The Netherlands and Belgium revisited

[totallyfixed]

This is the third year running we have toured the above and once again we were using Vrienden op de Fiets the brilliant organisation where you stay with ordinary people and families. The way I plan the trip is to look at places we want to see, choose the ones between 60 and 80 miles apart and make sure there is a place to go out and eat within walking distance, this time the plan was to do a lot more of Belgium. Of course I look at the route and write out on a card [cardmin as opposed to garmin] noting villages and towns enroute. From past experience we know that the difficult bits are entering and leaving larger towns and cities where we are staying the night so for these I write in much more detail using street names and every turn with distances.
Getting to Harwich was by a tried and trusted route, I knew most of the roads anyway from leading rides when we were in Cambridge CC. Thanks to my geese inconveniently producing baby goslings the tour was only going to be 12 days including the 2 days on this side.
The morning dawned fine with 22 - 23C predicted and for once the train to Cambridge from Oakham was more or less on time.
Cambridge station was manic and we were glad to be away and not long before we were into familiar Suffolk territory which is surprisingly hilly when loaded up with panniers.

Funny how the camera flattens out hills! This wasn't the hardest by any means.
Our first stop was the cafe I always knew as the "Hard Times" cafe which has changed hands a few times since then, it can be found near to Stradishall and if you are ever in the area do give it a try, very friendly folk. In fact when we told the woman who was working there where we were going she gave us a couple of blueberry muffins for free!
The next brief stop to snap a quick photo was at Hartest, if anyone knows the area they will also know the steepest hill leads from the village up to the vineyard, I had completely forgotten about that one
Hartest

Following our route from last year sandwiches were consumed in a busy Lavenham before ploughing on to Hadleigh for a soft drink and toilet stop. Next stop Manningtree, we always feel like the holiday has truly started when we get there, partly because it is the first sight of the sea and partly because from there it is only 11 miles to Harwich.
Once there we got our fish and chips and plonked ourselves on a bench in the park we always use to eat.
Because food and drink on ship is always expensive we buy our breakfast in Morrisons, not to mention a couple of mini bottles of red wine.
The queueing to get on board was the usual nonsense, in that they always let the cars on before the bikes which means we stand around getting cold and then when we do eventually board we have to navigate around all the vehicles to the bike area which on this occasion was going to be oversubscribed as I had counted about 50 cyclists.
Luckily no one climbed the ramp as quick as us so we got our bikes parked in the best spot.
I guess we were fortunate to get a berth at all as the ship was full due to the madness in Calais.
Not an early night, but then it never is on the ship. Tomorrow was to be testing to say the least.

 

[totallyfixed]

Yesterdays mileage

Hook van Holland to Middelburg
The worst thing about travelling by ship is carrying panniers, bottles and bar bag up to the cabin and it is double the hassle when it comes to leaving because by then everyone has discovered the lifts. The second worst thing is the bloody music they use to wake you up with, if you are not careful it will stay in your head for days, not recommended. After breakfast I had taken a quick look out on deck to check the weather and it wasn't promising, murky would be the best description.
Leaving the ship, waiting to clear passport control

The Brits were easily identified by their helmets.
Last year we had gone straight on to the riverside cycle path and today we did the same accompanied by Martin from Norwich who was going to Rotterdam, we rode with him enjoying a strong tailwind to Maassluis where we parted company to get the ferry across the river to Rozenburg.
Chatting to a Dutch guy who was off to work at a chemical plant on the river.

Once across [the fare is typically between 1 and 2 euros] we had to cross 3 more bridges to get to our supermarket stop in Brielle, again a place we knew from last year. Unfortunately we were now going into a headwind and rain was threatening. We have a tried and trusted daily routine, get some miles under the belt then look for a supermarket, shop for a couple of chunky rolls of their delicious bread and some form of cream cheese, desert is whatever takes our fancy but often includes almond tarts and of course a carton of Vla which is a bit like a very gloopy chocolate drink of yoghurt consistency that has to be eaten with a spoon [another tip here, get a good quality plastic knife fork and spoon before you leave the UK], utterly wonderful but without all the bad stuff normally associated with this kind of thing.
Back on the road and we are following the LF1a with a few deviations thrown in, not too many because to get to Middelburg requires crossing causeways which are basically the only route possible. It always feels good to be on track and knowing where you are, especially so if the daily distances are long. The wind was gradually increasing and with it came the rain, not particularly heavy but made to feel worse by the wind, a good time to get under some trees and have our elevenses, a feature of our days though rarely taken at eleven.
The rain eased off and so were we.
Waiting at another bridge

Somewhat miraculously the skies cleared and the temperature climbed but so did the wind, it really was blowing a hooly now and we needed to stop for lunch. It isn't usually difficult to find a picnic table on the back roads, somewhat harder to find pee stops and impossible to find public toilets unless you use a cafe / restaurant. Our stop was indeed at a picnic table which turned out to be a game of, who has the quickest reactions as the wind tried lift everything off the table back in the direction we had just come from and no way was I going to lose the Vla and the flapjacks we still had with us from home.
If you look at a map of the Netherlands you will see that we had 3 major causeways to cross before the run to Middelburg. The wind was so strong now that sand from the dunes was doing it's best to remove the skin from our legs, I didn't want to think what it was doing to the transmission.
When it is too windy for even the Dutch to ride their bikes they come up with other methods of transport

Equally they also [besides creating land they also are not bad at making beach resorts] find ways of using the wind in their leisure time, in the foreground is a gently sloping massive dyke that holds the sea back

When we crossed a bridge / causeway dr_pink [all of 48 kg] was literally leaning at a crazy angle to maintain balance and forward momentum. From experience I would put the wind strength at approx 30mph with stronger gusts, somewhat fortunate then that this was a relatively short mileage day.
This made us laugh

Talking to each other was impossible without cycling side by side and that wasn't the best of ideas, so I was free to use colourful language without offending dr_pink or anyone else for that matter. Oddly all the other cyclists we saw were going in the opposite direction, couldn't fault that logic, but how did they get back again? We saw one triathlete type on his bike[sleeveless was the clue] sitting close behind a car, drafting at high speed.
After what felt like a very long ride we got to Middleburg and found our host's address without any problem.
This is the house we stayed in, we had our own apartment on the upper floor, absolutely beautiful.

Middelburg is lovely, went worth visiting, lots of history with beautiful old buildings.
On this occasion we found a supermarket and bought food to cook ourselves, we also purchased some washing line and pegs, something we had missed off our list. We both had string bags to put any clean washing in that had not dried overnight and tied them on top our panniers / rack.
Cumulative mileage

65 miles for the day, one of the hardest I can remember. Loved it.
Tomorrow was to be an emotional one

 

[totallyfixed]

Middelburg to Kortrijk

Today was potentially going to be a long one, when I first looked at a route that took us through Belgium I had wanted to fit in a visit to the war cemeteries and cycle through Flanders. There would be no room for getting directions wrong today [famous last words], but I recommend an App called City Maps, really useful in that it works on the smart phone gps but you don't need an internet connection so you can switch roaming off. For the Netherlands you download each area, e.g. Brabant, Limburg etc, if your phone doesn't have a large memory load them up as you need them on wifi each evening. City Maps is a bit of a misnomer because it covers everywhere.
Breakfast was of our own making which meant we could leave whenever we wanted. It was a beautiful morning and managed to get away relatively early at 8.15, the sun was already high and feeling warm, this was taken just around the corner from where we were staying

Our exit out of Middelburg was actually quite easy, we just followed various canals until we joined the one that runs SSE to Vlissingen where we would have to get a ferry across to Breskens. Virtually all the other cyclists we saw were going the other way, probably to work, the girl in this pic is texting while cycling along the side of a canal.

We hadn't realised that this ferry crossing lasted 23 mins so we were very lucky to get the 9.03 with a few minutes to spare. Like most things concerning bikes over here everything is designed to facilitate them, right down to door widths, lifts and the general layout of buildings you have to pass through, such as the one we wheeled our bikes through to get our ferry tickets which cost 4 euros.
On board

Once across we didn't hang around, following the coast for the first few kms [my speedo is in miles and dr_pink's in km just to keep us both confused] then gradually making our way inland through Nieuwvliet and then to Sluis where we picked up the canal to Bruges. The temperature was gradually rising so it was with some relief that we were in the shade on the canal

The above picture was taken just as we had crossed over into Belgium and it was noticeable that the quality of the cycle paths was not as good as the Netherlands, brilliant by UK standards but by now we were used to uber smooth surfaces!
An odd picture here, this was taken just as we were entering Bruge [and where City Maps comes into its own], the structure on the left is an old water wheel and the one on the right is a floating house, weird.

Bruges is very beautiful in so many ways, my only complaint was that some of the streets had cobbles on them that were most definitely not suited to our 28c tyres, it was a good test for my bar bag. We decided to have a coffee in the main square so we could use the loo, that was a shock, 9.50 euros for 2 coffees, I guess because of the prime location they could charge whatever they wanted. We ate our sandwiches on a bench in the same square watching the tourists

The temperature was now 33C and felt like it was still rising, time was passing so the plan was to follow a direct route, this inevitably meant following the main roads through rolling countryside. Not much to say about the eyeballs out run down to the area that was once the place where so many lives were lost. We had been averaging over 17mph for mile after mile in very high temps passing through Torhout and Roeselare without slowing down so were relieved when the village sign for Zonnebeke appeared. The cemetery we were looking for was Tyne Cot, could we find a sign for it anywhere, nope. We cycled several miles looking for it but it wasn't where it was supposed to be, in the end we flagged down 3 Belgium roadies who said they were going past the cemetery so we tagged along. The cemetery they took us to was The New British Cemetery but not the one often known to us in the UK as Pashendale. At this point we needed shade and refreshments and our water was running low, nevertheless our minds were taken off our own problems when we took in the mass of white headstones.

There is something extremely poignant about these grave set out in military precision and so immaculately kept, they are a stark reminder lest anyone should forget that once soldiers died in their thousands in this now peaceful setting.
We now wanted to find Tyne Cot, but first we had to find a shop to replace fluid, fortunately there was one in the next village with another reminder in the entrance of just where you were

Eventually we found Tyne Cot, only a few miles as the crow flies from the previous cemetery but of course no direct route and a puzzling lack of signs. Tyne Cot was on another scale altogether

We both had relatives who were buried there but we could only look at the register and visitors book which we signed before pushing our bikes around the wheelchair path, trying and failing to take in the enormity of what was laid out before us. Tears were never far away.
We needed to leave but didn't want to. I'm glad I memorised the run into Kortrijk from street view on Google maps otherwise we certainly would have been late. Out hosts, Jan and Hilde were fantastic and had a big sprawling one storey house. They sat us in the garden after a shower and served us refreshments. We always tell our prospective hosts that they should expect us between 5 and 7pm, usually it is before 6pm but today it was nearly 7pm, they found it hard to believe we had left Middelburg that morning, had lunch in Bruges and visited two war cemeteries.
A short distance from their house was an open air swimming pool, unfortunately it closed just as we arrived at their house, I would have paid extra for that swim. We walked into town to find a restaurant and took a picture of the sky on the way, fantastic.

We had a lovely meal thanks to 2 couples sat near to us who helped decipher the menu, I remember it involved chips and beer, after all it is Belgium.
Cumulative mileage [crap photo, didn't check it]

So that was a 79 mile day in really hot conditions, would this incredible weather continue tomorrow?

 

[totallyfixed]

Kortrijk to Dilbeek

Breakfast as always was a mixture of home made jams, eggs, various spreads and meats and of course coffee. Hilde dad also squeezed a vast number of oranges to provide us with a superb orange juice. Both Hilde and Jan had breakfast with us which doesn't happen too often. After breakfast Hilde had a go on dr_pink's bike sans panniers and afterwards said she wished she could also race in the UK. All too soon we had to pack up the bikes and leave, we will return to see them one day and next time go into France as we were only 10km from the border. Jan guided us out on his bike, quite appropriate really as he is an official town guide! He left us at Lidl where we stocked up for the day ahead, It was now 9.30 and today looked like being the warmest yet.
The first few miles were very good, following a cycle path to a canal [yes another one]
Dr_pink going uphill and giving a roadie a bit of a scare

The cycle path on the canal was very pleasant, in fact it didn't really look like a canal, more a river with a few leisure boats. Our elevenses were actually on time for once, but they are usually dictated by the availability of benches or picnic tables, the only downside of this one was that there was no shade and the thermometer was still headed in an upward direction.

We were making good time, unfortunately whenever I think that something inevitably goes wrong and it doesn't really take much to throw things a bit awry when you are riding to a fairly tight schedule. The first minor obstacle was the town of Oudenaarde, home of a museum dedicated to The Tour of Flanders, we had to zigzag across the river to get through the town with no signage to help, add to that we were now in need of more fluid, the sun was reflecting of the road and pavements, it had reached that point where it was far better to be moving and creating some air movement than standing still in the shade. We found a small shop where we re-provisioned and I drank a bottle of tonic water as I can suffer cramps sometimes.
We had now left the main canal [mistake, we should have followed it to Ghent and then again to Brussels, hindsight is a wonderful thing] and found ourselves on a cycle path following a smaller tributary, after a couple of miles this came to an end and we had to follow an off road cycle path across the fields surrounded by hills. Suddenly we back on tarmac and climbing, a real taste of Belgium hills, steep too, I guess about 18% but not too long before we came out on to a main road. We tour on 53/39 front and 12/25 rear, on the hill I was close to being on my lowest gear, something I had not experienced before on these bikes. at the top it was straight across the road to stand in the shade of a building and check out the map and eat a banana.
The next 24km were soul destroying following the N46, dr_pink was a star, seemingly unaffected by the heat and averaging between 18 and 20mph on a not great cycle path alongside the main road.
At just after 1pm we reached Hillegem about 15km from our planned lunch stop at Aalst, I knew it was hot and this confirmed it

The hottest part of the day was yet to come so likely over 40C. We pushed on just wanting to get to our lunch stop at Aalst which turned out to be a lot bigger than I had imagined, however we found the centre which as well as having a beautiful church and town hall had something far more important right then, a Lidl! A conveniant stone bench was found on the shady side of the square.
Aalst

Our actual destination was a suburb on the west side [the nearest to us] of Brussels called Dilbeek, all I can say is that we got lost in the final kms. I had the route planned very carefully for the run in to the Dilbeek address, all was going well following my route card on top of my bar bag when suddenly a left turn failed to materialise, in fact it just didn't exist! Either I had made a blunder or google maps was out of date. We were now out in the countryside on small roads surrounded by fields of sweetcorn, time to make a final stop and consult our map app. A few minutes later cresting a hill we see this

Brussels! A very welcoming sight, the poor quality of the picture I think was largely down to the heat. Incredibly there was still a lot of cycling left before we found Dilbeek and even then after looking on a big street map by a bus station, a street we were following came to an abrupt end cut off by a railway, not marked on any map!
It's fair to say that when we eventually wormed our way with a fair amount of back tracking to the address we were staying at we could be described as hot and bedraggled.
Our host Anne, who said her english was not very good, but in fact was fine had a very grand house in a very upmarket street / area

She also does B&B as well as Vrienden op de Fiets so there was a fridge that contained drinks which you paid for, she said that because of the extreme heat we could help ourselves for free, I grabbed a beer, dr_pink settled for water [very wise], bearing in mind I was a touch dehydrated and not much of a beer drinker, I downed it rather quickly. A few minutes later feeling a tad happier than I really ought to be given the extreme cycling dr p had inflicted on me I looked at the label of the local brew I had just drank, 9%! Another lesson learnt.
Dinner was in a rather nice restaurant across the street from this place

Very oddly [but not entirely unwelcome], I was the only male in the restaurant, which was full of beautiful very well dressed women, while next door was full of men drinking beer which lead me to think Belgium men have screwed up priorities
It was very hot sleeping that night so the skylight window was left wide open, the trade off was that dr p got zapped by several mosquitos, apparently they disliked the taste of me.
Mileage so far

Only 65 miles for the day, it felt much more due to the extreme heat.

 

[steveindenmark]

Excellent write up and photos.

I am not good at recognizing bikes, but are you riding a steel Spa Cycles Audax bike? I only say this as I have been in touch with John at Spa cycles recently and their Audax bike is something I may be interested in.

 

[totallyfixed]

Excellent write up and photos.

I am not good at recognizing bikes, but are you riding a steel Spa Cycles Audax bike? I only say this as I have been in touch with John at Spa cycles recently and their Audax bike is something I may be interested in.

It is indeed, a lovely quiet bike to ride, but your link takes me to a Dawes on Amazon! Anyway thoroughly recommended. I must get on with writing up our tour, it's one of those things that takes far more time than expected.

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

It is indeed, a lovely quiet bike to ride, but your link takes me to a Dawes on Amazon! Anyway thoroughly recommended. I must get on with writing up our tour, it's one of those things that takes far more time than expected.

Mod hat on: There seems to be an issue with some automatically inserted links at the moment. The mod team is aware of it but we don't have a solution just yet.

 

[Shaun]

Link issue now resolved.

 

[totallyfixed]

Dilbeek to Maastricht

After a very hot night and the usual excellent breakfast, surprising we could eat anything following the magnificent meal at the restaurant last night, but we did. Dr_pink actually noted what we had on the breakfast table [I should add that at the end of each day we wrote up a diary], various types of bread, croissants, waffles [it is Belgium], fruit, yoghurt, 3 types of ham, home made jams, cheese/goats cheese, eggs, fresh orange and coffee. Quite amazing, maybe they think we are too skinny and feel sorry for us.
Dilbeek is on the west side of Brussels so we had first to cross the city in the general direction of the airport. When I looked at this on google maps before leaving home I could see it might slow us down somewhat, so it was with some trepidation we said goodbye and hit the road with the sun once more beating down on us. After only a short distance we made our supermarket stop and then followed my cardmin which actually prove fairly accurate. The ride across the city was far less painful than we thought it might be, the cycle paths in many parts were not of the highest standard with plenty of glass to avoid, but apart from that where we had to mix it with the traffic it was fine, no problem at all.
After nearly one and a half hours we exited Brussels

From here it was along the cycle path by the main road through Haacht and Werchter where we joined a lovely path alongside the river Demer. Lots of roadies training on this path presumably because it was so smooth, even a couple on tt bikes. A stop on here for elevenses where once again dr_pink is attacked by wasps, to which she has a real phobia, I must smell awful as insects never bother me. We reached Aarschot and had to divert around a railway line to rejoin the river for a short stretch. We followed a railway line to Diest, from here we picked up a path through some woods which initially even though off road wasn't too bad providing you took it slowly until it progressively turned to sand! It just wasn't possible to ride through it, fortunately there was a picnic table to hand so we ate lunch and pondered our options. We are getting quite good at this, not getting too lost that is, so we figured a way around, not in too much rush as we were sat in the shade and the temp was again in the mid 30's
Back on course we found the canal to Hasselt where we stopped for drinks, absolutely baking hot again. The canal runs all the way to Maastricht but for some reason, and I put it down to the heat, I believed for too long we were on the same canal as last year, when in fact this was completely different and it was anything but straightforward with industrial areas on the banks forcing us to divert backwards and forwards, in some cases actually having to backtrack. Very frustrating when Maastricht was within striking distance. when we did reach the northern outskirts I recognised where we were from last year and it was only a 5 minutes from our address.
We arrived at 6.10pm to a great welcome from Coen and Petra who we had stayed with last year, lovely to see them again, lots to catch up on. They live in a house backing on to the river adjoined by half a dozen other houses and about 2km from the centre of Maastricht. We sat having beers and coffee and then ate with them outside.

Various neighbours dropped by, some we had met the previous year. One of the men Joeren, was re-building his house, in fact he was a conceptual architect and had galleries in several cities. Naturally us men had weighty things to discuss,
the three amigos [taken by dr_pink unknown to us] looking out over the river

It was one of those days / evenings you will never forget. Petra and Coen had 2 other cyclists from the Netherlands were staying with them, but rather than turn us way they gave us their bedroom while they slept in their vamper van, so generous.
Mileage, 79 for the day.

The next day was a day off, we intended to explore Maastricht because last year although we had eaten out there it was in the evening so not much to be seen despite being given Petra and Coen's dutch bikes to use. They lent them to us again and after a leisurely breakfast we cycled into the city for a more thorough exploration. It was hot again but this time we took our time. We locked up the bikes at the Markt square and set off walking. It was Saturday [hard to believe we had come so far after only disembarking from the ship on Tuesday] so it was crowded but we really enjoyed ourselves drinking fresh lemonade and eating scrumptious sandwiches for lunch. We visited the oldest city gate in Europe and found this beautiful church that had been turned into a book shop
Outside, where you park your bike is optional

Inside

Maastricht is not where the really tall people live, that is in the north, so I am generally one of the tallest when walking around, however it was easy to spot the giants from the north who were here visiting. In the bookshop I was looking at a book in the English section when I became aware of someone standing next to me, it was a girl, probably in her late teens and about 6'5"! Good thing she was wearing flat shoes! Her mother came over and she was only about 6'2", but then her brother joined them and he was easily 6'8", blimey I was beginning to feel small.
A typical street in Maastricht

After a lovely day we headed back to the house on our borrowed dutch bikes

Dinner that evening was again provided by Petra and again quite a few of the neighbours dropped by and the chat went on until late. We didn't want it to end, another magical evening.
One difference was the weather, although it was a warm evening we could see storm clouds in the distance to the north, the way we would be going in the morning. Perhaps our run of remarkable weather was coming to an end?

 

[totallyfixed]

Maastricht to Valkenswaard

I had planned this to be the shortest day in anticipation of not wanting to leave Maastricht. Breakfast el fresco as usual, but first a walk along the river bank hoping to see the Kingfishers [which unfortunately we didn't] and I think to seal in our memories this special place in case we never come back, though I think that is unlikely.
Coen cycled off to the bakery for fresh bread for our breakfast and Joeren came over to see us before we left.
It was after 10am when we finally waved goodbye. Not much in the way of navigational skills were needed for today because last year we had done the first dozen miles on our way north to Venlo and the last two thirds of our route we had done in the opposite direction from Valkenswaard to Maastricht.
We were quite surprised to have to put on a gilet and arm warmers for the first time since the morning of the first day when leaving the ship. That lasted for about 30 mins as the morning heated up rapidly and normal service was resumed. Normally we enjoy riding new routes and I had thought this might be a bit boring as we had done it before but not at all, we really enjoyed remembering all the various sights and it was a real pleasure to not have to keep stopping to check where we were.
Lots of people out on their bikes today, this was fairly typical, here we are on the linking path between the River Maas and the canal we would follow for most of the way to Valkenswaard

We stopped at the same cafe as last year for our elevenses where our hosts had been three jovial Belgium roadies we had ridden with, we had hoped to bump into them again but not to be, still, the ice cold beer made up for it.
I think this was the ferry we crossed on last year but this time we were headed NW so I just took a picture instead. The temperature was now well into the thirties so this motorcyclist must have been suffering

We are still in Belgium at this point, having crossed the border only a few minutes after leaving this morning so it came as no surprise to see again the crazy way in which some folk from these parts go camping

It's amazing how much time is wasted looking at maps during the course of a day, and because we didn't really have to we made very quick time. Lunch was taken by the canal surrounded by various species of waterfowl. A bit further on we passed a bunch of nutters doing a raft race in fancy dress.

While we were stopped there it tried to rain, I say tried because it was a rather pathetic attempt, in fact we were only really aware of it by seeing the flat calm of the canal being slightly disturbed by raindrops, anyway it stopped just as quickly and with it we were off again. A left hand bend in an otherwise fairly straight canal would signify that after only a few miles we would leave this waterway and follow a disused railway due north to join the road into Valkenswaard.

We missed it! I blame dr_pink who has yet to understand the meaning of the word "slow". In essence we overshot the path probably because it started to rain again, a bit heavier but we could see a bridge in the distance ahead so we pushed hard for that. A real sense of de ja vu standing with others watching the rain from the shelter of the bridge. It is quite normal where there are lots of canals with bridges over them to see large groups of cyclists stood sheltering when the rain comes down.
It was only a passing shower so we backtracked a few hundred metres to the cycle path I had been looking for the cycle path we had come down in the opposite direction a year ago, and indeed it was. So now we were only about 9 miles from our hosts address from last year and we were well ahead of time. It began to get hot again as the clouds cleared, about the time we crossed back into the Netherlands so all in we had spent 4 days riding through Belium, south then west to east and finally north west.
It was great to see Wieb and Ingrid again, not least because Ingrid loves to cook and she had baked cheesecake for us to munch on while we sat in their garden and caught up on life since last year. A common theme with virtually all the people we stayed with is that they have all travelled extensively themselves and often in the UK so there is always plenty to talk about.
Their garden is a shrine to feeding birds, one of which is a Treecreeper, not seen very often at home but always on their bird tables

Dinner was at the same restaurant just a few minutes away as last year. The same waitress remembered us as we did her from a year ago, it made us feel at home. A year ago on almost the same day we had got drenched riding all day in a downpour from Breda to Valkenswaard and the conservatory area roof of the restaurant had collapsed under the weight of water, very different this time.
Valkenswaard has no touristy attractions, so last year it was no surprise to learn we were the first English people to stay with Wieb and Ingrid and a year later we were still the only ones.
Mileage today was the shortest so far

54 miles for the day. A much longer one loomed tomorrow where our next stop would be Amersfoort.

 

[mjr]

Just to lower the tone:

Naturally us men had weighty things to discuss,
the three amigos [taken by dr_pink unknown to us] looking out over the river

"I say, strange backdrops you have on your urinals over here!"

 

[totallyfixed]

Just to lower the tone:

"I say, strange backdrops you have on your urinals over here!"

I was going to suggest CC'ers give it a title but quickly realised that wasn't the wisest course of action......

 

[mjr]

I was going to suggest CC'ers give it a title but quickly realised that wasn't the wisest course of action......

There Is No Escape

Especially not when I'm trying to get IO-intensive tasks done but the next task depends on how the current one completes so I can't start anything long and uninterruptible :-/

 

[totallyfixed]

Valkenswaard to Amersfoort

Every morning we sat down to large breakfasts, this was no exception and given Ingrid's skill in the kitchen it should have been no surprise to be greeted by a table literally covered by various dishes of food. There was so much we were looking around to see who else was joining us. To give an idea of just some of the food she had made; omelette with veg in it, gluten free pancakes with blueberries and coconut; home made bread with dates, nuts and apricots; strawberries, cheeses; too much to list everything.
Our hosts would always ask what time we wanted breakfast, usually we went for 8am, the exception being if a headwind / extra long mileage was expected when we would eat at 7.30.
Our morning routine was to be packed up and ready to go before breakfast so there was no hanging around after we had eaten. We usually ended up leaving around the 9.30 mark, it gave us a chance to eat slowly and chat to our hosts, especially those we had stayed with before. Wieb left for work while we were still eating and we left soon after.
Loading up

The previous evening we always checked at least the initial part of the route so the first few miles could be done with confidence. Yet again we had a beautiful day for cycling and we bowled along at an easy 16 - 17mph into the city of Eindhoven 15 mins up the road. A quick stop in the centre to check directions by the railway station,
where did I leave my bike

Crazy, given the fact that many of them are virtually identical. Our dutch friends tell us it is not uncommon to take someone else's bike and put it back the next day.
Another kind of bonkers in Eindhoven

Just after this our route was abruptly interrupted by a huge fairground blocking our way. The choice was simple, left or right to go around it, I mean how difficult could it be? I chose left and chose wrong, ended up on the university campus which only had one exit, the way we had come in! A load of time wasted backtracking and trying to circumnavigate a fairground that seemed to go on for ever. Eventually we picked up the red cycling direction signs again and were back on track. Next stop was Veghel to resupply at a supermarket then continuing north in ever increasing temperatures to the village of Vorstenbosch at about 35km where for our elevenses we stopped at this lovely windmill.

Shortly after stopping an elderly chap came up to us [he lived just across the road] and gave us a postcard of the windmill, he then offered us fresh cold water from the lovely cool interior in the storage area under the windmill. The difference in temperature between outside and inside was quite incredible.

He then showed us inside and took us up one floor to the grassy area where he insisted that I should climb one of the windmill's sails, perhaps he thought I wouldn't, but what a chance, one of those things you might never get to do again.

amazing experience

He then took us up the inside floor by floor explaining the history of the mill. There used to be 12,000 windmills in the Netherlands, now there are only 1,100 left.
The statue turned out incredibly to be the man's father who was killed in a storm by one of the sails aged 54 in 1936. When he told us the sails weighed a total of 6000kg you could easily understand the dangers. This really was an amazing and very surprising find, we signed the guest book and he gave us some papers telling the history of the mill and one showing all the different types of windmill to be found here.

Unfortunately time doesn't stop and neither could we, so after filling our faces with cakes and the wonderful Vla, off again continuing north via Nistelrode, Heesch, Oss and Teeffelen to Oijen where we crossed the same river we had stayed by 2 days previously in Maastricht.
On the way we saw a Marsh Harrier and then a huge bird flying overhead that at first glance I thought was a vulture, then realised it was a Stork. We stopped to admire it for a few minutes during which time it didn't flap it's wings once.

The ferry at Oijen, only 80 cents to cross

North again to cross a huge bridge at Beneden-Leeuwen then on to Echteld where lunch was taken by a watermill in the village with 75km on the clock. So hot again that at every stop we were looking for shade.
A typical red cycling directional sign, the one to follow if you want a more direct route. I took this to show our dutch friends who had returned to Nijmegen from a holiday in England how close we were to them, little more than 1 hour away by bike. On this occasion, unlike the last 2 years Nijmegen wasn't on our route.

North again via Meerten and Lienden to yet another ferry crossing to Elst also crossing at the same time into the region of Utrecht. On to main roads, well, excellent cycle paths alongside the main roads. We gave a roadie a nervous time when he realised 2 touring bikes were gaining on him, I like to think gave him a more productive workout .
We rolled into Amersfoort ahead of time so stopped close to the address for ice cream and coffee, simply delicious though had to sit just inside as too hot to sit in the sun.
Our host, Wil, had been part of Vrienden op de Fiets for 14 years and has a lot of visitors because of the proximity of her house to the centre of Amersfoort. We had tea with her in the garden before walking out into Amersfoort past the "Bull"

We hadn't realised that Amersfoort was the exact centre of the Netherlands, there is a small brass 'x' on the ground outside one of the churches there, which of course we had to stand on.
After strolling around the old streets of the town and ogling some very cool dutch bikes [I think we are coming back maybe later in the year to buy a couple] we had dinner in one of the squares next to another statue of a bull. While we were eating a group of cyclists went past, two of whom were waving at us, it was the same two who had stayed with us at Maastricht. I think they were a tad surprised to see us there as they were using a car to get to different areas.
Very oddly I cannot load the picture of my speedometer for this today, but anyway it reads 482miles total, so 68 for the day.

 

[HarryTheDog]

Just came across this thread and found it enthralling. Kept me interested for my lunch break. I have never toured in my life and only been to Holland and Belgium to take people racing. I would like to get the missus to do it with me but she is not that way inclined at the moment. Thanks again for the write up and pics.