My cousin Vonnetje gave us some information to think about. Do we take the bike bus across the Ijsselmeer or do we take a boat across? She says….”by boat it is lovely and easy!”
Due to construction on the Afsluitdijk, you are not able to cycle across. It is 32 km long. I was on it once – we drove across in 2014 prior to the construction starting. It felt like you were in the middle of the Sea! Haha – probably because we were. Click on the link above to learn more about this major spectacular dam they built in 1927 (completed 5 years later in 1932).
The ferry boat “BEP GLASIUS” takes you on a relaxing crossing over the IJsselmeer. It is 80 minutes by boat. The IJsselmeer lake we are cycling around is the largest lake in the Netherlands. It used to be an inlet of the North Sea and our ingenious Dutch built a massive dijk (the Afsluitdijk) and dammed it off in 1932 (I know I blogged about this before, but it just amazes me how they built this in the early 1900’s – when I was standing on the middle of it in 2014, I remember thinking – incredible!)
If we take the boat across we can spend more time in this small village of Stavoren. Which looks lovely! They say “the appearance of this city can certainly be called non-Frisian. It’s like you are in Copenhagen when you walk along the harbour and look across the sea.” From Stavoren to our next night’s stay in Hindeloopen it is about a 30 minute cycle.
They have 3 ferries a day. The first one is 8:45 a.m. and I am thinking this is the one that we will want to be on so that we can spend the day in Stavoren. Otherwise the next one doesn’t get us there until 2 p.m.
But Vonnetje also recommended that we visit the Zuiderzee Museum in Enkhuizen. It looks very interesting. If we can’t get to see it on the day we arrive in Enkhuizen, we could adjust the ferry and take the one out just after Noon, and visit the museum in the morning.
Oh yeah……but we might cycle from Enkhuizen to Hindeloopen 95 km! 32 km of that would be by bus. If we take the bus, we will cycle a lot that day – 70 km as opposed to less than 20 km. and we will miss out on Stavoren. Hmm… what should we do?!!
If you were cycling this trip, what would you do – BUS or FERRY?
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