# The Dutch provinces



## GeneratorNL (Jun 16, 2007)

So far I'm really enjoying these pictures of your cycling trips. Looking forward to see more!


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## rubenalexander (Jun 26, 2011)

Thanks Christos and Generator  

Continuing where I left off (in Leeuwarden).

The canal around the centre:
















The station:
















People don't park their bikes like this anymore in the west of the country:
















Leaving Leeuwarden on the western side of town:






























Boksum:
















Frisian villages were traditionally built on small man-made hills called 'terpen' to keep them out of reach of flooding:









A small path through the fields (I have to say that the Frisian landscape looked a bit boring from the provincial road between Burum and Leeuwarden, but that it's beautiful when you're in the middle of it)


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## rubenalexander (Jun 26, 2011)

Burum:


























































Dronryp station (barley visible between the tracks):









Dronryp:









The Van Harinxmakanaal:


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## rubenalexander (Jun 26, 2011)

Franeker:


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## rubenalexander (Jun 26, 2011)

Franaker is another picturesque little town. It's most famous for its 18th century planetarium, which I visited when I was a child.















































































Arriving in Harlingen:









Harlingen is a picturesque seaside town, but I was tired and it was time to go home (from Harlingen station, which you see here). So that's for another time!


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## rubenalexander (Jun 26, 2011)

<edit>


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## marcobruls (Dec 19, 2004)

The people in the capital dont see their selves as frisian, the cambuur supporters often also have "100% anti fries" and dutch flags with them.
Deze Friezen hebben een hekel aan Friesland (vice.com)


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## rubenalexander (Jun 26, 2011)

marcobruls said:


> The people in the capital dont see their selves as frisian, the cambuur supporters often also have "100% anti fries" and dutch flags with them.
> Deze Friezen hebben een hekel aan Friesland (vice.com)


Thanks for the info, Marco, I really didn't know that. But then again, I don't follow football, and friends of mine who do have never been Cambuur fans. It goes to show that the (older) history of Friesland is more complicated than I (or most Dutch people though), and also that people can just be stupid anywhere .
*___*

Now on with another bike ride, which I went on on Saturday April 16. Starting in Lelystad (population: 80,000), the capital of Flevoland, a province that was reclaimed from the sea (the Zuiderzee) from the 1930's to the 1960's. The first people to settle in Lelystad arrived in 1967, so Lelystad is a completely "new" city (Flevoland's biggest city, Almere, is even newer and only dates back to the 1980's). Lelystad is named after Cornelis Lely, the engineer responsible for the reclamation of Flevoland.









In the Netherlands, Lelystad has the reputation of being bland and ugly, but I have to say that I was surprised that it's actually nice and peaceful and green (though it's true that it doesn't have many attractions except for the one I'm going to show you):
















There are many separate bike paths in Lelystad (which are difficult to navigate if you're just passing through, without a specific destination in Lelystad):



















































The most noticeable building in Lelystad is the 161 meter TV tower, which was built in 1975:









The TV tower and the Bataviastad outlet mall (not my destination):









The _Batavia_, a replica of the 15th century ship belonging to the Dutch East India Company:









The Markerwaarddijk, which was my both part of my route and one of my destinations:


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## rubenalexander (Jun 26, 2011)

The original plan wasn't to stop land reclamation when the _Flevopolder_ had been completed and the Zuiderzee had been transformerd into the IJsselmeer. Instead, the plan was to reclaim the southern end of the Zuiderzee as well, and transform it into the _Markerwaard _(or _Houtribdijk_). To this end, the 26 kilometer-long Markerwaarddijk was built between 1963 and 1976. In the end, the reclamation of the Markerwaard was never completed for ecological reasons (and because it was just nice to have a lake there), which is why the dike now just seperates the Markermeer (left) from the IJsselmeer (right).












































An island in the middle that was built as a base from which to build the dike. There's a roadside restaurant here called Checkpoint Charlie, after the famous checkpoint between East and West Berlin.









A monument to the construction of the dike:


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## rubenalexander (Jun 26, 2011)

Approaching the other end of the dike, the town of Enkhuizen, in the province of North Holland:


































































Enkhuizen station:









Arriving in Enkhuizen, which I will show you next time:


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## rubenalexander (Jun 26, 2011)

It was busy in Enkhuizen, both with locals and tourists (mostly Germans, but I also heard English, French, Spanish, Russian and Chinese).


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## rubenalexander (Jun 26, 2011)




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## rubenalexander (Jun 26, 2011)

I spent a while wondering why it was so difficult to get to the picturesque little neighbourhood you see here, as there seemed to be a wall around it. The reason for that is it's part of the Zuiderzeemuseum (where buildings from various places in the region were reconstructed and where you can also see some ships), and you have to pay to get in. All the previous pictures are of the Zuiderzeemuseum, the entrance being on the first one with the wall. I should have known this, as I'd been here when I was small.
















Leaving Enkhuizen to the north, along the shores of the IJsselmeer:


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## rubenalexander (Jun 26, 2011)

Andijk:


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## rubenalexander (Jun 26, 2011)

Medemblik:























The old town hall and the station (left):









Medemblik station, which is only served by a touristic steam tram nowadays:









The Lely Pumping Station, which was built in 1930 to reclaim (and keep water out of) the Wieringermeer, to the north of Medemblik:


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## rubenalexander (Jun 26, 2011)

There's a lot of agriculture in this region (which is called West-Friesland), and it seems that these buildings house mostly Polish workers right next to the fields where the work:


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## rubenalexander (Jun 26, 2011)

Medemblik's current municipal hall, in Wognum (you can tell by the name that there's a connection between West-Friesland and Friesland):























The old part of Wognum (there's quite a lot of sprawl around it that I didn't take any picture of):





































Arriving in Hoorn:









Hoorn is another beautiful town. I made some pictures there another time, and will see if I can find them and post them another time (they date back to the time that I put a ridiculous amount of work into my photos by merging and processing them, so maybe next winter ). For now, it was time to take the train home:









The terminus of the steam tram from Medemblik:
























That's all for now, stay tuned for more of my trips .


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## rubenalexander (Jun 26, 2011)

I always like looking for the places in the Netherlands that are somehow 'un-Dutch'. On Saturday April 10th, I went for a walk with a friend in a place that fits that description: Leersumse Veld nature reserve on the Utrechtse Heuvelrug, an area of low hills to the east of Utrecht. To go there, I took the train to Maarn and cycled to the entrance to the nature reserve (from where I cycled back home to Hilversum after our walk).

Maarsbergen:

















Leersumse Veld:


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## rubenalexander (Jun 26, 2011)

You can see quite far by Dutch standards, especially for the middle of the country. The houses are on the edge of the village of Leersum:
















This tower, which was built in 1818 and is actually the tomb of van Nellesteijn family, is not the kind of thing you see often in the Netherlands (At first I thought it was a water tower, but in the Netherlands, there's always a useful sign telling you what something is) :


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## rubenalexander (Jun 26, 2011)

Het gat van Doorn:


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