Zomer in Zeeland 3

Not yet 9 am and I am supposed to vacate the premises but it is pleasant to sit here on a cool morning of a forecasted hot day (30°), hearing dogs barking in the distance. Over a hedge of large shiny green leaves is a broad lawn with a patch of hollyhocks and gladioli in the middle.

Zomer in Zeeland 2

From Rockanje I rode south alongside farms, then went up on the Haringvliet Sluizen, the northern section of the massive Delta Works dam, to reach Goeree, a finger-like peninsula that looks like part of Zeeland but is actually Zuid-Holland. From the east end I took the coast trail. It is as beautiful as the last time I took it in the reverse direction, a packed white sand path rolling through the dunes, fringed with shrubs and some raspberries, glimpses of the deserted beach and open sea between gaps.

Zomer in Zeeland 1

Brielse Meer dive platform

So I'm off on my grand summer fiets tour of Zeeland. It's hot and I'm at the south bank of the Brielse Meer, a little west of the bridge to Rozenburg-Maassluis. In other words, going the opposite direction from my last trip to Zeeland. Another difference is that then it was overcast and chilly, today it is hot and sunny. The back of my neck is sweating. I sit at a picnic table alongside a canal where some pleasure craft are moored, 60ish couples with shirtless, paunchy guys skippering the boats, same sort who'd be RV'ing it in America. A bunch of boys claiming the bridge foundation as their diving platform. I'm a few miles from Brielle. I'll skirt the beachy perimeter of Voorne island and head for the evening's destination, Rockanje.

Rondje Zijpe

The Sand: Callantsoog beach

A week later I'm trying another ride from the "rivers, lakes and coast" guide: Rondje Zijpe, named for the reclaimed farmlands north of Alkmaar. The route goes through these polder-lands, devoted primarily to flower production, then jogs west to the low-key coastal resort of Callantsoog, continues south through the coastal dunes to the village of Petten and finally loops back through some old farmsteads dotted with windmills.

IJssel Delta - Day 2

Kampen

I had breakfast with the three economists, two from Den Haag and one from Kampen, all in their 50s or so. Nice fellows but obviously on a different page from my own as regards cycling styles, all decked out in lycra with serious racing bikes. Every year they get together for a ride of 100km or so. They just want to tear up the fietspad. They were headed for Lelystad in Flevoland. I was planning a modest circuit of Kampereiland, then a leisurely ride to Zwolle.

Door de IJsseldelta

Time for a fietstocht (Dutch for "bike ride," with a phlegm-clearing fricative on the second syllable).

I've been browsing through the ANWB cycling guide I borrowed from the library, Rivieren, Meren en Kust, which after all are the sorts of places that most interest me in Holland, aka Waterworld. Many interesting rides described, e.g., up along the coast of Callantsoog north of Alkmaar; along the Geldse Rijn into Germany; and the lakes and windmills east of Leiden. It was tough to decide but I finally chose "Door de IJsseldelta," the watery zone north of Zwolle, on Kampereiland.

As there did not appear to be a direct train to Kampen, the departure point, I'm going to Zwolle--in any case a city I would like to revisit--and will cycle from there to Kampen.