Cool and Breezy
A lovely day riding down the Maas into a force four gale, finishing with a little rain. It remains beautiful, though, and we are far from complaining.
We are still a few days from the coast, but a check of elevation on the phone says that we are only 20 feet above sea level. The only hills we see are going up or down are dikes and the occasional bridge. We did diversify a little today, and fed some goats -
And just because, we stopped in at a lovely barn/tea shop for a little warm-up. The barn was from 1700 and was in beautiful repair, with a freshly thatched roof. The owner offered fresh teas from the gardens as well as the regular fare-
Some days it seems like we just go from corn field to corn field, fertilizing our way across the low lands-
We are in a marina campground in lovely Heerewarden tonight. It has a reasonable restaurant that helped save us from another meal cooked and eaten on the ground, as the corner that we are occupying appears to mainly be used for people to “walk” their dogs. And so isn’t particularly welcoming for setting up our tarp kitchen.
The gale has finally subsided, and we have hopes that tomorrow will be a little less work. Just a little over 30 miles today -- our usual distance -- but most of the time was spent riding into a really sustained wind. I have hopes that the restaurant dinner will have sufficient protein to rebuild our tired legs, and we can look forward to a good ride to the fabled (?) town of Sleeuwik. We have no idea how to pronounce these names we come across, and are occasionally challenged when the folks can’t do English or French, which leaves only pidgin German as a communication medium. We seem to get our point across, but I hope that I am not being insulting, as not all Germans are well received as they seem to expect everyone to be able to speak German. Sound familiar? We keep doing our best to stumble along, and field our smiles as much as we can to overcome our communication challenges.
Just a few days from the Atlantic, and we are looking forward to it!
-Dave
Headwinds are one of my strongest memories of Holland. But be glad, because when it stops, there are clouds of gnats! Looks lovely, especially the corn fields. : )
ReplyDeleteNasty winds. Enjoy that wonderful country... Sleeuwijk sounds like a good place to stop. With luck, you'll find another campground with a restaurant. Need that protein! Hope the night is good.
ReplyDeleteweather whiplash!! from blistering heat to cool rain ....... like a spring day in Corvallis :0
ReplyDeleteWe love those goats! And the little, helmeted poopers in the corn field. Ha! We had our biggest day ever in Holland--100 kilometers!!--because we had a gale-force tail wind. Let's hope you get one of those tomorrow. Beautiful picture of you biking past the windmill. Sorry about the dog poop--that's seriously gross. Enjoy your onward ride to the Atlantic!
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