We had picked up our panniers at the bike shop on Sunday evening so we could pack them at our place. in the morning we took the tram to the bike shop. Bart the manager who I have been dealing with for two years was on holidays and the young boys didn’t have our reservation, but we got it sorted and got our bikes! We were right beside Vondel Park so it was great that we could practice cycling on an E-bike through the park. Wow what a difference when you add a bit of power behind your cycle. The bike has power up to 5 and 8 gears.
We had to pack wisely since we have to carry all our gear. The panniers are 28 litres. When we got all our packs on we were all a bit wobbly. Debbie thought her bike was broken. lol. It didn’t take long to get used to having the extra weight.
I think all of us knew that getting out of Amsterdam by bike would be our biggest challenge. But we did it! it took us a bit longer as we made many wrong turns but finally we got to the Schellingwouderburg ( which is a bridge). When we looked back at our route on our Fitbits it doesn’t look too bad. Yay!
It was amazing how you instantly go from city to country. We are now among cows and sheep and horses.
We are following the LF route which is the Zuiderzee Route. We found out quickly that it wasn’t as easy to follow this route as we didn’t see the signs. Also we found out that sometimes the dykes are closed. Even though you are in the country there are many on the cycling paths. We got the help from a nice lady who pointed us in the right direction. We then started following the dutch number system. The entire country’s cycling paths are broken into numbers so if you know where you are going and have the numbers you are okay.
Good thing we packed some snacks and our leftover Indian food. Debbie packed wine and some very small cups. It was like we were having communion! lol.
When we left Amsterdam they said it was 7 degrees although it felt warmer. When we arrived at our place in between Edam and Volendam it was sunny and 14. We are right on the LF Zuiderzee route and right on the Isjjelmeer lake. We have a great B & B owned by a young guy Dirkjan. He used to run it with his Dad but sadly his Dad passed away 5 years ago. He is a musician and entertained us during breakfast.
We cycled into Volendam for dinner. A gorgeous village on the water. We had local sea bass which was so yummy.
We cycled 45 km from Amsterdam to Edam. For sure having an E-bike makes for some fun biking! It was easy biking but we still managed to burn 1,000 calories. We cycled 5 hours, with about 30 minutes of cardio and 2 and a half hours of fat burning heart zones. So more wine for us!!
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