Netherlands

Netherlands

This time I thought that after more than a year of Covid, symbolically ended by a tornado in Moravia, there was enough excitement already and it would be wise to choose as the holiday starting point a place generally considered non-exciting, even boring. Belgium, for instance. Into which I would get boringly via Germany by train. This nice resolution failed immediately at the start: the west of Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg were hit by one in a century floods.

To avoid them at least partially, I departed from the seaside, from Amsterdam, bypassed the south of Belgium, returned to Luxembourg, and from there continued straight south to the next sea.

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This was not without trouble either: just as I arrived in Amsterdam, the Belgians switched the Netherlands to the red Covid code: foreigners were not allowed to enter Belgium from Netherlands for any non-essential travel.

However, the journey through the Netherlands was just perfect. Even if first of all, right during night of arrival, I had to get quickly used to the fact that cyclists of all speeds and moped riders were fearlessly rolling on bike paths from all directions without any warnings. But thereafter I just enjoyed the perfect weather, sunshine, no headwind, fresh air from the sea, the surface plain like a table – cycling in such a place is a pleasure. In addition, every town and village looks postcard-perfect, equipped with all the typical properties: windmills, canals and drawbridges.

Between Haarlem and The Hague, where a landscape of grassy sand dunes stretches from horizon to horizon, I stopped by to spend time as a true summer tourist, lying on the sandy beach and swimming in the sea.


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