On Sunday we went for a short, meandering bike ride, ostensibly to pick blackberries between Haarlem and Sloterdijk. We were armed with containers for the blackberries, sandwiches and liquid – a couple of cans of beer and fruit juices.

Yes we picked blackberries, Yes there were plenty, but we were wearing sandals and that is not a very good thing when inside the blackberry bushes trying to reach the tastiest and biggest berries. Now neither Best Beloved nor I are very tall here in the Netherlands. Yes I know what you are thinking – that I am not very tall anywhere, but here it is also true that Best Beloved is not very tall either. The blackberry bushes are very tall and one needs to lean down to the lower bushes or try to reach higher than tall Netherlanders to collect berries.

Both options are fraught, in fact all options are fraught if you are wearing sandals.

Still we did gather a few, we (Best Beloved) was trapped in the blackberries, and had some difficulty extracting himself. I only got one large prickle in my big toe.

And we ran out of liquid on this blazing hot day – and there are very few public toilets out in the fields and I don’t have the picnic equipment that Best Beloved has – so we decided to ride to Sloterdijk – to use the toilet at the station and then replenish our liquid supplies. Which we did.

I just don’t know why we didn’t just go home at that point – we had already ridden 16 or 17 k’s on the bikes and collected blackberries.

No, me and my big mouth – I said why don’t we just ride into Amsterdam, you know, just for the fun of it. And so we did. It was a lovely ride, we have great pictures of great sculpture and delightful vistas, and at about 22 or so k’s nearly in the heart of Amsterdam, by Prinsengracht – we (I) decided we should turn back.

And you know the old story, the Johnstons are out riding, the wind says here they come – lets get them, and we rode back into the wind all the way home to Haarlem. It was truly exhausting and very slow riding.

So our little meandering journey became 42 + k’s just like that, and about 20K’s of it was riding into the face of the wind.

I need a zip on my mouth – so that our journeys are not extended too much when we are out there.

It was last Sunday. We were well rested, and the effects of this spring seemed to have lessened a bit for us both.

It was nearly a great day – this Bison hunting day.

We left home reasonably early, and as we always do we took clothes for the rain, and clothes for the wind. We had to stop about 1k from home to add clothes to protect from the wind.

Now Morgan has given us both a special Swiss bag for carrying across the body over one shoulder and it has pockets for everything. It is a great thing for hiking as they do in Switzerland and for cycling as we do here in the Netherlands.

Mine contained my little Samsung camera to take those all important Bison photos, my puffer for my asthma, my strepsils for my sore throat, and my sun tan lotion for the sun, tissues for you know what, and did I say it already; probably, but I also took my little Samsung camera to take the all important Bison photos.

I know you are saying out there – what am I on about.

Well, I added a sleeveless sweater vest thing to stop the wind. I took off the wonderful Swiss bag, the gift from Morgan, put on my Vest thing, and reduced the affect of the wind. I rode off happily without my Swiss bag, my camera, my puffer, my suntan lotion, my strepsils, my tissues, and oh dear, my camera.

We rode for nearly 5k’s before we realised. That is we rode to our destination – the Bison Park, well it isn’t called the Bison Park, but just now I cannot remember what it is called. But we rode there all the same, stopped the bikes, started to lock them up and I realised I didn’t have the bag, the wonderful Swiss bag from Morgan.

and that Best Beloved rode gallantly back to see if he could find the bag – not a hope.

But the best thing that happened on this day is that there were no Bison to be seen anywhere. So the camera wasn’t needed.

But I would like 4gb memory card back

So if you found the bag – you can have it, I just want the photos I have not downloaded from our boat day the day before.

So if you have the bag and camera and all the other bits and pieces in it – we can swap – I will give you the charger for the camera battery and you will give me the 4gb card with the photos on it still.

Message for Morgan don’t buy us another bag. We can replace it ourselves, as well as the camera. I just hope we get the memory card back.

We three (Best Beloved, son, and myself) took a ride on our bicycles to the beach at Parnassia on Saturday. Of course we rode into the wind going out and into the wind for most of the ride back home again. The starting point was Haarlem, out throught the Kennemer Dunes (Duinen) to the beach and back on the bike path by the main road a round trip of about 22.5 k’s. And this is up hill and down dale through the dunes and my lungs had a few quiet words – and we stopped and walked quite often. Well that is I stopped, and I walked for some stretches and son just kept on riding – it is amazing the power of youth over a little age. (sorry Karen had to use the age word)

This time in the Dunes we photographed the memorial to those killed in May 1945 – at the very end of the war when the allies were very close. We have seen it before but had not realised the full significance of it.

memorial to those killed in Kennemer Downs May 1945

The dunes are quite different without the summer green, and no wild flowers in flower to speak of. Everything seemed to be a sandy colour and what you could see in the distance looked a little like a sepia photograph.

We did not see any of the beautiful horses but did see quite a few of the orange Scottish Highland cattle grazing quietly by the path – and we watched as a young couple walked by them – and the cattle just kept on eating – unlike the curious one that made me more than a little uncomfortable last time.

The beach did have some hardy souls on it – including some intrepid kite surfers (I think that is what they are called). A few people took their dogs down to the beach as well. I expect that a few carried them back up again.

Parnassia - wild north sea beach

In the Netherlands the people are besotted by their dogs (like we are with the birds here) – and they do go to amazing lengths to take the dogs out with them, absolutely everywhere. There are doggy pushchairs so that the dog can rest when it is tired after a lengthy play or walk. The dogs are carried in baskets on the bikes themselves, and there are also bakfiets (bikes with a huge bucket or basket – permanently attached; and also on wheels – like a wheel barrow in front of the cyclist). The bakfiets can come with no seats – for carrying goods, seats for the children; or, with an especially designed carrier or bucket to carry their dogs. I will add some pictures when I manage to get some of dog carriers.

We have seen people riding a bakfiets with up to 4 children all with seat belts on and the children natter away as though they are in a conversation pit. It’s brilliant.

This dog thing also means that nearly everywhere you go to eat, like at the cafe at Parnassia, where I started this little story there are also many many bowls of water available for the many many dogs.

This is a Bakfiets - with real style

Inside the cafe, overlooking the beach at Parnassia, there were two fires going and it was delicious and warm and the place to be, and that is where most of the people were, including us of course. We had a great lunch before setting off on the journey home.

fragile flower enroute

We found the flower on one of the required stops to get breath back.

We both have bikes with 7 gears, son rented a bike with no gears.