Cycling through the province

Today we went on about a 40 km bike ride. First we followed a canal until we were just outside the city proper.




Once we got outside Utrecht and into the countryside (about 15 minutes), I was astounded at how much it looked like Kansas.




But if you looked around a bit, there, just to the left of Ian up ahead, was a canal.




And then there are the ever-present windmills.







The windmills here aren't to bring water up from the ground, though. They're to pump water back out to sea. Much of The Netherlands is reclaimed from the sea, so it's a never ending process to keep it dry. That, by the way, is also the reason for the wooden shoes. They don't rot like cloth or leather ones.




Boats like this line the canals throughout the country. Hey - maybe we could have our wwedding dinner on one of them. Hmmmm....