Hoorn to Enkuizen, lovely day for cycling

Hoorn is a beautiful old port. Now a bedroom community, but once a very busy working port. A great feeling, a lovely spot.

Left Hoorn about 9:00. Day started out cold with a few drops of rain, but with breaks in the clouds. By mid-day, was still cold -- but sunny, and stayed sunny for the rest of the afternoon.

Changed cycling route slightly, improvising to cycle through some tulip fields. By this time of May, most fields have been cut... but Martin (our guide) ran into some friends while we were walking last night, and they told him about an area near here were tulips were still in bloom. So we winged it, headed in that direction, and found beautiful fields! Yellow, purple, red, white... pick your color. Farmer took a break to talk with us, told us we really were lucky: last year, he had finished harvest by May 3. Don't know why he's later this year, he didn't say.

Then rode back into Hoorn, had a coffee in the central square, and rode north generally along the main dike to Einkhuzen. Forty kilometers total ride. Hung around the boat for a while, then went out for a walk through huge open-air museum.

One minor mishap, but turned out fine. One of our party had a flat tire. Decision was taken not to fix the flat, but simply to ride the last few kilometers. I think perhaps people were simply uncomfortable with the idea of changing tube in the field? Or perhaps, right tools weren't available. Anyway, I swapped front wheels with the rider who had the flat and rode the last while on the flat. Worked better than I would have thought... just kept my weight well back on bike, rode relatively slowly, and avoided potholes. Tire made a loud chirping sound like a squawking chicken with every revolution, but other than that bit of bizarreness, rest of ride went fine.