Day 4 - Hamburg, Germany to Amsterdam, Netherlands

 

After having a great breakfast we had to make a decision whether to drive directly to Holland in order to spend more time in Amsterdam or go into Hamburg and see it. After discussing with Ingrid and Frank, our innkeepers we decided to ride into Hamburg. But before we left, Frank took a Polaroid picture of us (similar to the one below) just in front of their front door (check the dog watching us ...). We said our goodbyes and got ready for another day on the motorbike.

 

The ride from Wedel, Germany to Hamburg, Germany is very beautiful as it is close to the Elbe river and we took some nice pics.

 

When we arrived in Hamburg we followed the signals to Centrum, as we have found this is the best way to go to the most interesting place in a foreign city, specially if you only have a couple of hours to see it. We found Hamburg, Germany (the second largest city in Germany after Berlin, Germany) another beautiful city. What is it about all of these European cities, specially the ones that have a river running through it or are close to water that makes them so picturesque ? In this case Hamburg is the 2nd largest port in Europe after Roterdam, Netherlands and was ranked number 16 in terms of livability in 2011. The Hamburg skyline is very beautiful as it shows the tall spires of a number of churches.

 

In this specific occasion, Hamburg was home to the Harley Days and for 3 days two wheelers would rule the roads. It was fun to sit at the cafe, be served by two Brazilian young ladies and see different types of motorcycles go by.

 

It was difficult to leave Hamburg, but we needed to do so as we expected quite a lot of traffic on way to Bremen, Germany as there was a lot of construction going on and the vacations had started. As it turned out there was traffic but not too much so we made good time into Bremen, Germany which would be useful to do other things later in the day.

Although we got some sprinkles in Stockholm, Sweden just as we exited the ferry, the rest of the days we had beautiful sunny days but as any motorcyclist knows eventually luck runs out and we have to face the rain. For us it was just as we entered Holland. We were probably 5 minutes in Holland when the sky became quite dark so we rode out of the highway and put on our rain gear which we would keep the rest of the day until we got to Amsterdam, Netherlands.

One of my colleagues Geert had told me that on the way to Amsterdam we should see two dikes and the cities of Dokkum, Akmaar and Hoorn. As we had left Hamburg a bit later than expected we only were able to get to the dikes and to Dokkum.

 

A bit of history on dikes ...

In 1986, the Netherlands proclaimed the new 12th province of Flevoland but they didn't carve out the province from already existing land nor did they annex the territory of their neighbors - Germany and Belgium. The Netherlands actually grew.

The Dutch and their ancestors have been working to hold back and reclaim land from the North Sea for over 2000 years. Over 2000 years ago, the Frisians who first settled the Netherlands began to build terpen, the first dikes to hold back the water.

In 1287 the terpen and dikes that held back the North Sea failed, and water flooded the country. A new bay, called Zuiderzee (South Sea) was created over former farmland. For the next few centuries, the Dutch worked to slowly push back the water of the Zuiderzee, building dikes and creating polders (the term used to described any piece of land reclaimed from water). Once dikes are built, canals and pumps are used to drain the land and to keep it dry. From the 1200s, windmills had been used to pump excess water off the fertile soil; today most of the windmills have been replaced with electricity- and diesel-driven pumps.

Today, approximately 27 percent of the Netherlands is actually below sea level. This area is home to over 60 percent of the country's population of 15.8 million people. The Netherlands, which is approximately the size of the U.S. states Connecticut and Massachusetts combined, has an approximate average elevation of 11 meters (36 feet). The Netherlands ties Lemmefjord, Denmark for claim to the lowest point in Western Europe - Prince Alexander Polder lies at 23 feet (7 meters) below sea level.

The collective North Sea Protective Works is one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers. As an engineer this is fascinating for me and this was a great opportunity to go and see this.

Crossing the Afsluitdijk (major causeway in the Netherlands, constructed between 1927 and 1933) over a length of 32 kilometres (20 mi) and a width of 90 m, at an initial height of 7.25 m above sea-level with winds above 40km/hour and 130 Km/h speed limit was a truly unforgettable experience. We stopped in the middle of the crossing and took a some pictures and video. A once in a lifetime experience and highly recommendable if you ever are in Holland.

 

Before arriving at the Afsluitdijk, we stopped at Dokkum which is a Dutch fortified town with beautiful windmills and a quaint city centre with a river running through it. We loved riding in Netherlands with its beautiful green fields, no hills on sight and vast quantity of well fed cattle. We looked forward to the milk-based products that are obviously very good. We also took some of the days most beautiful pictures during this ride and stop.

 

 

Eventually we got to Amsterdam and the wind died down as we entered the city. The hotel we had chosen was smack in the center of Amsterdam so we parked the bike in the hotel garage (very lucky) and got ready for a night in "the" town. We had a great dinner and then joined thousands of others that were walking the various canals of Amsterdam. We were quite surprised specially by the red light that shown from some windows as we walked. The air had an interesting sweet type of scent.

 

By the time we got back to the hotel it was well past midnight and the next day was a long one all the way to Paris, France where we would stop the bike and enjoy the city for 2 days.

Click HERE for all the pictures for Day 4

 

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