nbjtours

Doesburg, Netherlands

Day Twenty 117 miles 551 ft

First impressions count so they say. Well Holland has made a very positive impression on us for this trip. 

In theory. the land is no different to that in Germany, flat and uninteresting, but here there are bends, small fields, trees and windmills. The Dutch look as they have fun, as opposed to the ruthless efficiency of their German neighbours.   

Having struggled by just using maps over the past week and the choice of routes in each town getting greater, I wanted to use the hours spent at home over the past year planning the route. 

The problem with the Garmin was it freezing if it was used for routing as well as recording. So if I could use my spare one for the map the problem may be solved. 

With a bit of rearrangement this morning, Nigel and I reconfigured the cockpit of the bike as below  

Note, map on Garmin one, ride details on Garmin two, two LED flashing lights, easy access crossbar bag – housing, emergency blanket, energy bars and the all important jelly babies. All inner tubes and tools carried under the saddle. 

The new set up worked a dream, the only issue is that we now have to ensure that I charge up 5 items overnight!

Because of this faffing around I did not get started until just after 9am. 

A cold morning,  but no rain forecast once again, it was off on mainly cycle paths alongside straight roads. 

Fairly tedious riding, with the Garmin mostly ok, but occasionally choosing a mud path instead of Tarmac. 

On one such occassion the main road was closed, but my route was adjacent, which was fine until it became an impassable sandy track. Returning to the main road, I saw a chap who looked like the main engineer draw up in his car and asked if I could cycle down his closed road. His reply indicated that it was ok, ironically the road was closed to allow for the building of the cycle path alongside!

 
Moving to the edge of Germany , I was surprised to see the maize fields  dotted with these nodding donkeys courtesy of ExxonMobil. I had not realised that there was a small oil field here. 

  
Now the Garmin is up and working, the advantage is that it takes me right into the heart of every town. This was the pretty centre of  Neuenhaus, the last town I went through in Germany. 

 As with all Europe the border is passed without fuss, just like crossing a county line and lunch was taken just inside Holland. 
Although the crops were the same-it’s not worth scrumping maize by the way-the roads have corners, fields are smaller with hedges and   cycle lanes abound, just making Holland so much more friendly. 

The cycle ways were full of the recently retired, in pairs or groups bumbling along from cafe to windmill, seemingly enjoying themselves. Not sure how much of that you would see in the UK unless we had the safety of cycle paths. 

 
Dedicated cycle tunnels and bridges under roads are common. This is the best one under a motorway  

As the route was again a bit longer than expected, a quick tea stop was added, which was rudely interrupted by a big skid and crash, as a van piled into a car that had pulled out in front of it, just 50 metres up the road. At once, Nigel & Monica in policeman and doctor mode, went to the scene, where happily the air bag almost certainly saved the van driver from injury, and no serious harm was done, except to two very bent cars. 

The final 22 miles to the campsite were blasted along under a cloudless sky, and a very good day was finished with another barbie.