Day 10 - Looping Around Hindeloopen

Hindeloopen is one of those antique Dutch villages, as cute as its name, that Disneyland might make a cheap replica of for snap-happy tourists to walk around in some incongruous southern California setting. Only this small town on the east side of the IJsellmeer is the real deal – and we’re lucky to be on this side of the busy tourist season (which only goes for the two warmest months of the year, July and August) so the number of gawking tourists – like ourselves – pointing their phones at every sweet little curved wooden bridge and basket of petunias reflecting in the tranquilly meandering canals are minimal.

We skip the Covid tests today (yesterday mine was still positive, Johan still negative) and since we’re feeling better and energized by the cloudless blue sky, we hop on our bikes for a day trip down the coast. On the way, we angle through a Dutch caravan park, well-ordered rows of neatly hedged cubicles where eight or ten campers park side-by-side according to assigned numbers, nice and close together, like their houses back home. We park our bikes atop a dune and while Johan watches the kite-surfers taking advantage of a windy day, I take in some qigong practice, which went a bit dormant during my period of illness.

We arrive in Stavoren around lunchtime but I’ve confiscated the last two rolls from breakfast, along with the remaining slices of cheese, salami and cucumber, so we sit on a grassy knoll overlooking the water to eat a “Dutch Lunch,” bikes parked appropriately close by. Stavoren lacks the charm of Hindeloopen, but is a busy port for sailboats and other yachts and we watch the locks let down half a dozen boats moving from the IJsellmeer to the lower inland canals.

We angle back through the country bike lanes to arrive back just at Hindeloopen in time for an afternoon beer. The local tavern has bench seats looking over the harbor and we sit for over an hour watching boats come and go and making up stories about the people we see languishing happily on the decks of their ships.

After a catnap back at the B&B we head out for dinner at a well-rated fish restaurant serving up the catch of the day from the local fishing boats. The outdoor patio overlooking the canal and the 17C. church is delightful in the early evening sunlight and we take our time with the 3 course meal. A last amble through the scenic little town and we end our day once again atop the dike, right on 10pm, watching the last sliver of the red sun sink behind the silhouette of the offshore windmills, their thin arms waving goodbye to the day.