I was on the 4pm ferry out of the Tyne on Friday en route to Ijmuiden and my next Tour to Dortmund, The river was well lit up and there were even fireworks as we passed South Shields. Oddly there was a Light Buoy inside the piers and the South Shields Pier Lighthouse was out - presumably due to the pounding Storm Babet dished out.
After a slow exit from the ferry it was pretty much 10:30 before I got going following the river pretty much all the way into and through Amsterdam. At Velsem there were sculptures of animals which looked cool especially as they had been made from old bike parts. As I approached the City there were plane after plane landing at Schipol going over my head - there are 3 runways facing west and it looked like all 3 were being used as the flight paths were a few hundreds of yards apart, I cycled past Westpoort and diverted behind the Central Station for a quieter ride than in front.
East of the city i continued to follow the river / inland sea to Muiden where I stopped for lunch at a snackbar Loper near the fort - I had stopped here before plus the weather had taken a turn and was pretty heavy rain - I took an hour for lunch !
Next a long very straight road into more wind and rain took me to the fortified town of Naarden which i would have stopped and looked more closely at on a better day, I pushed on shadowing the motorway round Hilversum and then across bleak unsheltered fields round Baarn from where I followed river Eem into town - I had routed myself on what looked a nice ride along the river - I was perched on a dyke taking the full force of the weather - so I was a bit bedraggled when I reached the Long John Bar & Hotel where i was quickly changed and watching the Newcastle v Arsenal game ,,,, Happy Days !