The Whole Canal

The coffee kicks in and I wake up just in time to wake up to haul my bike off the train and catch the glory of Amsterdam Centraal station. It's time to attempt the entire length of the Amsterdam-Rijn canal.
 

East Amsterdam through which I ride first, to find the canal's north end, is not exactly of legendary scenic value, but there are a few nice things.

You can bike to one of the islands in the IJ and look back at Amsterdam Centraal's north (water) side.
 

You can admire this guy's steady watch over the busy IJ.
 

And in the middle of industrial, freeway-interchange nowhere, the bike path takes a hard right turn so as not to continue into the canal. The maps show bike trails along the canal's entire length. Despite its name, the canal actually continues beyond the old Rijn/Rhein river, across the Lek river, to the Waal river at the town of Tiel.

You can see the Amsterdam sneltrein exiting the bridge's left side. I had ridden over that bridge an hour before. This bridge over the Rijnkanaal was one of the first Netherlands landmarks I recognized, almost a year ago.
 

Just north of the bridge at Breukelen, a few bicyclists waited for the ferry to the west side.
 

I couldn't see anything to cross for--I think they just enjoy making the crossing part of their day out.
 

All day, the ferry captain has to dodge fast barges of many thousands of tons. Even one mistake...
 

The big boats take the canal at different speeds, and passing can be exciting. At times you'd swear they were racing side-by-side. I don't know what happens if one of these monsters strikes the dijk: this canal's north end is open to the IJ and the open Markermeer, so a dijk breach would be really awful.
 

On the north side of Maarssen: old men watching young men at sport.
 

The first flowers are out, a good omen for my parents' coming visit. In the distance, the first glimpse of Utrecht (the Netherlands' third largest city).
 

South of Utrecht, the canal suddenly turns rural, long symmetric stretches, long barge-accommodating curves. What you can't see is the rough, teeth-shattering pavement of the bike paths in this vicinity.
 

A ferry ride across the Lek, a few dozen kilometers in shifting winds, and a few wrong turns, and east of Tiel I reach it: the end of the road. The end of the canal. I'm now deep in central Netherlands for the first time.
 

The sun is getting low, the canal stretches to its south end, the Waal river flows by left to right.
 

 
 

One last look around. The panorama is HERE. And I head upwind and into Tiel, by all appearances a dreadful little town, and its modest, well-hidden train station, and back home. A good day. I've seen the canal's entire length, and not a lot of Dutch, even, can say that.