Bike/Barge part four

I missed a day because of no wifi access in small town where we harbored for the night. Tonight we are in Alkmaar, home of the largest cheese market in Holland. However, I do not plan to talk about that. Suffice to say, the city is big enough for me to find wifi. The group rode down the west coast of Northern Holland , which has a long, tall dyke to protect the Holland from the rising sea. It is cement armored and slopes up from the sea in such a way that people have a wide, even, path on which to walk or bicycle. Anne and I went to each side of the path and took a picture of each other to give you an idea of the size of the dyke. As we cycled south, the path disappeared into a water mirage, just like a road does when you are driving a car in the desert. Three of the pictures are of riding on the dyke.
After riding down the coast, we went inland and rode for a while through the old dyke, which now has a forest growing on it. However, it is essentially sand dunes, so there are swaths of sand showing through the forest floor. The last picture is of me riding through the old dyke forest. At the end of the ride, Anne took a fall but only got some scrapes. All in all, it was a good day.