Two weeks ago we took part in the annual Dam tot Dam Wandeltocht again. When you register for the event, the form asks how many times you’ve taken part already. It was so long ago since the last time we did the walk that I had to go back through my blog, old photos, and old emails to remind myself. We first did the walk in 2013, but I didn’t blog that occasion. We did it again in 2014 and 2015. I had a vague inkling that it was a while ago, but that’s a long time. As I seem to keep saying these days, it’s been a hell of a decade.
The route distances this year were 10, 20, 27, and 42km. We did the 27km one – and Alex joined us for his first Dam-tot-Dam! In the morning we took the bus to metro station Noord (which didn’t exist last time we did the walk), took the metro to Rokin, and walked to Damplein where we picked up our stempelkaarten and the first of several free snacks.
The weather forecast for the day was mild (around 20°), with rain around 16:00. I’d hoped we’d be done by then, but we got a late start, we weren’t on a super fast pace, and the rain arrived sooner than estimated. It started to drip after the Barkpad rest stop, and by the time we hit the Molenwijkpark stop it was full-on raining. I hate walking in the rain. Alex had sensibly brought a rain jacket, but Abi and I were just wearing thin layers. We got soaked. So many other walkers had disposable ponchos that I wondered if there had been on sale at the start…but it was too late to get one. At least it wasn’t cold, but there was a long stretch from Amsterdam Noord to Zaandam that I didn’t enjoy at all.
The rain did take a break as we crossed the Zaan at Spiekeroog, and we dried out a bit on the last stretch to the finish line in Burgemeester in ‘t Veldpark. The rain radar said we could expect more, and we were all tired, so we didn’t hang around to indulge in the festivities at the park. We got a bus part-way back, and picked up another kilometer walking back from Poelenburg.
