July 14, 2013
Day 3: De Panne to De Haan
An early start today - no coffee, as we wanted to get to Westende to meet Isabelle. After twenty minutes, we saw a rather nice roadside restaurant with a very helpful waiter, and so we stopped for a bite. Penelope had a hot chocolate, and I had an omelette, salad and copious quantities of bread and coffee. We were surprised when the bill came to us: around fourteen euros for that amount of scram, is not to be sneezed at!
Belly full, we headed to Nieuwpoort...
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... texting Isabelle to let her know that we'd be at Westende at midday or thereabouts. We'd heard of a 'giants festival' at NP (sorry, I can't be bothered writing it every time), and we were not disappointed. We got there before it actually started, but got some smashing shots of the giants, as well as seeing them being constructed, which was fascinating.
Imagine our surprise when Isabelle was walking towards us! She had got there earlier, and so we decided to go for lunch there and then. We walked along the seafront, checking out restaurants but as befits a seaside town open to tourists, the prices were prohibitive. Eventually, we sat down at the cheapest place we could find, but the waiter was really unpleasant when he discovered that only one of us would be eating - Isabelle and I had both eaten earlier on. His surly attitude, combined with the fact that the only non-meat item on the menu was 'spaghetti', got us to our feet, and we sodded off. We sat in a small burger joint, and Penelope had a veggie burger, and Isabelle and I had fries and a coke / beer. Eventually, it was time to bid farewell to Isabelle, and as she set off south towards Paris, we headed on to Westende. Near Oostende, we eventually found the North Sea Cycle Route, and understood that the LF1b route was taking us North!
Just as TC and I were, Penelope and I are very impressed with the cycle routes in the Netherlands! We arrived in De Haan...
We got to the campsite, and got a nice spot - even if the campsite manager was an arrogant prig.
Penelope went off to freshen up, and I managed to open the sole of my foot on the tent peg. Twice. In five minutes. We walked back into town for a drink...
Back to the campsite, we decided to turn in, and so another successful day comes to an end. Penelope cannot decide whether tomorrow or Tuesday is going to be her rest day. We shall see.......
Today's ride: 30 miles (48 km)
Total: 77 miles (124 km)
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