So had two nights in Amsterdam, completing the pre booked section of the tour, concluding with seeing the excellent Canadian band Broken Social Scene. Also visited an art gallery dedicated entirely to cats. Who wants to queue up for hours to see a van Gogh anyway!
Hostel contained yet more snorers, and many irritating Americans, so is a relief to escape back into the countryside... Although last night I was camped next to a field of bleating sheep and tonight it's ducks and a bloody cuckoo! Ahh nature. Can't be so bad as that night in the Scottish highlands during the stag rut though!

Since then, two long days crossing the big massive long sea dykes into Friesland, unfortunately into a headwind.
The refreshingly cool wind also hides how sunburnt you are getting, so now my hands in particular are radiating enough heat to negate the Paris climate agreement.

Stopped off to see Anthony Gormley (angel of the north guy)'s sculpture "Exposure", a massive wireframe of a man... squatting like he's been caught short....

Met an Irish guy named James today, doing the Zuiderzee loop, nice to have some company to distract from the mirage inducing heat haze, I haven't bumped into many other tourers yet.
Its staggering to think of the scale of these engineering projects, and well the amount of labour and time that has gone into landscaping the entire country. What an undertaking.

The quaint old windmills have been replaced with large quantities of towering wind turbines, impressive but Not in My Backyard!
Have broken a spoke on the front wheel, so the sooner I get this new one the better. I've trued it up enough for the moment though.
The replacement will have a double walled rim so hopefully more robust. Now supposed to be waiting for me in a post office when I get to Bremen. I'll believe it when I see it...

Oops was supposed to post that yesterday, but not much to tell today, short day passing through Groningen to stay in a lovely old hostel, and swim in the lake. Tomorrow will move on into Germany!