Mayan Prophecy Countdown

I had been told there would be nothing happening until after midday, fair enough, but I woke up earlier than that and managed to update a few days worth of travel, have some brekky and basically relax. It was gone 3pm before we ventured outside, the plan of using the bikes out the window, as the rain squalls were coming through regularly, and we had LianYa’s car to use 🙂 Vincent had a few ideas of places to show me, and we used the back country roads to get there, we were heading towards the coast as I wanted to stick my finger in a dyke.

It was mainly agricultural land around here with many traditional windmills lining the roadways, but we eventually arrived in the town of Edam, of cheese fame. This was when we were very lucky we were in a car as it bucketed down, so we stopped for a snack of pancakes and hot chocolate, but still got wet going from the car to the cafe.

The pancake was nice and quite filling and once the rain had stopped we headed off again, by this time the cheese shops had closed, so my idea of buying a small Edam was gone, never mind 😉 The next stop was at an inland see, created by building a dyke and here were many old fishing vessels and also where they sell the smoked eels and herring from a traditional little shop.

So, we stopped for a beer, as you do and chatted a while 🙂

Then we headed off to see one of the main dykes in the area, but on the way, remember them space cakes I had bought yesterday, well it seemed to be a good time to have a munch, while out in the countryside near the dykes 🙂 We parked up and bolted up the side of the dyke, because it was blowing a gale and another rain squall was coming in, we did not take too long in getting the required pictures 🙂

You can see how strong the wind is as my beard is nearly horizontal! But I did manage to get the required photo of me stopping the leaks, so it is all good 🙂 The next and final stop for the day was in the city of Alkmaar itself. They also have many canals in this town and run canal boat tours as well, but we stuck to dry land and looked at the old buildings instead, including the cheese HQ, here every Friday they have a special market day of all the farmers cheeses on display to be bought and sold in the market square. Of course I arrived Friday but at 9pm this would have been and gone. As it was there were a few bars open here on Sunday night, some quite lively, but we had a nice dinner in one of the quieter ones. It was going to be just myself and Vincent, but as it turns out I had left my sunnies in the car and although LianYa had intended heading back to Amsterdam she turned around to bring them back, thanks you very much. Of course, this meant now she joined us for dinner. This was also around the time the space cakes kicked in, a very definite moment in time, LOL, what a buzz, being stoned while having dinner 🙂

Needless to say, there were a few giggles happening before we headed back to Vincent’s for an early night. I was planning on being on the road tomorrow, I also needed to contact Gerbing and get my controller repaired and pick up my battery charger from Dave before getting new tyres put on in Bergen-Belsen.

Cheers from Alkmaar, Nederland
TravellingStrom