Purmerend to Edam to Volendam to Amsterdam

Today was our last day of bicycling and we are going to finish strong at +50 km and finally a day with sun shine, warmth and a little breeze. We headed off from Purmerend towards Edam. Edam is named after Edam cheese and the town is very picturesque with small houses and canals. Edam is home of the cheese museum which has a tour including a floating basement….. very odd. The buildings really are leaning…. it’s not the camera operator. After Edam we cycled towards Volendam; and as our tour guide explained it, Volendam is a tourist trap, to us though Volendam looked like a beautiful seaside village complete with lots of shops, restaurants and lots of touristy stuff. The one interesting thing about Volendam is the old original hotel. On the walls are paintings from many famous and not so famous painters. In the past those staying at the hotel would pay their bill by doing a painting and it became property of the hotel……very unique and interesting. We then cycled to a cheese farm where we saw traditional dutch costumes and were explained the process of cheese making and got to taste some samples. Finally we rode into the chaos of Amsterdam at 5:00 pm; across a passenger ferry and bicycled through huge crowds and congestion to finally arrive at the dock where we originally boarded the barge “Holland”. So in the end the bike and barge was everything we thought it would be and more. What a way to see the country of Holland. It was truly a fabulous experience and we would do it again in an instant.