Wildroosters in the National Park

We had our first long distance drive to Utrecht yesterday, my first since the practice last Sunday.  I'm pleased to report there were no incidents, just the constant refrain from the passenger seat, you're over too far.  It took Tan a while to get used to being a passenger in her usual driver's seat.  It also is taking me a while to get used to positioning yourself in the lane using the left hand front of the car instead of the right.  Apparently right hand drives are safer as the majority of us have dominant right eyes!

Anyway we got there safely and found Utrecht to be another lovely town, it has an older heritage than Amsterdam, dating from early medieval times, but also has many canals.  It's main point of interest is a Gothic tower, the Domtoren, built in 1382 and dominates the Utrecht skyline.  It's 112m tall, to put that in perspective Australia Square in Sydney is 170m and was built in the 1960's.

We had a walk around the streets lining the canal including the inevitable hunt for a toilet.  It just seems so un-civilised to have to pay to go to the toilet.  Even Macca's charged 25c.  My logic says stop employing someone to collect toilet money and you wouldn't need to charge, but I guess it's a job for someone.  We're so used to public toilets, especially when driving, it's quite challenging especially with kids. The other challenge is then trying to fill a water bottle, there's no bubblers or taps anywhere either.  That combined with the smoking make me feel Australia is far ahead in comfortable living.

We then headed for a national park about an hours drive onward.  They had free bikes to ride around the park, over 1300 acres, supposedly full of wildlife such as boars, pine martens, moles, weasels and badgers.  Unfortunately we didn't see any, although Ollie and Em did see a deer after they managed to lose me.  I was a little concerned about the dangerous poultry as there were many 'wildrooster' warning signs along the bike path.  That was until I translated it today and discovered it meant 'cattle grid', which were used to divide sections of the park!

Today we had to be up early (8am) for a trip to Alkmaar.  During summer they run a traditional cheese market for the tourists, 27,000kg of Gouda cheese are laid out in the square, inspected and weighed before being transported off by the carriers.  Each of the four carrier companies are represented by their own colour worn by the men running the cheese around.  Very colourful and spectacular sight but it was so crowded.  We only had a brief look around the rest of the town as the crowds were just too overwhelming.  It was similar to Utrecht with the canals and medieval streets.

We did buy some cheese though, it was beautiful and very reasonably priced.  We had a coffee at the cafe near the parking station to avoid the €1 charge to use their toilet.

We had a very scenic drive back through Edam and the seaside town of Monnickendam.

Click below for pictures:

Netherlands Days 6-7