Bike Tour Day 5 - Willemstad to Zierikzee

We diverted as we left the fortified town of Willemstad to visit… a fort!

Sculpture of fallen Canadian soldier

A short ride away from town is Fort Sabina, part of the southern fortifications in The Netherlands that also saw use in WWI and WWII. The fort is a virtual playground of bunkers, mounds, and nature. Plus they’ve built a lot of playground equipment for the kids into the area. During WWII the fort housed Canadian troops advancing to liberate the country from the Germans, and there’s an entire room and sculpture dedicated to one of those soldiers who died from wounds suffered while on patrol.

Julie in tulip heaven

The ride to Zierikzee was once again pastoral and beautiful, taking us through pastures and tilled farmland. We turned a corner and much to our delight we found unexpected tulip fields – in my opinion the best we’ve seen in the Netherlands (these are not Holland tulips… they are Zeeland tulips!). We were able to ride our bikes down from the dike and cross a land bridge over the canal to wander the rows and explore. At the start there was just one other family, and they soon left so we had the field to ourselves. We counted abut 7 or 8 different varieties. Julie was in heaven.

Be your own flower

While we love the two- and sometimes three-colored flowers, there’s something special about the deep red and deep yellow gold flowers. When in a field together they throw of such spectacular color. Very cool when a stray flower leaks into the wrong field.

Beautiful Zierikzee

Zierikzee is yet another amazingly cute Dutch town, with cobblestones streets and a deeply integrated small boat shipping and canal system. The town greeted us with a ride through a medieval arch and tunnel inside a tower. Normal Netherlands!