6th May 2016
Medemblik

After a quick trip to the nearby Aldi and Deen, we had an early lunch and then headed for the station. It was such a hot sunny day, we had to cover ourselves with sunblock. Hottest day this year - 24c. We even cycled in short sleeves.

The train was waiting in the station when we arrived at the restored station house which dates from 1887. As there would be no return trip from Hoorn today, we put the bikes in the baggage caboose at the back. 

Hoorn - Medemblik heritage steam tram.

Happily there was a lot of whistle blowing along the way and the staff at both the station and on the train were all dressed in period costumes, adding to the atmosphere. 

"OK, you can blow the whistle now!"

Flashing her bloomers.

The line is very rural, through fields of horses and tulips. Lots of miniature horses and foals. Too cute!

At Hoorn station, one can wander around the steam engine repair/restoration shed. 

We eventually found the first knoppunt of the cycle route back to Medemblik. The cycleroutes are all well numbered and go from knoppunt (I guess you could translate that as "node") to knoppunt, each with an individual number. They branch off every couple of kms or so in different directions and at each one you choose the number of the next one on your preplanned route. They tend to take one on the most interesting/pretty routes available for the area and we have discovered so many wonderful villages by following them rather than the obvious road routes. 

There was a fair in one of the towns we cycled through today, with carriage racing as well as all the usual fairground attractions - rides for the kids, tombolas and junk food.

Today´s route took us through one of the prettiest villages, Twisk, we have seen in the Netherlands. Reminded me a bit of Giethoorn, but without the tourists. Huge trees line the streets and small bridges lead over a small canal to the houses on the other side. 

Twisk

I bought myself the book of cycle routes last summer, and a great investment it has proved to be. We do have a tendency to go wrong however. The signs are not always as obvious as they could be and the riders not as attentive as they should be. We did go quite dramatically wrong and went at least 6 km out of our way at one point. We were concerned about the batteries with the extra distance so dropped the battery assist down to its lowest setting which meant a lot more pedalling.  We ended up doing a total of 31km. Skip was muttering ...

BUT we made it back OK and rewarded ourselves with dinner at a harbourside cafe. Worth it!!

PS:  Thanks a million to Pat & Dani for taking care of Merle, and also to Gunther - we are having a wonderful time and could´nt do it without you.

PPS:  Don´t forget, you can make the photos bigger by clicking on them.