Day 7: Haamstede to Brielle - A Dutch of Class (Another Three Nations Tour (France - Belgium - Netherlands)) - CycleBlaze

July 18, 2013

Day 7: Haamstede to Brielle

Today was a hellish one. We crossed some more of the Netherlands' magnifiicent storm barriers, but there were brutal headwinds. Penelope did not have an easy day of it.

The first part of today's route - until our bloody GPS reset when we plugged them in! As such, please ignore the massive detour via Africa!
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The Second Part of the Route.
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We set off from the Haamestede campsite at around 10:30. It was a very, very misty day, which although it sank our spirits a little, at least kept the temperature down from the blisteringly high twenties of the past few days.

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A mile and a half into the day, Penelope was already suffering from tiredness in her legs, and I confess that at that point, I had doubts that we'd do the 30 miles we'd planned to do. We stopped at a little roadside shop, and decided to buy a pair of clogs. With our trips of the next few years, we want to get one souvenir from each tour, and keep it in our house.

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At the same shop, we bumped into four or five cyclists from Yorkshire, who had come across on the ferry from Hull, and who were also suffering from the winds - by which I mean that there were headwinds, and not that they'd eaten too many baked beans. Then it was time to attempt the crossings. The winds were so strong that our forward speed was down to 5 mph at times. It was our worst day to date.

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Once we hit land, we continued on to Stellendam, and there found a little restaurant to charge the GPS. Unfortunately, plugging the Garmin into a wall socket makes it reset that day's data. We scoffed - Penelope had tomato soup, and I ordered an 'omelette' which in the event was three fried eggs on a bed of hard cheese and brown bread. Not that I'm complaining - it was lovely.

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I was complaining when we paid and set off, however, because guess what - another puncture. This time, Penelope's tender attentions were not enough to calm my annoyance, but at the end of the day, what's the point in getting angry? There was nothing for it, however, but to pump the tyre up, because I wasn't in the mood to start changing again. Some of you will perhaps remember the pancake place that TC and I visited on Consolidation - The Three Nations Tour (France - Belgium - Netherlands). Just after that, we had provisionally decided to go back, and so I contacted the Brielle tourist office. Well, when I mentioned this to the lady today, she flipped over the menu - and was I flabbergasted???

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Those pictures at the top are mine! Here, have some more...

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We had the same delicious pancakes as TC and I had scoffed in 2010...

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... and then we cycled on to the campsite, and what a lovely place Brielle is! Yes, I know that I'm saying that a lot, and Burgh was lovely, but I have to say that Brielle probably takes the biscuit!

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I was feeling a bit under the weather, and went into the toilet to sit down on about five or six occasions within an hour. I initially thought that it was something I'd eaten earlier, but when we got into the tent and I felt like my body was giving off enough heat to melt the sides, it dawned on me: heatstroke. After some personal examination in the tent, and comparing wounds, we hit the sack..

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Today's ride: 30 miles (48 km)
Total: 180 miles (290 km)

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