June 11, 2024
We started our morning with a late breakfast and then we headed onto the road working our way up the coastline towards Haarlem. The ride out of the Hague started out beautiful until our first flat tire of the day. This seems to be an ongoing trend for us. As we biked into the dunes I couldn’t help but think how the landscape looked like a Hayao Miyazaki movie. With rolling Sandy hills covered with grasses waving in the wind.
The dunes are the first barrier of defense against the ocean for the Netherlands, a natural dike protecting coastal towns from the North Sea. Because the dunes in their natural form provide such a an important purpose for the Dutch people they have been left relatively untouched compared to the the rest of the nation which is manipulated and engineered by humans nearly everywhere. As an ecology student this made the dunes particularly interesting to me because it gave me a glimpse into what holland may have looked like pre settlement.
At the halfway point of our bike ride today we stopped in a cute beach town called Katwijk. Although it wasn’t warm out many of us rallied and took a dip into the North Sea brrr.
This town had the most innovative parking garage I have ever seen. They created an artificial dune and constructed a parking lot underneath it!
After this we got back on our bikes and made our way towards Haarlem. I’m sad to say it but this was our second to last day. Our last bike ride will be tomorrow so I’ll have to savor every moment even the flat tires and sore legs.
Thank you! It was such an amazing group of students. I had the best time with all of them traveling and learning together.
Loved all the blog posts. Thanks for providing such an amazing learning opportunity! Great to have Sam back sharing lots of wonderful stories and ideas that the trip generated.