she arrived home a short while later. We had our own room upstairs with all facilities laid on and the following morning we sat around after breakfast chatting, exchanging details about our respective lives, which is all part of the pleasure of staying somewhere like this. Wherever we were we always left in the morning, after eating the ample breakfast our hosts provided for us, with a feeling of sadness that we could not stay longer with such kind and welcoming people.

On this occasion we knew we had a tough day ahead of us - a ride south into Amsterdam. Once again the heat had returned and unlike our ride from Den Helder, this time we would be facing a fresh southeasterly breeze, a headwind coming from exactly the direction we were due to be going. Cycling itself always creates a headwind so this has to be added on. Then, to make things worse, in order to reduce the length of the day's ride our route would follow the straightest line, mostly alongside a road busy with weekend traffic, so we knew there would be few hiding places and we could expect little relief from the wind.

The continuous traffic noise combined with the heat sapped our energy so we were massively relieved when we finally arrived at the ferry crossing (free for bikes, like all the ferries here in the capital) taking us over the Noordzeecanaal into the centre of Amsterdam. This was where we had planned another pause - two nights in a hostel - to allow our bodies to recover a little before moving on. However nothing could prevent us from doing a little sightseeing the next morning.

I must mention the new talent I mastered after arriving in Holland. Many road junctions have a set of traffic lights for the cars, another for pedestrians and yet another set for cyclists. The trick for the cyclist is to ride up to the stop line and come to a halt right beside the iron post which has the lights control button on it. This is clearly designed so that by stopping alongside it at a precise distance and holding the top of the post to balance, one's feet never have to leave the pedals. The post has a smooth top from use by the hands of many people using it to balance and once the lights turn green, a quick push off on the post makes restarting easy and you're pedalling across the road before you know it. It takes time to master the trick but it makes you feel like a Dutch cyclist if you can do it.

Amsterdam, like most cities, is a mad busy place to hang out in and our short walkabout highlighted for us the complications of crossing a road in this city. For a pedestrian, starting from a footpath at the side of the road, the first hazard to cope with is the red tarmac bike lane - strictly one way but rules can be broken so watch out! Next in line comes the first part of the road - full of cars and don't forget to look left. Once across this you meet the tramway, one track for each direction - bells and flashing lights will warn you if one of these beasts is coming your way. Cross this safely and you meet the cars again but from the other direction so look right this time. This is followed by another red tarmac bike lane and be warned, cyclists are not expecting to have to give way to a mere pedestrian. There is a sense of relief when the footpath is finally reached on the other side.

In some ways the bike lanes can be the most dangerous part of the crossing given the wide variety of pedal powered vehicles that are used. Many of the larger and the more modern bikes are electric and tend to be moving at some speed but they do usually keep to the lane where they should be. I should stress that my comments here relate to a big city environment and cycling is far more relaxed elsewhere. We come from a small village environment and no city is ever going to be our favourite place to move around in.

We stayed at several hostels during the course of our tour and if there was a common element to them it was probably that we are always by far the oldest people staying there. Amsterdam was no different in this respect but our room was clean and quiet (once the neighbour from the flats next door had stopped singing) and the food was well prepared and quite varied. Surprisingly most of what was on offer here was suitable for us vegetarians to eat, something we have not found elsewhere in Holland. Often restaurants have no vegetarian option at all and this led us always asking to see the menu before sitting down to eat. If there was a negative about our touring here then the attitude towards vegetarianism is it. (One menu even described something as 'vegan meat', a total contradiction in terms from our viewpoint.) To avoid too many embarrassing situations we occasionally avoided eating out by buying food from a supermarket to eat cold in the room where we were staying... but we soon realised we had no forks to eat it with. So rather than buy a complete dinner set, which we didn't need, we settled for a very nice set of chopsticks which did the job perfectly!

It goes without saying that in such a cycle friendly country our Amsterdam hostel had secure cycle storage; on this occasion our steeds were safely secured in a purpose built bike shed. In fact the only downside of our stay there was having to climb up three flights of stairs to find our bedroom due to a broken lift, not an activity we welcomed after a day of riding. Then in the morning after breakfast it began to dawn on us that we were facing a ride out of the city to get to the location of our final night stay, another Vrienden house in Zaandam, just outside the city boundary. To get there would mean negotiating the crowded streets outside once more.

The ride was stressful, bikes, cars and trams coming at us from all directions, it seemed, but then suddenly we arrived at the ferry to recross the Noordzeecanaal, along with a crowd of schoolchildren (on bikes, of course), and once on the other side we were suddenly away from all the rushing about. It was like a switch had been thrown. The absence of noise was almost deafening, and there were more windmills waving at us than we had seen anywhere on our trip.

So here we are, finally, at the home of another Vrienden for our last night in Holland. The view from the rear window felt very Dutch - the canal within touching distance - and our hosts, two sisters, left us in peace after giving us a key should we feel the need to go out, which we didn't. The room we were in had a cooker and a fridge stocked up with food for our breakfast next morning. In short, it was perfect.