Holland!

Jodie: We are going to skip around in time a bit, and David will be posting about our ferry/Harwich adventures shortly, but in the meantime I will write about our experiences so far in Holland.

First of all, I must say, I love the Netherlands and the Dutch in general. What warm, fun, friendly people! So helpful! So welcoming! We have had many great experiences since getting here. Secondly, the biking is amazing. We have spent the past few days cycling through the sand dunes of the North Sea, nature reserves, fields and pastures, and beautiful ancient cities, and about 22% of this cycling has been done on roads that are used by cars. Bikes here have their own lanes, maps, traffic signs and traffic lights. It is unbelievable, and I don't know how we will go on after becoming so completely spoiled in Holland!

Our path since arriving in Hoek van Holland has included stays in Monster (not as scary as it sounds), Katwijk, Harlem and now Amsterdam. The camping has been so-so (we are outnumbered by RVs and holiday trailers by about 100-1), but incredibly affordable. We are spending about 30-40 Euro between us a day without breaking a sweat. And, the towns have been amazing. The first few days were spent in small beach towns, and yesterday and today in very beautiful cities. I think we will be ready to return to the smaller towns in a few days though, and we are both looking forward to the ride south to Belgium.

That's all for now - sorry that there are no pictures, we are still strategizing about how to upload from our camera while we are on the go. Please keep the comments and emails coming!