To Roosendaal: Our last night in the Netherlands

August 26, 2015

The day started with us skyping Jane - it was great to talk to her and catch upon their latest news - not long till Jacob leaves on his exciting football trip to Engalnd and Spain.

KEN WRITES

We had a modest meal in the hotel which seemed to cost a lot. The breakfast was excellent and we were on the road before 8am. The weather was fine with a fairly strong S to SW wind all day which was close to a full on head wind for us.

Basically it has been a navigational nightmare ( as keeper of the GPSs I, Tricia, dont agree) that is made possible by the GPS devices - using both most of the time

We've been going through suburbs, light industry and every now and again some farms. We've been going under and over railways and motorways and over canals.

About 11.00 we went into the church square of Oosterhout and found a coffee at an amazing fish shop facing the monumental brick church.

The countryside had horses, sheep,cattle and goats (often high up on cute platforms looking very proud) and small herds of fallow deer. The strawberries were being mown as we went along. Lots of apples but no picking we have seen. I think a lot of the apples are large and what we used to call cooking apples. There is a massive call for them in Dutch dishes.

We finally found a seat to sit on for lunch at 1.30. Then on following the GPS instructions first to come across a tiny airport where we got a very welcome apple juice and were outside the hotel just on 4pm.

We've now been plotting onward moves. We had hoped to go to Zeeland but accommodation looks impossible so tomorrow we will head to Antwerp.

We have crossed Holland from top to bottom and east to west in less than a week. It has been very good but not easy and not cheap . There are huge number of cyclists lots and lots of cycle paths but few cycle tourists.

There are a few things that the Dutch could do to make cycle tourism much easier
1 Have an information office in larger towns which can direct travellers to modest accommodation which is what most need.
2 In the countryside there are lots of local maps but without 'the you are here' dot they are wasted on a disoriented tourist.
3 the local system of numbers for local navigation is great but not useful for the long didtance cyclists. There are to LF long distance routes but these are poorly marked.

There are a lot of modern appartments - to me they look rather ugly

There was a lot of excitement watching this oak being felled

I remember when I was a child this was the brand on all the dairy farming equipment

She rides an ebike, he has a mobility scooter and the dog runs. There is however a crate on the back of the scooter should the dog get tiree

Today's ride: 83 km (52 miles)
Total: 1,229 km (763 miles)

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