Very Good Impressions Of Drowned Rats

After waking up to a rather grey sky there was a promise of it clearing by mid-morning, so we decided to hire some bikes and join the rest of the Dutch nation in using two-wheeled transport for the day. The best thing about cycling in The Netherlands is because everyone does it, bicycles seem to have right of way and there is an amazing network of cycle paths and routes that make it feel very safe and easy to use.

We headed off to the nearest beach at Katwijk about 10km away. After a very nice tea stop at the cafe on the beach and a ride through the sand dunes, the promised clear skies hadn’t yet appeared so we headed back. About 2 minutes into our journey the rain came down and boy did it rain! We had to stop and shelter twice and did very good impressions of drowned rats.

The rain did eventually stop and we dried a little bit on the rest of the ride back. After dropping the bikes off, we walked back through town, past this unusual building on the canal and via a lunch stop to collect our bags from the hotel. A short train ride to the airport and time to say our good byes and head home.

Not without some drama as I was sat at the gate just before boarding the plane to find I had lost my phone, frantic message to Mr Kit who phoned my phone to find that some kind soul had handed it in and it was at information - the other side of Schiphol airport. Yes, I was that mad person running top speed through the airport against the flow of people. After retrieving errant phone, I made it back to the gate with a whole two minutes to spare...don’t know what the panic was all about!