The IJ

The temperature today hit a lovely 21 degrees. It was a perfect day to road test Kevin’s new city bike so we went for a long ride through Amsterdam to the countryside north of the city where we visited the Waterland Nature Reserve.

To reach our destination we had to cross the IJ. The IJ was formerly a bay and an estuary where the Amstel River met the Zuiderzee, itself a former inlet from the North Sea. Canals and dams have changed the seascape and landscape significantly over the last half millennium adding agriculture land and mechanisms to control flooding, as well as changing the IJ into a lake.

Although there are several places to cross, we opted to take the ferry that travels across the lake’s narrowest point on the south shore behind Centraal Station. This view of both the northern and southern shorelines is taken from a bridge to an island that is a few kilometres east of the ferry crossing.

The next leg of the route to Waterland took us through an agricultural area with many farm animals. As I stopped to take pictures of the scenery, birds and animals, Kevin struck up a conversation with a fisherman. After trading fish stories for 10 minutes or so, we continued on past windmills and through villages, eventually stopping for lunch in the pretty village of Landsmeer. Along the way to the Nature Reserve, we saw many different species of ducks floating in the canals and I watched a grebe lazily floating with the current in a stream.

All in all, the round trip was about 65K. The bike passed its test and we thoroughly enjoyed the day!

Happy Easter!