Day 7 - Island hopping across the North Sea (well, the outer Rhine Delta, actually)
Life is a beach
Marvin's note: It may seem like we logged a bunch of ferry km's in the track today, but in fact it was almost all bridges, dams and dikes. Just at the very end we had a short ferry.
Now here is a bike ride! And our longest one ever, too
So this was our biggest day ever, 84 km. Big exposed crossings on dams and bridges hopping from one big island to another on the edge of the north sea as we cross the Rhine delta.
See that building in the distance? We have been following this beach from up on the dike for miles. We will go a couple of miles beyond that and run into trouble
We had seen big signs during the day advertising a "Concert by the sea" apparently quite a big deal. Well yes, it was a really big deal and we didn't see any signs warning us that the trail beyond this point (where the concert was to take place) would be completely cut off. To our right was the North Sea and to the left was a major highway, way to dangerous (and illegal) to bike on. On the other side of the highway was the path that we were supposed to be detouring on. There was nothing for it but to back track into a stiff wind to get to a place where the detour started.
Looking back and against the wind didn't make us very happy
Tremendous tidal currents were moving under this bridge (from right, the North Sea, to left, delta waters) These bridges were built so that they can control the flow of tidal waters and exert flood control on the inland seas that result.
I thought it was interesting to note how they even put slight humps in the middle of the roads with breaks in them to slow cars down when they are passing cyclists
We come to an area of lakes on the islands of the delta, with lots of recreational sailing camping etc. Boy do I ever want to come back and spend some time here
So at the end of the day we came to a point where we wanted to cross the inland waters by ferry. When the ferry came and the captain was helping get our bikes on board, he said to me "This isn't a bike, it's a truck!"
As we left Veere, we came upon a sign for 'Mini Camping'. It was perfect. A farmer makes a lovely piece of grass available for camping and charges a very modest fee, even providing electricity. I think it was something like 14 euros or maybe it was 11, I can't remember.
