The 2nd Tank Bag Tour of 2019 has the start and end points at the Expo Haarlemmermeer in Vijfhuizen. As motorcyclists and readers of ProMotor, we know Vijfhuizen from our annual party: the Mega MotorTreffen. Now you can make that party as long as you want. So go home like a javelin and go home like a javelin. But you can also make a day out of it, if necessary an entire weekend. The Promoter has set out this Tank Bag Tour for that purpose.

Go after it. Along the way you will visit no fewer than five landscapes, get to know Klaas Kruik and you can put your nose deep into the décolleté of Madame de Pompadour - "Smells good, ma'am." In the meantime, you will be briefed about the Haarlemmermeerpolder, the Bollenstreek and the Ronde Venen and for those that is not enough, a handful of kilometers will follow along the Geerkade and the Winkeldijk and the Ronde Hoep.

If you decide to leave the A9 and drive inside to the Expo Haarlemmermeer in Vijfhuizen, an industrial landscape reveals itself. Huge boxes everywhere, and in between a network of roads that lead everywhere and nowhere, to make a mess of everything. Maf: a small church suddenly pops up along Schipholweg, a relic from the past, played out by this runaway infrastructure.

Now that you are there, you can also stop overnight at the spottersplaats along the Polderbaan, a stone's throw from Vijfhuizen. Schiphol lies within the Haarlemmermeer, the second polder landscape that you visit. Sleek and straight with huge agricultural plots; drive along the Lisserweg and you will sink into space. It has not always been that tight, you learn in the Historical Museum. When the lake was drained in 1852, a large pool of mud remained without proper waterways. "You have to dig ditches yourself," the government thought, resulting in harvests, malaria epidemics and high mortality rates. bottle and immorality, as it was then called, was larger than in Amsterdam.

It goes without saying that you also walk into Cruquius, one of the three steam pumping stations with which the Haarlemmermeer is milled. After all, the route comes along. And twisted to the point, you still look strange when that entire machine comes into operation, the more than man-sized steam cylinder that starts eight suction pumps. Krankzinng, in all its simplicity! And to whom does the Cruquius get its name? To Klaas Kruik, one of the first weather men in our country.

Then you immerse yourself in the bulbs, one of the most beautiful landscapes. Whatever the season, the area looks light and spacious and open, as if it had just been made. The fine roads follow each other quickly, from the Westeinde via the Leidsevaart to the Hyacintenlaan. You happily plop through the bulb fields. This area was once also part of the dunes, but it was excavated when an entrepreneur discovered that the sand was perfect for sand-lime bricks. And what then appeared on the surface, a mixture of sand and clay, turned out to be very suitable for growing flower bulbs!

Out of respect for all that beauty, you can visit the De Zwarte Tulp museum in the heart of Lisse. There you meet a Madame de Pompadour, the mistress of Louis XV and also crazy about hyacinths. She liked to put one in her fathomless deep neckline. Also interesting: how the first wind trade in the world developed in these regions from 1625 onwards when rich collectors deposited more and more money for a single tulip bulb. Then everyone plunged on this crop, which increased the price to six thousand guilders per bulb, just as much as the value of a canal house. Delusion of course and on February 3, 1637, the bubble jumped, leaving behind thousands of victims.

Of course you can drive straight to the Netherlands Transport Museum in Nieuw-Vennep, if only to come face to face with the Douglas DC2 of the Royal Dutch Nerderlandsch Indian Aviation Maatschappy, an aluminum patchwork quilt full of rivets, on a tail wheel that makes its nose high in the air. Beautiful! Or you first go for a drive through the peat meadow area, the fifth landscape that you visit. It has to be said, it is by far the most beautiful thing you do. It starts east of the A4, near Leimuiden and extends to Amstelveen. Really great driving, over the most intimate dikes, you won't find them more beautiful. Really a party. (Source: Promoter 03-2019).

Because I have not (yet) driven this route myself, this route gets 3 stars.