Amsterdam and area - Day 10

We arrived in Amsterdam in the afternoon and took a shuttle to our hotel in Hoofdoorp, planning to get a car to rent for the next day, our last day before returning home.

According to Google, there was a Sixt car rental office not far from the hotel, so we wasted some time riding there and waiting in line, listening to what sounded like a heated argument/negotiation between a customer and the desk clerk. They ended by striking a deal and shaking hands quite amicably, so maybe the conversation was friendlier than it seemed.

When it was our turn, the clerk listened to what we wanted and said, "Oh yes, I have ___" only to find out that he didn't really have it. This happened about 3 times, and we finally gave up, deciding to take the shuttle back to the airport and pick up a car there.

This turned out to be a good idea, and we ended up with a Ford Puma, a small SUV, which had an automatic transmission and lots of room for our bikes, as well as an almost magically good GPS system.

When we told the woman at the rental desk about what we wanted to do, she made some additional suggestions, so we were quite excited to set out the next morning.

First on our agenda was Edam and the last cheese market of the season. This was about 35 minutes east of where we were staying, and there was a large parking lot on the edge of town where we left the car, and then we rode our bikes to the downtown area. 

Being a little early, we had some time to ride around a bit and even stop into an old church, de Grote Kerk. I have learned that almost every town in Holland has one of these churches, and they are all amazing in their own way. This one had some beautiful stained glass windows from the early 1600s. 

"Edam Grote Kerk 05" by Hnapel is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

The cheese market was situated in the centre of the town, along a canal, amidst these wonderful old buildings.

There were a lot of people dressed in traditional clothing, and there were speeches, some kind of ceremonial weighing, and then a process of loading the boats with the rounds of cheese.

It's true that it might have been more interesting if we'd been able to understand everything, but we felt like we got the general idea just by observing.

After this, how could we not have lunch in a pub that served a cheese board?

One of the canal bridges

After lunch, we set out again, heading west to Zaanse Schans. This is a very touristy place to see lots of Dutch windmills. I've been to Kinderdijk, which is more natural and less commercialized, and I've also seen lots of one-off windmills in Dutch towns, but this place was also charming. 

The windmills are nicely painted and set just off a street of older homes and shops, many of which are painted green. We started off on the shopping side of the canal and walked to the end. 

Then we went back to get our bikes and rode across the bridge to an area that was more residential. We rode around in this area for about an hour, exploring the nooks and crannies, and then decided it was time to head west again, this time to the beach at Zandvoort. The town was quite busy and it took a bit of time to find a place to park, but we finally found an underground parking spot and then rode our bikes down to the beach.

Holland might not be the first place you think of when you think about beaches, but in my opinion, their beaches are first-rate. 

The sand is fine and clean, and the beach seems to go on forever.

The weather was gorgeous, and we enjoyed swimming and relaxing for a couple of hours. 

One of the highlights of this beach visit was the place we changed afterwards. When we first arrived we didn't know about this service, so we just changed in the public washrooms, but when we were ready to go we noticed people going to a sort of shop/tent/hut type structure. There was a woman selling new-age-type things (crystals, oils, etc.) but she also had changing rooms. For a couple of euro, you could use the washroom and a changing cubicle. It sounds really sketchy, but somehow it wasn't. Everything was clean and nicely maintained and we were very grateful to have found it.

By now it was time for dinner, so I used Google Maps to find this wonderful Indonesian restaurant, "Toko Bintang". The food was delicious, and as we ate, we listened to people, obviously locals, coming in for their takeaways and exchanging conversation.

I noticed that as they left, most of the people said, "Eet smakelijk" ("enjoy your meal"). I recognized this phrase from my Duolingo Dutch lessons, but it also rang another bell somewhere in my mind. Then I remembered that when we watched the Rick Steves video about the Netherlands, he mentioned that it is a common Dutch custom to say this as you leave a restaurant. So, when we were ready to leave, I casually said this to a diner as we passed.

Last day in Europe:

Our flight was scheduled for late afternoon of the next day. We drove to the airport, where we returned the car and checked our large bike bags. It would have been nice to keep the bikes with us, but it was easier to be unencumbered, as we wanted to do a little more sightseeing.

We took a train to Leiden. We had been here before, on New Year's Day in 2019. That day everything was closed and there was debris from fireworks everywhere.

We walked around the town a bit and when we came upon this windmill museum, we decided to go inside. This was interesting, as it showed how the windmill operates and gave some history of the town.

I liked this white goose -- it is real, not a plastic lawn ornament!

All too soon, it was time to get back on the train and return to the airport and real life. I always feel like I am in a dream world when I visit Holland -- where else are bikes given such priority and where else is everything so neat and orderly? 

Tot ziens!

Driving from Fes to Marrakesh

Yesterday we drove from Fes to Marrakesh, about eight hours on a two-lane road called the N8. It was similar to our secondary highways in Alberta, but slightly less well-maintained.

Along the way, there were plenty of interesting sights, but unfortunately the road didn’t have good shoulders, so it was not easy to stop to take photos.



We did stop briefly at this elementary school. One of the most intriguing things about this trip was the schools. In every town we drove through, the schools were painted in bright or pastel colours, similar to this one. 

The most striking one was set on a hillside, surrounded by a stone wall. The school itself was painted in lovely pastel shades, and some of the stones in the wall were painted to match. I realize now that I should have insisted on stopping to take a photo, but I guess I will have to be content with the mind-picture (and plan to go back someday)!

More eye-catching sights: a mom and her daughter riding to school on a donkey; farm workers working in the fields with donkeys, carts, and hand tools; olive orchards; olive oil mills with massive hills of olives outside; sheep and more sheep; the occasional huge house complete with sparkly stucco.

As we drove through one town, we saw dozens of children riding their bikes home from the morning shift at school. There were a surprising number of girls, many of whom were not wearing headscarves. It made me wonder whether they stop before they get home to put their scarves back on, or are their parents really that liberal? 

Outside another village, we saw goats climbing trees to eat the fruit (probably argan). 

Almost every town and village had roundabouts, most of which were fancied up with some sort of sculpture in the centre. The one that most surprised me had Christmas trees!

The road itself was interesting in spots. Generally, it was in pretty rough shape, but when we hit a very steep, windy section, the two lanes split off. The north- and south-bound routes each took their own path through the hills, and then joined up again once we hit more level ground.

All in all, it was a good trip, but I was sorry we couldn't have made more stops.

We arrived in Marrakech just before sunset and went straight to the airport to leave the car. The car rental guys suggested we go outside the airport to get a taxi -- it would significantly cheaper that way. So we took their advice and walked a few hundred meters before hailing a taxi.

We had booked a room in a riad -- a guesthouse in an old private home in the medina. The taxi driver dropped us off at the entrance to the riad's street, telling us we would have to walk from there. 

We walked down the "street" -- a steep, extremely narrow passage paved with rocks -- looking for number 67, to no avail. Unfortunately, it was obvious to onlookers that we were lost, because some young guys came up to us and asked where we were going. I was reluctant to reply, as I had heard about these "guides", but we ended up giving them the name of our riad, and they led us there. It turned out it was on a turn-off from the main street -- of course; we should have known! 

Although the architecture of the house was impressive, the host and the actual room were much less so. The room was extremely cold, the shower tap when turned produced no water, and the bed was less than comfortable. We passed a miserable first night wearing our down jackets in bed, only to finally discover the heater the next day. So nice of our host to point it out!