Finished biking

We just finished biking about 220 kms around Friesland in four days. It has been excellent. Today the temperature was 29', almost too hot to bike. We left Leeuwarden this morning and took some time to do a walk about the town. The former royal palace we stayed in was spacious but unfortunately we were on the top floor and it was hot but the washed clothes dried quickly.

 

View from the garden.

We walked along the canals and through the parks is a pleasant way to start the day. 

 This a statue of Mata Hari, an exotic dancer, who was convicted at being a German spy in WWI. Interesting....

A number of buildings seem to lean in the The Netherlands. 'This one is sure to fall over one day. The Church Tower.

 

Some days we don't always find our way exactly as the map indicates but we have never gotten totally lost. A few false turns and we are back on the right road to Heerenveen. Thanks to Norman's Boy Scout skills.

Things you see that you aren't quite sure what there are....

 We saw a number of these woven containers. Turns out they are bird nests.

And the horses in the country were beautiful.

 

 It sounds like our holiday is perfect, well it is but there are always a few incidents that we "roll with it". Like Norm's sunglasses breaking the first day and are now permanently glued at a right angle, or the day we both stepped in dog poop when we picked the only green spot in a village for lunch (so did all the dogs), Or that the weather is wonderful but I managed to burn both ears so badly that sleep was difficult. I had to protect my ears today so I took a hat I brought for rain in Ireland and used an elastic band to hold it down in the wind. It worked!

 You can see Yellow Bunny loving the ride and if you look closely, you can see a red ring around my hat. 

Lunch was again compliments of our hotel. We stopped in Akkrum on a bench beside the church in the shade. 

Sometimes the pathways disappear. For 2 euros we got a ferry ride across the water. 

 out this mother and kid....

etting around the Netherlands is well organized. You look for the knooppunt (trail junction) and then head to the next numbered knooppunt. It works really well. We almost always found the next knooppunt.

Back in Heerenveen, showered and headed out to celebrate. Yeah!

This went down really well. Cheeers.