Haarlem 5.15 am

This morning I was awake at 4.30 am and suddenly decided to cycle to IJmuiden and the beach village of Wijk aan Zee beyond. Apparently the 90 km extreme cycle tour of a few days ago has got me addicted. This is the Molen Adriaan, a restored windmill in Haarlem, where the 17 th century panorama of this blip is being painted by my neighbour. There were so many fantastic opportunities for blips at that time of day and in that kind of amazing landscape between polder and canal and sluices and steel industry that i've put them here in my portfolio if you are interested. IJmuiden is the harbour from where the ferries leave for Newcastle. Huge freight ships and cruise ships also pass through the many sluices. The way across the North sea channel is by ferry, as I did, but you can also do a really exciting trip walking or cycling on top of the four sluices underneath the smoke of the ovens.