June 23, 2018
Day 89: Edam to Amsterdam
We had collected quite a few maps and pamphlets for the Amsterdam area. We always want to bring or send things like that home, but both postal costs and storage space needed at home have become ridiculous. So we reluctantly ditched most of this stuff.
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As always happens, our B&B host, Kees, came out into the street to see us off. B&B's have worked out well this trip, being neither more nor less expensive than hotels but most often (but not always) offering larger rooms and better breakfasts.
We headed off down the short road to Edam town. Marvin expressed what we have all been thinking all along - what a terribly pleasant experience it is to cycle a road like this.
Despite its international fame, the town of Edam remains quiet and very attractive. Its population is only about 7,000. One might call it a suburb of adjacent Volendam, but then Volendam itself has only 22,000 people. The whole area is just pleasant and uncrowded, period.
I would guess that Edam has not been able to protect its name, so that cheese by that name might be produced anywhere. We did see one industrial scale factory somewhere out of town. Meanwhile anything actually in the cute town centre is for the benefit of tourists (like us!).
The main cheese related thing is a square where in summer on Wednesdays a "cheese market" is held. From what I could see, this would be a tourist recreation more than a place for farmers to actually sell their cheese.
There is a store in the square that holds down the responsibility of giving tourists something to look at when the "market" is not in operation. There is a small display there of antique cheese making equipment, and a good selection of cheese to buy. I asked there one of the same questions I had asked in Gouda - what is the difference between Gouda and Edam cheese? The answer given was the same in both places: Gouda is 48% butter fat while Edam is 40%. (40% is still pretty high - we often buy 18% mozzarella, for pizza.)
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Edam held two other things of interest to us. One was, of course, the bakery. Dutch bakery is kind of strange. On the one hand, you can not count on it for consistent greatness. Often, it is very plain. But the Dutch brought back from their Asian empire a love of cinnamon, ginger, and other spices that come out in their baking in a unique and often very pleasant way.
The second thing we wanted was a bike shop. I felt this would be a good chance to pick up an Ortlieb handlebar mount for use back home, and Erica was looking for both some gloves and for pedals that might offer increased grippiness. We found the bike shop, which had an impressive number of gorgeous looking Dutch e-bikes. I got the handlebar mount but Marvin and Erika ran into a salesman that caused them to basically flee the shop. For some reason he would not let them touch anything. For example, Marvin reached out to a pedal on a display bike, so as to say "something like this could work". The man basically told Marvin "don't touch".
Maybe this was just the one man in the one shop, but maybe it's something characteristic of the culture, sort of an innate antipathy to the customer: Skipping ahead in the day, at noon we stopped at a restaurant with outdoor seating. We sent one of us in to order four bowls of soup and two lots of fries - for a 30 euro total. Back out at our table, we also pulled out some bread and cheese (bought in Edam!). When the waitress came with the soup she told us we were not allowed to eat our own bread at the table. The strange thing was that the soup also came with bread, which was brought to us. So now there were two lots of bread in front of us - one "legal", one 'illegal". Give me a break! Anyway, being Canadian we did not make a fuss. But we still ate all the bread, regardless of source.
Dodie and I recalled a similar situation that once happened to us in England. We had bought some cookies at a bakery, and went to the outdoor seating of a coffee shop, ordering coffee and hot chocolate to have with the cookies. We were told we could not eat the cookies at the table.
Readers - any experiences, thoughts on this weighty matter of restaurant policy?
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Leaving Edam and heading north and east toward the "Beemster" area I was struck by how garden like the country is here. There were flowers at all houses, all manner of birds taking advantage of the canals and fields, large polders covered in cows or sheep or horses or all together. Houses grew increasingly attractive, using the design of a square brick base and huge roof, with glossy tiles and/or thatch. It was all like one continuous garden centre, or farm tour, or home show, or all of the above.
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From the Beemster region we continued through calm and peaceful polders. At one point we came to a fun canal crossing, where the cyclist is expected to power the little ferry, by turning a crank that draws the boat along by a chain. Marvin much enjoyed pulling the boat to us in this way. Then two other cyclists provided the power that brought us all to the other side. It was great fun and good team work.
We continued happily until a bit of a rude awakening, at Zaanse Schans. Zaanse Schans is a little enclave where traditional houses and many windmills have been moved in and installed. There is also a museum, chocolate factory, wooden shoe factory, an other traditional Dutch activities being demonstrated. This in itself was fine and highly interesting. The rude awakening, was that after a peaceful day in the polders we found we had rolled back into the chaos that is Amsterdam. Zaanse Schans is a standard half day tour offered out of the train station area in town. People were being bussed and boated in in droves. We were running short on time in our day anyway, but had we wanted to check out any of the attractions in detail, it would have been a struggle to deal with the crowds.
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The crowds of Amsterdam were of course still on the menu for us, as we needed to return the bikes near the station and make our way 20 or 30 km out to our airport hotel. The first step was the ferry that crosses the bit of water just at the station. It's a study in efficiency, really, scooping up a throng of people and dumping them on one side, then another throng, to the other side.
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From the bike rental near the station we still had a 20 km long cycle through the city and then its south west outskirts through all forest and then out to the Best Western at the airport. This was our last cycle of this tour, and we tried our best to absorb and enjoy it. Inside the city, I focussed on being unrattled. Travelling down the same street, or same type of street where we had had our "discussion" with the taxi driver, was ready when another one popped up and was getting ready to shove us aside. Instead, Dodie and I took the dead centre of the lane, and just would not be moved until it was safe. Then I let cycles and mopeds whiz by this way and that, and was totally unmoved and uncaring. At least, that was my mental game plan.
We passed through the Vondel Park, and into a region where we had not gone before. This showed us many modern buildings of the town, such as the hospital.
Finally we went through a really pleasant small forest, and emerged by the modern buildings of the airport. But we skirted by these and again followed a pleasant canal, for a bit. Finally we arrived at the modern Best Western. It has "real" North American sized rooms and great facilities. We easily stashed the bikes in Marvin and Erika's room, and embarked on sorting out our stuff mutually, so each couple would have the right stuff for the journeys they were about to do.
Now at midnight, I have left out some parts of today's story, in the interest of waking up again in 6 hours. Stay tuned. This blog is heading for a conclusion, but it's not over yet! Tomorrow I will fill in some of today's blanks, hope to meet fellow Europe cycle tourists the Nicholson's from Kamloops at the airport, and see if we can actually make it 10,000 km back to Cobble Hill.
Today's ride: 85 km (53 miles)
Total: 5,960 km (3,701 miles)
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I can't promise to be nearly as good at this journaling thing, but I'm trying!
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