Set off (with Elisa!) to loop around terschelling (twice for some), into the headwind along the wadden sea. Beautiful lavendar/heather covered dunes and milkshakes at the heartbreak hotel. Feels a little like Province lands trail on cape, 2 orders of magnitude bigger. Little swim, little beach riding for bertha, back on the boat to sail to harlingen. 26 miles. 

Threaded the narrow channel in the wadden sea, heading into the wind so no sailing today. The mare fan fryslan was originally a flat bottom cargo ship, and as the sea is only a few meters deep, the boat uses lee boards rather than a keel. Super smooth ride as the shallow water leads to no waves. Everyone hung out reading, hot tubbing, games, seal spotting, napping until arrival around 4pm. Walked along shallowest beach in the workd, then dinner on own on the island.  

Sunny start for all but 3 of us with gastro issues (our doctor, bike mechanic and cruise director), and Elisa heading home for her uncle's funeral. All set off by 9.30, mostly rode together by the lake, which used to be a sea. Nice riding along the dike, through a few towns and by farms. Arrival in twisk around noon for lunch, where the museum comes with coffee. Cute town with pretty moated houses, but no real stores. Great ride, back on the boat by 2pm to raise the sails and sail up through the lock, and into the sea to texel. Nice afternoon sailing, reading, chatting, relaxing. So good. 26 miles. Another sunny day, riding up along the seaside (olympic appropriate velodrome) dike to cocksdorp and the lighthouse. Swam in the north sea with a strong current. Nice riding through the dunes, even a few little hills (one 10%!) to second beach at De koog. Some to seal ecomare center, others through various towns, all seemingly met in Den Boorg, then back on board for dinner. To...

After a bike/run through vondelpark, took the (local) train up, stopping in hoorn for lunch and quick tour.  All aboard the mare fan fryslan at 2pm!  Walked through enkhuizen, checking out the old port and the old (1570) jail.   After a quick swim in the not so cold ijsselmeer lake and a safety talk, our first dinner together.   Then another swim, jacuzzi and then some singing on deck, waiting for dark.  

The bike and sail adventure begins! 35 people a new record, hopefully everything goes smoothly and whatever inevitable incident occurs is minor. Trained up to Amsterdam (on time, inexpensive, easy, 60 trains/hour managed on 6 tracks. Imagine.) and found our houseboat thats home for next 3 days. Nice to be back in Netherlands although it was fun speaking french in brussels. Initial impression of Amsterdam- busy. Canals, restaurants, people everywhere. Met up with tom and sarah, people starting to congregate. 2 miles. Thursday natalie + 4 others arrived. Ok, so i'm happy they're here too, but really happy to see natalie and be on vaca together. Coffee, little food, little nap and headed into city for a walking tour. Learned how amsterdam was founded in 1275 by damming the amstel river and how creating land/buillding canals was a win in both ways; that marijuana is actually illegal here but prostitution is legal (and heavily regulated); how they moved from car to bike infr...