We’ve now eaten seven breakfasts in the Netherlands.

At the first there were chocolate sprinkles on offer. We smiled. At home, kids might have them on ice cream.

Then they appeared day 2, then 3….and so on.

Today they came in fancy little boxes, and three varieties. Dark, milk or multi pastel colours.

By chance, ha ha as if Facebook has not been listening, this article appeared.

This is just the first part of the article, but we now realise this is a Dutch thing.

I watched a woman at breakfast today really have a good think as to which ones to select. She took about four.

I guess hagelslag will keep appearing, particularly as it lifts the national mood.

We headed off today a bit later to ride into Amsterdam, or A,dam as appear on many signs. By road the signs said about 10 km, but we were taking a longer coastal route of about 25 km.

Statues are everywhere in the Netherlands and we saw many today.

Our first one was close to our hotel in Voldendam.

Onto lovely quiet bike paths and roads that followed long dykes that were being upgraded.

Many of the small canals and ponds had what year they were built. This lake was 1910 I think. Some of the canals were from the late 1600’s.

A village, a statue.

Open paddocks with occasional villages.

The weather was a pleasant 18C. Here is a fisherman set up for the day.

Getting closer, large tourist canal boats become frequent.

Once we were in Amsterdam there were many, with buses galore bringing passengers back from wherever, others heading out to wherever.

The city. We had been warned by multiple people of the dangers of cycling in Amsterdam. We survived, thankfully it was a Sunday. I do not think it was any worse than Copenhagen.

Certainly we were on alert watching, eyes everywhere.

Stopping for a drink was challenging as the cafes don’t want your bikes near them, but stored with hundreds of others elsewhere. We don’t do that.

Then we found a small cafe next to Bagelboy, an incredibly busy and popular shop.

There are our bikes, just behind us, chained to the pole. I take my front pannier bag with me, as it contains money and passports.

Over the road, another statue.

These look nice, stoopwaffels?

I agree with this. My library room was part of an extension we undertook in 2019 and my favourite room. I love my books.

I had routed us around a few canals and three main parks, Amstelpark, Vondelpark and Amsterdamse Bos.

We follow the Amstel river.

We wind our way around the city to capture a glimpse and feel of the vibe.

If I was walking, I think I would use the hop on, hop off bus and take a canal cruise.

On bikes, we can cover a lot of ground, and the highlight for both of us was Amsterdamse Bos.

It was clean, large, spacious with a feeling of freedom, unlike the densely packed, rubbish ridden canal area. Rubbish was everywhere, cigarette butts littering the streetscape.

However, there were many nice vistas and interesting buildings too.

Amsterdamse Bos is around 1,000 hectares adjacent to the central city and Schiphol (Amsterdam airport).

It is three times the size of New York’s Central Park.

It has a world class rowing centre, that hosts World championships, and multiple other sporting facilities.

We thought it was great and could likely spend a day here just exploring the various paths.

We found an area that had a small children’s pool. A small kiosk sold cold drinks and fruity icy poles. We just sat back on the grass and chilled.

Leaving one park we headed to Vondelpark.

Then it was back to crazy land, and an anti war protest we needed to give way and wait to have pass.

We headed back to the main North Sea canal as we needed to cross over by ferry.

More interesting buildings and structures.

At the ferry crossing I’m trying to figure out how to pay to cross. I ask one lady and she said she did not know. I then asked a guy with a cargo bike, kids on board and he told me it’s free!!!

The ferry is packed full and only takes a few minutes.

We then had about 20 km to cycle ‘home’ as we took a different route.

This was a pretty area with many waterfront homes.

And….a windmill. This one was working and it was interesting to hear the flapping sound of the fabric on the blades.

Today’s route, 94 km in total. We did this a few years ago riding into London from Hampton Court.that was a similar length ride.

You can’t ‘see’ Amsterdam in a day. But you can gain an understanding of its vibe and sites.

Lots of museums and art galleries for those on foot if that interests you.

We are back in the relative quiet of Voldendam. We went back to the same Italian restaurant, sat at the same table, served by the same waiter, ordering the same as the previous night.

Tomorrow we ride the outskirts of Amsterdam heading to Delft.

We have three more nights in the Netherlands. Loved it.

The weather this week is looking possibly sketchy, but we will take it a day at a time.

Our total km for the trip is 1,613.

A few last photos as we closed the curtains.