Visiting Noord-Holland - De Rijp, Alkmaar, Bergen
This is a bit of a spin-off , as we only did a day trip, but thought we would include it here anyways, as it was really nice! We had been wanting to go to Bergen with the bike for a while, and saw in our trusty book listing the most beautiful Dutch towns that De Rijp was one of them. As it was sort of close-by, we decided to make a day of it. We took the train to Uitgeest, as we saw that this would allow up to go around a lake. The ride was nice but the weather was not great, luckily without too much wind. ********** We arrived at De Rijp around 11am, and went straight for the museum. It was quite small, and almost all in Dutch, and spoke about the city's past being an island on the middle of swamps, the eternal fight against the rising water and sinking ground, and their golden age as herring merchants. The area was then called Schermereylandt (Schermer Island), and was surrounded by lakes, which have since then been reclaimed. Since the land kept sinking and digs always had to b
