Day 84: Zevenbergen to Gouda

June 18, 2018

We carried out our plan of not buying the too expensive breakfast at the hotel today by making our way into "downtown" Zevenbergen. It had the format we have now seen in many Dutch towns - many low rise, often separate, buildings in a row, looking more like ordinary houses than retail outlets. We found our bakery, or bakkerij, very easily. Baked goods here are rather plain, but I happened to score one winner. It was a cinnamon bun that had lots of cinnamon and raisins, and a topping of caramel sauce. Unlike a French "pain aux raisins" which often has a kind of sickly yellow sauce that never seems quite right, I could see this one would be really addictive. No photo - it got gobbled up really fast!

Downtown looks like this in many Dutch towns.

Our bakery, with seating inside and outside, coffee too. That is like in Germany, while most French bakeries are too serious to be looking like cafes.

Dutch baking is pretty darn plain, but there are a few gems that can sometimes be found.

We carried on today without a real map, mainly because we did not find an open Tourist Information or bookshop. A real map in this context would be one that shows the location of each of the knoopunts. We did have our gpx track from home, which was helpful. Mainly, though, we felt we could rely on the Dutch to have a bikeway most everywhere. That meant we could follow car road signs, red bicycle signs showing the way to towns, "LF" - long distance route - bicycle signs, and knoopunts - using the local maps of these posted at many of the intersections.

A big test of the whole thing came when we knew we were heading for a big road heading for a big bridge. If this were Le Havre, or worse - Vancouver, we would be sweating bullets. But here we swaggered up to the road, and immediately were guided to a parallel smaller road, with bike lane. Then onto the long bridge. The long bridge had a protected bike lane. And "protected" meant a serious barrier railing plus a wide path for the bikes. We really feel like we can travel freely in this country by bike, choosing any and all destinations without concern. That is just so incredibly cool!

Choose an ordinary road and you will likely get a bikeway alongside, like this.

This local knoopunt map shows the green routes between points. We used that and also a regular road that paralleled the big road, and then the bridge that kicks off from point 12. All no problem.

Look France, this is how you take bikes over a bridge. By the way, all the traffic is coming from the huge port of Rotterdam.

The signage fell down a bit as we arrived at Dordrecht. We were never unsafe, but there was a lack of clear indications of the way to the town centre. We circled around quite a bit in the outskirts until we finally hit on it.

Dordrecht has a population of about 120,000, which is larger than any regional city in our home province. Yet its downtown, once we found it, was calm and pretty. It's because the core of a European city is normally a narrow and cobbled medieval affair. The scope was not there for building a car friendly thing with traffic lights and broad boulevards. We love that.

The Church of Our Lady is the main one in Dordrecht. It is a medieval protestant church, that we believe started out as a catholic one. It was closed today because of a Bach organ festival, but we talked our way in for a quick photo. As expected it was quite normal, though not totally plain. The lady we talked to who was staffing the door was very friendly. That is something we have found in other Dutch Protestant churches.

We talked our way in for a quick peek at the old Protestant church

The old downtown featured buildings that were standing not quite straight, something we have also come to expect in Holland. Many of the buildings had four stories, compared to two stories in Zevenbergen - as would befit this much larger town. One unique touch was a windmill, still standing in what has now become an urban environment.

Four story commercial buildings in Dordrecht

Presumably merchants' houses by the canal

Instead of steps, like in Le Havre, here we have a zig zag bike ramp.

As we were about to pass out of central Dordrecht we came upon a shop called the Bike Doctor. Now my bike had a "broken leg" in the form of its stand, which had now totally snapped off. We ha been planning a possibly full day excursion in Amsterdam to find a shop to look at the problem. But hey, a "Bike Doctor", right here!

I went in and told the man about the broken leg. He was just opening the shop and still had to put the bikes for sale out onto the sidewalk. So he asked for 10 minutes, and then looked into my problem. I appreciated that, since other shops have been unwilling to give immediate emergency service.

We had already tried everything possible to remove the broken off stud that was preventing screwing the stand back on in the position it started from. But the Bike Doctor did not know that and wanted to give it a try. He hauled out a giant grinder, and I thought "oh, oh". The grinder was used as I had already tried with a file in Toulouse, to make a flat spot that a Vice Grip could grab. But no luck. The man then ground off the stud and tried to drill it out. No success there. Maybe a different or sharper drill bit could have done it. So even the Bike Doctor gave up.

But in Antwerp I had noticed a rear clamp on stand on one of the police bikes. Maybe that could work. The Bike Doctor had one, and put it on. I think it is a little flexy, but with care it will be ok. So my bike rolled out with a new leg and a fresh outlook.

The Bike Doctor struck me as more of a handyman, compared to some of the crack ebike technicians we have shown the stand problem to. With his grinder and drill he did just what I would have done at home. Though I would probably have persisted long enough to wreck the frame. I was satisfied that a good enough college try had been done, toward putting the bike back the way it came. And at least now if the new stand fails, it is an easily replaceable part.

Once we had passed Dordrecht our routing became somewhat more straightforward and we could enjoy aspects of the ride like passing small canals where residents had outdone themselves with flowers, like seeing kids coming home from school on their bikes, and like observing several varieties of ducks, and their babies, and of course - swans. The final 15 kms was a pure run through polder land, with small canals everywhere and water often on both sides of the bike path.

Hydrangeas are seen here in huge clumps, in shades from deep purple to pink and also plain white. They are far more common here than in other regions.

Our destination for today was Gouda, famous for its cheese. We confirmed that this is actually pronounced "Howda" or more like "chchHowda". Carrying on her string of skill or good luck, Dodie had found a place just off the main market square. It is called De Utretchtsche Dom, and has served as a travellers' stop for 350 years.

We took a spin around just before checking in, and found a large square lined with narrow three story buildings of exceeding cuteness. In the centre of the square stands alone the city hall. It was put out there after a fire destroyed the previous one. The city did not want to risk it again. The hall has a sweetly high toned carillon, that we can actually hear from our room. It also features clockwork figures that come out of a little door and move around, while time time is being struck.

These figures and ones from behind the door move when the clock is ringing.

On this preliminary tour, I jumped quickly into a cheese shop. It is all "Gouda" cheese, but there are many different flavourings. Like Val Rhona chocolate in Tain l'Hermitage, you can taste each variety freely. The town also has a waffle factory, a beer cafe, and a chocolate factory. We will probably hang around as long as possible tomorrow, before hopping over to the vicinity of Amsterdam.

Cheese shops in Holland all look like this - with many large wheels of cheese

Today's ride: 76 km (47 miles)
Total: 5,620 km (3,490 miles)

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Marvin PaxmanWe will be going to Gouda after we see you off in Amsterdam. You will need to tell us the name of your hotel
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