Latitude 52 Degrees North

Den Haag to IJmuiden to Callantsoog

Day 79 - Tuesday - August 30
The elevator was a retrofit lift but this is a pretty typical scene when we are on the move.

Being able to see the whole elevator shaft is not!

Joining the morning commuters.

A typical water tower in this area.

Now it is back into the dunes.

There are 3 parallel paths through these dunes; the paved one for bikes, the gravel one for hikers and the sand one for horses. You can see all three in this picture.

In Katwyk aan Zee we were invited in for a free cup of coffee by these cheery people. As their only "customers" we also got to chat a lot about their business and ours.

We left with more advice on places to see as we head to Amsterdam.

The smoothness of the ride varies depending on the pattern and size of the pavers. We are definitely becoming smoothness experts.

Our guide map showed a "coffee cup" symbol on the edge of this park. We did find it and we did stop to check out the coffee. 

As we moved more inland there were more trees.

The end of the day found us in IJmuiden. We had been looking for a barber shop for over a week and finally found one here but the barber was on vacation until Thursday. All 3 of Doug's hairs are getting pretty long.

Day 80 - Wednesday - August 31

We get to take one last ferry ride, this one across the Nordzeecanal. 

Bicyclists get to ride for free on this one but not the big trucks.

Bicyclists get their own light.

Sheep were one thing but cattle with big horns?????

.....especially when they are giving you the eye!

The dunes just keep getting higher, the better to lift parasailors.

Very low growing berries.

Are you ready for a snack? These Dutch flat cakes are very good.

We wish that the girl that belonged to the bike had been around.

Finally out of the dunes and back to the dike. The transition was very abrupt.

This is our last view of the North Sea.

Rintje and Mineke are from the Friesland province in northwest Netherlands. We played leap frog with them earlier and decided that we better stop and chat this time. They are only camping for their 2 week tour. We wished them as much dryness as possible. At a latitude of 52 degrees, Callantsoog is our northernmost point. Now we start heading east and south in search of our airplane home.