OP
OP
totallyfixed
Veteran
- Location
- The only county without a McDonalds
About time I got on with this!
Day 8, Almelo to Stadskanaal.
We have tried on this holiday to arrive at our overnight stops with enough time to look around and get a flavour of the towns and cities we stay in. On this occasion because of my injuries and to be honest being shattered by the days ride I wasn't up to sightseeing, so we left Almelo without seeing much of it. On the plus side I was already recovering after a a good sleep aided by a glass or two of vino.
We are now heading almost due north but still the wind is being kind to us and the weather is warm. This is the day we have planned to cross into Germany where a chunk of it sticks out into the Netherlands. We made good time with no incidents and got to the German border in just over one hour
We are out on a country road, but as with the Netherlands the cycle paths continue as you can see from the photo. From the expression on dr_pink's face it would seem she is thinking, blimey they are a bit high but could probably break the top one.
Halfway through Germany we stopped for a morning snack in heavily wooded rolling countryside. I remember from when I lived in Germany that they are big on walking and having rest huts dotted around, so when we spotted this one not far off the road it was a good opportunity to stuff our faces, we did a lot of that!
This next photo was taken in Nieuw Amsterdam [I have no idea why it is named thus, not yet looked it up] I guess it is typical of the many canals we crossed on this tour.
This is getting to be as far east as we would go so probably as far away from the influence of Atlantic weather systems as we could get, but at this point we were not aware of a big depression sat over the North sea that had been giving Scotland some grim weather.
Emmen was to be our late lunch stop, we were well ahead of time. If you head into a large town or city you run the risk of losing a lot of time finding your way out again so we skirted the edge of Emmen until we found a nice spot by one of those rare canals. This was actually opposite a square of shops on the other side of the canal so while eating we were treated to a birds eye view of how the Dutch go shopping - bike, walk, roller skate, not a car in sight.
Back out into rolling countryside before we get to the region around Stadskanaal which is more reminiscent of the fens back in the UK. I took this next photo to show a typical junction where bikes have the right of way, almost always the case even out in the countryside, and to portray the older generation out on their electric bikes, often many miles from anywhere.
Another cycle path that is as wide as the road it runs alongside, even if the UK achieved anything approaching this you would still have to give way to any vehicle movement that crossed the cycle path, not here.
Grandad out with the children, one ding of our bells and this was the result! More children not wearing helmets, what a terrible place this is.
Approaching Stadskanaal the weather begins to turn and when we reach the centre where the bus station and tourist information is the rain arrives, not bad timing. We chatted to an old lady who had lived there all her life, she spoke very good English, despite having never been there unlike so many of her compatriots. Fortunately she was a mine of information so when we asked her how to get to our overnight address we had good directions. Except it wasn't there! We were on the correct road but the house number did not exist. After much frustrated to-ing and fro-ing we stopped to ask and were told it was probably the campsite another km up the road heading out of town. Eek! Surely there was a mistake, a tent wasn't on the menu! It turned out to be the correct address, it was a campsite but also had an apartment, phew.
Very nice it was too. We cycled back into town and shopped at the Jumbo supermarket for our dinner, well dr_pink did, I looked after the bikes and tried to shelter from another rain shower. The apartment had cooking facilities so for the second day running we cooked for ourselves.
65 miles for the day, our running total
Tomorrow was to be a very different day.
Day 8, Almelo to Stadskanaal.
We have tried on this holiday to arrive at our overnight stops with enough time to look around and get a flavour of the towns and cities we stay in. On this occasion because of my injuries and to be honest being shattered by the days ride I wasn't up to sightseeing, so we left Almelo without seeing much of it. On the plus side I was already recovering after a a good sleep aided by a glass or two of vino.
We are now heading almost due north but still the wind is being kind to us and the weather is warm. This is the day we have planned to cross into Germany where a chunk of it sticks out into the Netherlands. We made good time with no incidents and got to the German border in just over one hour
We are out on a country road, but as with the Netherlands the cycle paths continue as you can see from the photo. From the expression on dr_pink's face it would seem she is thinking, blimey they are a bit high but could probably break the top one.
Halfway through Germany we stopped for a morning snack in heavily wooded rolling countryside. I remember from when I lived in Germany that they are big on walking and having rest huts dotted around, so when we spotted this one not far off the road it was a good opportunity to stuff our faces, we did a lot of that!
This next photo was taken in Nieuw Amsterdam [I have no idea why it is named thus, not yet looked it up] I guess it is typical of the many canals we crossed on this tour.
This is getting to be as far east as we would go so probably as far away from the influence of Atlantic weather systems as we could get, but at this point we were not aware of a big depression sat over the North sea that had been giving Scotland some grim weather.
Emmen was to be our late lunch stop, we were well ahead of time. If you head into a large town or city you run the risk of losing a lot of time finding your way out again so we skirted the edge of Emmen until we found a nice spot by one of those rare canals. This was actually opposite a square of shops on the other side of the canal so while eating we were treated to a birds eye view of how the Dutch go shopping - bike, walk, roller skate, not a car in sight.
Back out into rolling countryside before we get to the region around Stadskanaal which is more reminiscent of the fens back in the UK. I took this next photo to show a typical junction where bikes have the right of way, almost always the case even out in the countryside, and to portray the older generation out on their electric bikes, often many miles from anywhere.
Another cycle path that is as wide as the road it runs alongside, even if the UK achieved anything approaching this you would still have to give way to any vehicle movement that crossed the cycle path, not here.
Grandad out with the children, one ding of our bells and this was the result! More children not wearing helmets, what a terrible place this is.
Approaching Stadskanaal the weather begins to turn and when we reach the centre where the bus station and tourist information is the rain arrives, not bad timing. We chatted to an old lady who had lived there all her life, she spoke very good English, despite having never been there unlike so many of her compatriots. Fortunately she was a mine of information so when we asked her how to get to our overnight address we had good directions. Except it wasn't there! We were on the correct road but the house number did not exist. After much frustrated to-ing and fro-ing we stopped to ask and were told it was probably the campsite another km up the road heading out of town. Eek! Surely there was a mistake, a tent wasn't on the menu! It turned out to be the correct address, it was a campsite but also had an apartment, phew.
Very nice it was too. We cycled back into town and shopped at the Jumbo supermarket for our dinner, well dr_pink did, I looked after the bikes and tried to shelter from another rain shower. The apartment had cooking facilities so for the second day running we cooked for ourselves.
65 miles for the day, our running total
Tomorrow was to be a very different day.
