Europe 2014: Across the IJsselmeer..

Today's distance: 57km (36 Miles)

Follow-on from yesterday... Anita (our B&B host) dropped by later in the afternoon and asked us if we would like some of the Nasi-Goreng she was cooking for her family. I think she saw how tired we must have looked when we checked in. The nearest restaurant was a couple kilometers down the road, and we would have had to get on the bicycles again (ouch!). We of course took her up on that great offer. Nasi Goreng is an Indonesian dish of fried rice with chicken/pork and many different vegetables and spices. Indonesia was a former colony of Holland and this dish is very popular here. It was one of the "must-eat" items on our list so we lucked out with that delicious meal and a complimentary bottle of excellent Italian red wine.

Found out more about the skating awards and trophies in the B&B.. Anita's husband, Richard, won a lot of the long distance marathon skating events in the 1980's and 1990's including being the Dutch champion. Speed skating is a huge deal for the Dutch.. In case you were in a cave during the Winter Olympics, the Dutch took away most of the medals in most of the men's and women's events.

There is an outdoor long distance race that takes place in the Friesland province (where we are headed to today) that goes between 11 cities called the "Elfstedenstocht". It is about 120 miles long and is only held when it cold enough to freeze the canals to hold about 16,000 skaters. That has only happened four times in the last 50 years, the last one being in 1997. The whole of Holland practically stops when the event does take place. Imagine training for something that may or may not happen. There is no set date, just when it is cold enough. They announce the start within 48 hrs if it does.

Relatively short day on the bicycle, but a wonderful day of seeing lots of great things.. We rode about 7 km to Enkhuizen where we would catch a ferry over to Friesland. We had an extra hour to kill so we visited the Zuiderzee museum. It is a huge indoor and outdoor exhibit, and the lady at the reception told us it would typically take 3 hours to see it all. We decided to just do the indoor part which was really fascinating. All about the history of the early floods in Holland and then the eventual building of the Afsluitdijk about 100 years ago. Lots of other great exhibits about the region in general and the people. Wish we could have seen the outdoor exhibit, but we had a ferry to catch. Another trip perhaps..

The ferry was a pedestrian and bicycle only one and it took us about 90 min to get to Friesland. The wind was relatively calm but we saw lots of sailboats out on the water. Pics below.. We did the main riding for the day in Friesland where is was sunny and a comfortable 68 degrees (I know this must be tiring to hear for some of you...). Really enjoyed going through the Friesian farm country, mostly along canals or on top of old dikes. Lots of folks out and about enjoying the beautiful weather on a Sunday..

Checked into our B&B, "Zathe De Spieker" which is in a converted old farm house. We are staying in the Vincent Van Gogh room. Another fantastic place! More tomorrow since I have gotten carried away with the narrative so far...

Today's route to Friesland

Our breakfast.. The stawberries were the best we have ever tasted.. Made sandwiches for lunch on the ferry..

Nice combination of thatched and tiled roof.

Saw many of these stands with fruits/vegetables/flowers. All on the honor system of paying..

Local farm.

Small memorial to aviators who died in WWII nearby. Looks to be either American or British fighters.

Crossing an old draw bridge in Enkhuizen towards the Zuiderzee museum

Inside the museum

They had a great collection of old wooden boats.

Me next to one.

I hope this owner changes the name of his boat soon..

Classic Dutch sailboat out on the IJsselmeer.

Sea kayakers as well on the calm waters.

On the ferry.

New and old out on the calm IJsselmeer waters.

Coasting slowly along with the light breeze. That is the Friesian flag on the stern.

A twin master..

Dutch flag of ferry against blue skies.

A rain cloud was trying to chase us across the IJsselmeer

A festival in one of the villages we rode through in Friesland. This was one of the games where combatants on a pole try to knock each other off with large balls.