The first week in Holland

1600 km bicycle challenge, the first week in The Netherlands.

We left the comfort of Frans and Ellen's home on Saturday the 9th of August as planned.
We biked through the forest of the Utrechtse Heuvelrug, which is a natural sandy ridge rising well above sea level, which forces the large rivers South and West to the North Sea.
After a couple of weeks of perfect biking weather during our training and getting use to our new bikes we were lucky to miss the rain and thunder, but battled a fierce wind against, the left over of the cyclone Bertha which hit the Caribbean islands recently.
We stopped for the night in Gorinchem, an old walled city, where I served the majority of my compulsory military service over 50 years ago, after 67 km.
The following day the wind blew unabated with rain added a few hours later. We rode along the river Merwede to Dordrecht, another historic city and jumped on the waterbus, a twin hulled fast ferry service for commuters who work in Rotterdam City. It takes an hour from here to the Erasmus bridge in the city centre. A great ride and interesting to see the heavy engineering, shipbuilding and general activity along the shores of this busy waterway.
We sheltered in a waterside cafe for lunch and watched my local football team Feijenoord win a game for a change on TV, while waiting for the rain to stop before we rode to Poortugaal, a suburb of Rotterdam to visit brother Arie and Sylvia and family.
On Tuesday the 12th we rode south, ferried across the river again battled the wind and rain, with Veronica getting skilled at drafting, which is sheltering behind, for the non biking readers amongst you. I keep my eye on her in case she looses contact or get too tired, but I don't think I need to worry, as she out sprinted me when suddenly the bells started ringing and the barriers closed behind us while crossing a bridge which was about to open !
Later on as the rain started to hit us horizontally we dashed into someone's open garage just before the owner of the house arrived home on her bicycle with a very small infant in a seat on the front, both dripping wet. They bring them up tough around here !
We had planned to ride to cousin Kees and Diny in Zeeland in one day but the strong wind slowed us down so much that we decided to stay the night in Steenbergen about half way there. The next day we rode around the city of Bergen op Zoom, through forests and heather to avoid the windswept route along the water's edge to Rilland to a warm welcome. While there we visited aunt Nel who now lives in a home for the elderly and is 95.
To make sure we were actually leaving, Kees and Diny biked with us along the river Schelde to the Belgian border, via an old smugglers route, converted to a cycleway. The river mouth is in the Dutch province of Zeeland so all shipping bound for Antwerpen passes through The Netherlands. It is a large busy port and from the boarder, the river is lined with heavy industry, chemical plants and a nuclear power station. The pollution is very visible and disturbing.
Before we reached Antwerp we crossed the Schelde on a free ferry from an old fort called Lillo to a small village called Doule. It is largely derelict and deserted, with one house still occupied with a sign saying "NO MORE DOCKS IN DOULE".
A lone principled protestor perhaps.
We are now in Belgium, after 241 km in Holland and Veronica is still smiling and talking to me!


The old walled town of Brielle,

Just as well the dykes are holding !

Protection within the city of the yacht harbour.