Day 107: Zeewolde to Lelystad, Netherlands: At the bottom of the Zuiderzee

September 3, 2012

Flevoland is an island, about 20 km wide and 40 km long, a little northeast of Amsterdam, and floating in the Markermeer (and a few other meers). The crazy thing is that Flevoland is in the middle of the former Zuiderzee. The Zuiderzee was shut off from the main North Sea by the 30 km long Afluisdijk, and Flevoland was reclaimed from the zee. Flevoland rather recently became a full fledged province of the Netherlands, with its capital at Lelystad. You can read more about it at, of course, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flevoland

There are six communities on Flevoland, including Lelystad, which is where we are now. Cycling today, we hit most of the others.

Ah, that brings me to the question of how did we find our way. Ok, here is the definitive statement on how to get around in the Netherlands: The big thing is that there is both a network of bike (or bike plus scooter) paths, going everywhere, and bike paths beside almost every road. The point to point numbering system is a great guide to the network of bike paths. But the usefulness is mainly for short trips around given communities.

If you want to actually get somewhere easily, then you need to use the roads, or rather, the bike paths by the roads. The great part is that there is a system of direction signs for these. The signs are found on poles with a red bicycle graphic at the very top. Below are directional signs, pointing to towns and giving the distance. Red signs refer to paths beside a road, and with scooters, while green ones refer to bicycle only paths, not usually beside a road.

So, the way to go is what we are all used to when going by car: follow a road sign to the next town. Only in this case, the road will also have a bikeway beside it. Oh yes, one other advantage about the roads – they are generally where the services are, and almost by definition, run through the towns. (We are talking about normal roads, not autobahns). So on the roads you have the best chance of finding groceries, restaurants, and camping.

Since eastern Flavoland does not actually have any point to point points, using the “road” signs was actually a no brainer!

What we did was to skirt around the island counter clockwise, from our starting point in the south at Zeewolde. The east “coast” is there because water was deliberately left on that side (for flood control and to give access to the larger water bodies to the west). What was clearly created, though, was an incredible water playland. The east side has marinas and beaches and camping. The land is of course flat, and now has forests. We are not sure who exactly “owns” these lands, but there are a lot of great looking wild camping spots to be found all around it.

Beach and water on the Flavoland east side

Some cows, but not many in Flavoland. Instead of poo, it smells like onion fields.

Typical bicycle path sign near an auto road.

As we pedalled north, by the water, we had views of flat green land and blue water. This fit Dodie’s image of what Holland is all about, and she much enjoyed looking at it, as we glided along the smooth and safe bike paths. I enjoyed it too, but frankly there was less to photograph than even among the pristine and uniform farms of yesterday.

As we reached farther north and west, large dead flat bright green fields appeared. There were also corn fields, and some very tidy and well pruned apple and pear orchards. Most notable were the wind turbines. Every view had a dozen or more turbines. Rather than being packed into wind farms, they seemed more like sprinkled over the landscape. Maybe further north, on the edges of the actual sea, we will find them in denser formations. Anyway, as always, we find them an elegant addition to the viewscape.

We had a look in places like Biddinghuizen. We did not fully know the history of Flavoland then, but it was immediately clear that we would not be finding any 600 year old Rathauses or churches to go wow at. So, for instance, we gave Dronten – in the middle of the island, a miss.

A confusing sign about the camping location had us stalled and puzzling at the outskirts of Lelystad. Again, a super nice Dutch person not only asked if he could help, but guided us 2 km right to the gate of the camping.

So now we are set to cross the Markermeer on the dike (Markerwaarddijk), and go look at Edamand other towns on the other side. Tonight though, we are apparently sleeping at the bottom of the Zuiderzee!

This typical Dutch bike displays some of the features: Made by Gazelle, the premier brand here, has child carrier up front, with windshield, uses non Ortlieb saddle bag type bags for groceries, low step through, etc.

Bakery here is undistnguished, but this de facto "pain aux raisins" at Lidl was a good as real ones from France. The Dutch label called it coffee bread, or something.

A grocery store, with some Dutch bikes scattered outside. Many more are in the parking lot.

A decorated cow mixes cow and tulip icons

Biddingheuzen - we found nothing old - of course.

The town clock in Swifterbant, viewed from a tractor dealer's.

A Vestas turbine. In British Columbia Vestas wanted to partner with the government in turbine production, but got turned down. What dopes they were at BC Hydro!

Today's ride: 76 km (47 miles)
Total: 5,530 km (3,434 miles)

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