May 14th in words

We are really spoiled in this AirBnb, they provide all sorts of food and drink plus bikes! We thought we’d try out the bikes today. First, I must explain that the bikes are stored in a shed/old green house and it is full of treasures. One of the treasures is a shelf full of buttons. The owner explained that there was a tailor who closed shop and that is how she got all the buttons. She plays a game with her grandchildren; she says every button has a story. So they pick a button and together they write a story that is half reality and half fantasy!

I thought it would be easier to take pictures being on bikes than in the car but I was wrong. The hardest part with these bikes is that to brake you need to pedal backwards. I never realized how often I pedaled backwards when biking around so I was constantly breaking when I didn’t mean to. But then when you need to stop, how do you break and put your foot down! And then when I go to start, I always seem to have the wrong pedal up so I go to stand on the pedal and end up breaking – who knew there was such a thing as “Right handed” when it comes to riding a bike. Despite all that, according to good old google (not including some of our detours) we biked 33kms. (Link to map). We biked from Honselersdijk to Kijkduin via Madestein, which is a beautiful park with lots of trees, canals and birds. At Kijduin, after lunch at the sea, we got onto the paths that went through the dunes. Not sure this was the wisest because it was a strong head wind but we made it to Scheveningen. We rather quickly decided that we liked the quiet of the beach and the dunes over the city and headed back to the way we came. This time at Kijkduin we stayed on the path along the coast and went to Ter Heijde before heading back home.

After a short rest, we headed out again, this time with the car, to Hoek van Holland. Here we walked along the pier watching the big ships and the waves.

Then it was a quick trip to the grocery store (Albert Hein) – finally found some gluten free products for Michael, including strope waffles! By the time we got home it was almost nine so dinner ended up being a brodje met kaas (bun with cheese) for me and a brodje met kip (Bun with chicken) for Michael.