Cycling to Marken
Given how much Marken is part of my personal cycling lore, I am surprised that I never managed to bike there all the way from Amsterdam. The distance (a 40km round-trip) must’ve had something to do with it. With my recent e-bike purchase, that was no longer a plausible excuse. My wife and I cycled there a month ago.
Our ride took us through open fields, along stately farmhouses, over quaint wooden bridges, and even on dykes.
A drawbridge
This must surely be the narrowest two-way cycling lane we’ve ever ridden on:
A narrow cycling path and a wooden bridge
We saw no one for miles at end - so for the kind of traffic these bike paths were serving, they were plenty.
Pictures from Marken:
The colourful wooden houses of Marken
The colourful wooden houses of Marken
View of Markermeer
Views of Markermeer
Sparrows
I was really happy1 to see sparrows in Marken. While you occasionally hear a sparrow or two chirping in our neighbourhood on a quiet afternoon, I hadn’t seen so many of them together in a long time.
On our way to Marken, we had taken a couple of lengthy detours as we were feeling a little adventurous - though a couple of times our hands were also forced by ongoing repairs to the dykes in the area. It was also very windy on our way back. I struggled to hit 25 kmph even with the maximum assist my e-bike had to offer. The result was that the wife ran out of battery some time before she reached home and I barely scraped by. As someone who has never driven and is on his first vehicle powered by an external energy source, range anxiety is certainly a new feeling I am having to welcome.
And also a touch nostalgic.↩︎