Hanneke and Wm. like having their guests in a separate building, and it was nice for us, too. We had a bath, a middle room, and a bedroom/computer room. It was good not having to worry about bothering them if we got up in the night, coughed, etc.
Hanneke served us a lovely breakfast on the patio in the sun.
What a fun experience! I had to think of Virginia and how that was one of the things she would like to be able to do in her home some day. Hanneke brought a lovely breakfast of wonderful yogurt, boiled egg, the raisin buns we have enjoyed at almost every home, meat, cheese, orange juice and coffee.
We got all our clothes washed (everything is dark, so it took only one load) and hung them up to dry around the room. Most things were nicely dry when we got up. We put the ones that were still damp on the furnace registers, and they were O.K for packing by the time we left.
Hanneke and Wm.'s home is the first free-standing home such as is so common in the USA.
The rest of the homes we have stayed in consisted of a few rooms on each floor (about 4 floors) with a winding staircase. These homes are hooked to a row of similar homes with a front that is often historic.
Hanneke and Wm. live in this home with a steep roof. Besides the guest home, they also have a shed, another building or two, a large bird aviary with about 22 birds, a pond and lovely flowers and greenery, a small lawn, and a patio or two. Wm. has a rain forest on the third floor with exotic frogs -- blue and bright yellow/black, etc. The forest rains automatically each morning and is warm at a constant temperature.
Wm. printed out maps in color for us for our route today and Hanneke drew our route on them. After that, Hanneke rode her bike with us to the edge of town (like Franz had done) so we wouldn't get lost. She was our tour guide during that ride. She pointed out the unique system of hay barns common there. The roof comes down on the hay as the hay is used up through the winter. A later couple told us that these places are common places where young kids go to smooch!
Castricum is a lovely Dutch town where Wm. and Hanneke intentionally chose to live. Hanneke pointed out thatched roofs on houses. We saw many more of them, especially on really nice houses, as we rode along. Hanneke says that they need to be replaced every ten years and are very expensive. They put the thatching right over the tile roofs for protection. The thatched roofs require expensive fire insurance, because a spark can easily ignite the whole roof and house. The roofs in this area are very steep and most homes have a small attic on the top floor. Wm. has his computer up a ladder in this attic area.
We stopped at Hortus Bulborum in Limmon just north of Castricum, that Hanneke had suggested. There were LOVELY tulips there. I inquired about sending some bulbs home to the girls, but the 2009 bulbs are still in the ground and won't be available until August. I inquired about prices. These are historic bulbs and very expensive. It appeared that a sampler of these historic bulbs, I think 50, cost about $1600 Euros. The tulips in the park were gorgeous and large.
It was a beautiful sunny but chilly day -- no rain, and the countryside is a farming area that was so very interesting and lovely. We rode through Limmon and stopped to talk to two men working in their tulip fields. They were spraying stray bulbs (tulips of other colors that the given patch). They think it will kill the bulbs, so that the bulbs will all be the same color. They explained that the tulips head are cut off to prevent disease or to keep the bulbs from rotting. This needs to be done when the tulips are in full bloom. Daffodils and hyacinths do not need this treatment. We rode through many more glorious fields of tulips today than we saw in the Keukenoff area. The whole day was a beautiful ride. Although some tulip blooms have been cut off already, more remain untouched in the fields than we found further south.
We rode past some estates that were truly beautiful. Flowers abound in home gardens everywhere and the tulips are especially gorgeous. Some of the daffodil fields are still in full bloom. Most of those farther south were finished except for a few varieties.
With Hanneke's maps and directions, we got lost much less often today. We stopped to ask advice from a man on the street at one point. He said that Den Helder was so far that we shouldn't ride through the Duins as Hanneke had suggested. Since we had done that yesterday. Since we had ridden the dunes yesterday and they are a lot of around and around and up and down, we gladly abandoned that part of our route, and instead followed our maps and the list of towns I had made from the maps in our room last night. This worked well for us except for one big problem. (We seem to have to have at least one each day!) We followed the signs and pulled onto a highway with no bike paths. As we rode along, all the cars were honking at us. We realized that we would have to cross the road and push our bike along in the ditch of tall grass back to where we had made our mistake. I wasn't feeling very strong, and it was more than I could do to push my bike in the grass with the heavy pack on the back. For the rest of the 8 -10 k of our ride, I was shaky and afraid that I would fall over on my bike again.
We were able to successfully complete our ride for the day, and after some difficulty, we found the home of our most gracious hosts, Lynn and Bill, in Julianadorp.
They have such a lovely home and guest area. We enjoyed tea and chocolate and a chat with them, and then I went up to bed and slept for a few hours before writing this journal. I had a fever and felt so shaky and cold. Lynn phoned for our hosts tomorrow night at Den Burg on Texel. She told us about a flower show in an adjoining town. We will ride our bikes there and to Den Helder and Texel tomorrow. Lynn and Bill have done a lot of bike riding all over Holland. They spent time at a winter home of a brother in Orlando with the snowbirds this winter. The brother lives in Toronto the rest of the time, and they have visited there, also.
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