Cycling at Harleem

Date: 24th April 2010, Day 87 of my exchange
I was invited to go cycling at amsterdam area by the Rubenstraats. I googled for some tracks we can take in order to keep us entertained for the day, but they didn't seem to be good enough. The rubenstraats seemed to have a route in mind too. We met very early in the morning at the train station with our bicycles and loaded them onto the train. There were obviously too many bikes chucked into the corner but we didn't care. We just made use of whatever space was available to sit around for the 1+hr journey. We finally arrived at Harleem after changing to another train at Amsterdam centraal station. We then went to the VVV and cycled around the saturday market in action.
We managed to get a decent looking map and some travelling advice from this centre. We then aimed to get ourselves to a beach and come back to another station nearby. We also planned the route such that it will take us through lovely tulip farms, rivers, keukenhoff and country side.
The first part of the journey took us through some countryside places with lots of houses along the roads. We began to see some tulip-filled lands before our lunch time :) After nearly getting lost at several hidden corners, we ended up at a side of a river bordering on an uncultivated farmland for our picnic. the place had 2 tables which were perfect to host us for our lunch. After lunch came LOTS more of tulip farms. We got off our bikes now and then to take pictures while the farm-owners were not out ;P We came across Keukenhoff gardens too, but did not go in. There was a flower procession just outside for us to enjoy :D
We then got to the beach where we started munching on emilie's crepes. We also had a surprise birthday celebration for Flo as we revealed a set of cards with rubenstraat people's faces on it. We then went on to cycled through some hilly areas till we came to another beach. After taking a 5 mins break, we pushed on to the train station and tried to get back before it got dark.
As our train approached amsterdam station, Azri realized that he lef this bag at harleem station. The bag had his passport, camera and other valuables. Aysun then went back with him to look for it. The rest of us went on to a turkish place across the river at amsterdam centraal to have our dinner. Azri came back without his bag, after having made a police report on it. We then made our way back to Eindhoven for a good night's rest. Pics on facebook. No more pics here since blogger has restricted space for uploading pics.