On June 18th I took the train from The Hague to Alkmaar packed with my camera and hiking gear to meet my sister Vera, Hans and my Mom in Schoorl where we stayed in a holiday house for the duration of the 4-day hikes. From Alkmaar it was 9 kilometres by bicycle to Schoorl.

After we had met and checked into the house we went back to Alkmaar by bicycle to register for the event and have a nice walk in the city followed by a dinner.

Wednesday morning at 5:45 the alarm bells rang to wake up! After a shower and breakfast Vera and I went to the start location of the day: the Ice skating ring of Alkmaar.
We were quite exited and soon found out that we were a good match for most of the 350 participants in the 40 km hikes. After the 10 kilometres on the beach we met Hans and my Mom at a beach café for a well deserved coffee. Later in the day we met them at the terrace of restaurant Duinvermaak in Bergen for a nice sandwich lunch with a glass of wine!
On day 2 we were just in time for the start as it took a bit more time on the bicycle to get there. My mom stayed with our nephew and niece that live in Alkmaar so we only met Hans for lunch this day. It was a hike to the north east of Alkmaar passing through polder land and seeing many nice windmills.

Day 3 we made sure to be in time and at the front of the queue before the start to make it easier to keep our own hiking pace. The start was from the AZ soccer stadium and it rained the whole day. Because of that we were wett/soaked after 3 hours and decided to continue walking without a stop and not meet Hans and Mom! We finished after 6 hours and 40 minutes: which means we walked exactly 6 km per hour!

At the start of day 4 we knew not much could go wrong and off course it did not. Only the weather gods were not in our favour: it started raining again the last 2 hours of our walk so my Mom, Hans and my daughter Shaula and her friend Bart were waiting for us in the rain!





































































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