Lekker Weer!

We’ve had some of the finest weather on the planet this past week here in Holland - warm sunny days with rich blue skies that give way to fresh salty breezes ushered in across the dunes with the evening shadows. So what do the Dutch do with such nice weather? Well, if you aren’t inclined to lying naked on the beach in Zandvoort, then your best alternative is to join in on the fun with something like this annual bike/beer fest.

The bars of Haarlem hold this little gem of a festival every spring to welcome in the season’s bock beer. Once you’ve signed up, you get a little orange bike flag which indicates that you’ve paid, although I think it is used more to indicate to the other bikers/drivers/walkers to be careful around you because you have been drinking large volumes of beer since around noon. You also get a map of all the bars on the tour (about 15 spread across three towns and 20 kilometers) and spend the rest of the day biking between them to sample the beers, eat pub food, and menace the sober bikers. Great fun!

Stacked up at a pub in Bloemendaal.

This contraption does qualify as a bike! You can get 14 people pedaling these mobile kegs, with one bartender of course. I see them around town occasionally. They are pretty slow moving, but I guess that speed is not really the point, toch?

How do you get to the next bar? Just follow the weaving flags.