Day 75 (14/8) - To Bruges and too many hats

We said goodbye to the seaside town of Vlissingen and caught a ferry across the river to the mainland. With about 30 other cyclists on board the ferry, we were impressed. We decided to forget Hollands junction riding system, again, and follow Google's more direct bicycling navigation system. Again riding with a strong head wind we passed through pretty towns and farmland as we made our way to the bottom of Holland and into Belgium. (Tip for future cycling in the Netherlands, ride from bottom to top, the prevailing winds are generally going that way).

The view did not really change but we sadly noticed a reduction in fellow cyclists, the quality of bicycle paths, signage and tolerance of cars to cyclists. We made it to Bruges just after lunch, explored the town on bike and climbed the Belfry Tower (the cool one from the movie). Before it closed we spent an hour in the Dali museum, Reuben's appreciation for the ridiculous and absurd is tickled nicely by Dali's style.

As Bruges is full of Michelin hat restaurants we decided to attend our first and probably last three hat restaurant. We enjoyed a degustation menu with matching wines, truly amazing, lots of unique food, yummy flavors and interesting ingredients, and each of the 8 dishes brought out by three staff. The only problem is we might have to eat baked beans for the next few months to pay for it.. But It was a fantastic to experience gastronomy and service at such a level.

Windmills in Holland

On the ferry

Into Belgium

The wrong focal length, the buildings behind Anne-Marie was pretty impressive

Deceptively few tourists in these shots

More pretty canals, but after Venice, Strasbourg and Amsterdam we are not so impressed.

Particularly inspired by Dali's sculpture

Day 74 (13/8) - Wind! Rotterdam to Vlissingen

Leaving the ship we once again attempted to follow the crazy way-point system. and again within five km we were mucking around at roadworks for half an hour to find our way. More frustration as the way-points directed us down horrendous lumpy cobbled loops for no apparent reason, when on review, a perfectly good smooth sealed direct route was available.

On our first ferry just out of Rotterdam proper we met a fabulous Dutch cyclist, who despite more unforeseen roadworks lead us on a nice direct route down most of the way to Zeeland (New Zealand's namesake, no similarity at all, what where they thinking?),  Thank you Dirk.

The painful headwind from yesterday had intensified to a solid thirty five km/h unrelenting barrier to be overcome. We abandoned the waypoint system at about the 75km point and let the dulcet tones of Google's voice navigation system bring us the last 50km to Vlissingen.  Our toughest day so far.

Goodbye ship

Rotterdam has some cool buildings

Canals too

AM and Dyrk

You can see which way the wind is coming from

Day 73 (12/8) - Follow the dots + another ship!

Headed off towards Bruges with a hastily printed list of the waypoints the Dutch use to navigate their enormous complex bicycle network. Each waypoint has arrows to the next possible waypoints. The map looked like a black and white,  blurry, Where's Wally. It lasted all of three km before a closed road with no obvious alternative threw us through a loop. Google maps, some lucky guesses and a lot of backtracking to find overgrown, hidden, or straight out missing waypoint markers. We made it the 80km through a steady but manageable headwind to Rotterdam in a lazy six hours. Due to our last minute decision to go to Bruges we missed the chance to catch up with an old friend Wendy in Rotterdam. Next time for sure!
As Anne-Marie was still keen to spend another night on a boat Reuben couldn't say no when she found ssRotterdam, an old cruise ship turned into a hotel berthed in the harbour. They had renovated the interior 50s style, removed walls and combined two cabins into one. The rooms were lovely and the restaurant amazing. There was a pool with deckchairs and a bar. They were slowly renovating sections of the boat but as the furniture and fittings were old and expensive most parts could only be seen with a tour guide. Arriving at 7pm we missed that opportunity but we still enjoyed the experience.

Lots of horses and ponies along the way

Working windmills

Some awesome sculptures

Paddle boats shaped like swans

And we stayed on the SS Rotterdam a retired cruise ship, now 50's styled four star hotel

I'm on a boat

Day 69 (8/8) - More clothes washing and flat cycling

With all our clothes either wet or dirty we couldn't head off early for an all day ride, so Instead we opted for a sleep in and then a quick train ride to Utercht where we knew for sure we could wash some clothes*. We stopped at a laundromat and to pass the time decided to ease the load on our bikes by drinking one of our bottles of wine. Of course you can't open a bottle in a laundromat without offering to the other unfortunates without a washing machine at their disposal, plastic cups or no. 

End result: 2 bottles were consumed as we got to know James from Slovakia, his gay friend and Peter from the Netherlands. Peter gave us tips on where to go and what to eat. So following his advice we changed our direct route and headed off to Amsterdam following a very beautiful old canal, one of the most picturesque places we have seen so far; house and river boats, beautiful buildings, bridges and canals and despite the allegations no prostitutes to be found. 

We were a little confused at one point and a fellow cyclist, Thomas, offered to guide us 5km down the river as he was headed that way (green jumper in the video). He had just cycled the Danube and was so happy to meet someone touring in his own country and having an opportunity to swap stories. 

Stopping for an early dinner at a cozy looking restaurant we quickly discovered one of Holland's specialties, pancakes, glorious, savory, sweet, amazing, yummy, pancakes. Despite Anne-Marie's over pancaked stomach threatening to pull us up early we arrived in Amsterdam as the sun set. a healthy 60km under our expanded belts.

*Quick side note. Finding a laundromat on the web is hard. In every country we have managed the written word fine, through Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium we have muddled through with lots of apologies, Google translate, familiarity with foreign restaurant menus and common sense. Holland is a different story, these people use too many scrabble high score letters in their everyday language, it's almost Welsh in complexity. Lost we are. And the locals all just laugh, though Reuben did get a complement today on my pronunciation of Stroopwafle from a street vendor, YAY.

Holland does good icecream.

Oh yes they do.

A large canal, it carries half size container ships.

Apparantly the average Dutch person lives in style.
Like complete tasteful old school style.

A typical street view in Utercht.

Our cycle route's biggest hill in our trek from one side of the Netherlands to the other.

The sun sets as we roll in to our most interesting hotel in Amsterdam.

Just a little sped up recap of our roll through Holland. Sorry about the sound, will fix.

Day 68 (7/8) - A wet entrance to Holland

Up early at 4:30am we left the town of Rheinberg and headed for Arnhem in Holland. Aware it was going to rain we crossed our fingers and hoped for the best. From the start we had a terrible head wind and at about half way there just before we crossed the border it started to pour. With 50kms still to go we pushed on; strong winds, pouring rain, 2 ferry crossings and absolute confusion with the signs across the border. We made it despite the weather and complicated signage we were both so impressed. Bike lanes everywhere, bikes everywhere, lots of bars, good food and atmosphere. We like Holland (The Netherlands were the Dutch live (so confusing))!

Holland is a little wet. No wait it's a whole lot wet.

We passed a town called Rees (photo damaged by the rain) and a picture of Roos bicycle, kind of Dali if you ask me.

The Cycle the Rhine book we are following has obtuse instructions like turn right at the pink elephant.
We where correct in assuming he meant the soggy brown mammoth.

Day 67 (6/8) - Giant Bottles, oh my.

Enjoying the early start we said goodbye to Cologne and headed north along the Rhine. We passed through the lovely city of Dusseldorf and then as a complete contrast a terrible city, Duisburg, it showed a sobering look at a side of Germany we hadn't seen so far. We had planned to stop there for the night but it seemed run down and unsafe so we continued. Despite strong head winds it had been overcast all day so we were able to finish the 120kms (via the roundabout route) to Rheinberg. 

While looking for somewhere to eat we stopped by a house with larger than life-size bottles of wine in the drive way. Busted by the owners who came out for a chat and the next thing we knew we were in their back yard doing an impromptu wine tasting of fabulous German vintages from the region. They owned a bottle shop in town and were such a lovely friendly couple, happy to discuss wine and hear about our crazy travels and adventures. One hour later we said goodbye with two bottles of wine in our hands. Normally we would be thrilled but when you're on your bike any weight is a hindrance particularly as we still had 2 left to drink from our trip in Alsace. Oh well, I can hear your hearts bleeding from here.

Note the labels, that may well be what caught Reuben's eye as we peddled past.

Seriously if you are ever in Rhineberg stop by here and enjoy great wine and great company!

Reuben Climbs the Tiger and Turtle 

Day 66 (5/8) - Ride hard and eat well

Today we were up at 4:30am to do some serious riding after having been a little slack of late. We left Koblenz and headed for Cologne. It was so nice in the morning, little traffic, cool and quiet. Anne-Marie was having fun comparing the river cruises that we saw heading upstream, trying to convince Reuben that one day we too will join the oldies for an all inclusive cruise of the Rhine. We stopped at Bonn along the way and visited an awesome bike shop for pedal platforms and to fix Reuben's shifters after the crash the other day. We completed the 105km ride just after midday enjoying  a yummy 'scampi' spaghetti lunch with of course, a couple of glasses of really good international wine. 

After Note: the place we had lunch was a pretty amazing restaurant Vintage, we seem to have a knack of choosing exceptional restaurants on a whim (look for white table cloths is Dennis Rewnsley's  tip).

Anne Marie in front of the amazing cathedral in Koln.

Beer at the Hard Rock Cafe in Koln. Ozzy and Marilyn say Hi.

Day 64 (3/8) - Nature One (Festival 4)

We had a lovely sleep in and a tasty breakfast at our German guest house, trying our best to keep things neat and in order as not to upset the funny German chef. We took the day easy as not to tire ourselves out for our 9pm music festival. Just a 40km ride from Sankt Goar to Koblenz. 

The festival, Nature One, was held in an old military bunker in the middle of what seemed like nowhere. The bus took an hour to drive us there from Koblenz and then it was a 45 min walk to the entrance but it was all worth it. 

The Germans certainly know how to party hard, lots and lots of atmosphere and energy. The sound was the loudest we had ever heard it.18 stages, about a third in concrete bunkers, the others spread around the site, some on top of hills, it was a maze full of military hardware. We had to be careful not to fall over or down one of the hills in the dark (we opted for low alcohol consumption to stay on the safe, alert side).The bunkers were about 5m across and about 40m deep, solid concrete walls, so so so very loud. The main stage set was so impressive. We had both never danced so hard, about 3am we were exhausted but pushed on until 5:30am when the first shuttle was heading back. Hard to believe people stayed until after 9am when the last DJs stopped playing.

About to depart at a healthy 9am

Anne-Marie showing off an enormous cuckoo clock (and bear by the original teddy bear makers).

Reuben is too busy taking pictures of castles and rides straight into a flower bed (who puts a random garden in the bike path anyway? I ask you (and then fills it with sharp volcanic gravel just for good measure)), bike lands on his head. Anne-Marie the ever dutiful and loving wife immediately whips out the camera to take plenty of photos prior to helping the poor injured husband with his numerous injuries. (seriously the 40kg bike landed on my head (remember all that wine we bought yesterday?)).

In the background is the wonderful castle I was taking pictures of (here washing my cuts out).

Nature one tickets YEAH (Dreamworks grin)

Dreamworks grin for reference LOL

Stepping between bunkers

Anne-Marie dancing with the light men

Reuben gets down in the black light

All smileys

Can you say Hardcore? Bam Bam BAM. Seroiusly back to '92 here I come!

A short highlight clip from the main stage at N1.

6am at the entrance, a night is called.

Day 63 (2/8) - 230km in 6.5 hours Great cycling Bad trains. Oh and lots of CASTLES

Reuben was still feeling a little under the weather so we decided to take it easy. We slept in and then decided to catch a train and bypass some boring parts of the river. Only 200 kms, it can't take too long... 6 trains, 7 hours, a cancelled service and two late trains, it did. We found ourselves stranded at rural stations with strangers. Canceled trains make friends of travelers like little else can. Finally we made it to Bingen, Germany at 7pm and rode for 30 kms on what was one of the most beautiful sections of the Rhine river; castles, quaint villages and lots of outdoor beer festivals.

Anne-Marie showing of the bruises on her legs and the impressive space on some of the German trains for bikes

Having a couple of 2 euro champagnes during one of our unplanned 45 minute stopovers on our train journey.

Suddenly Art.

Finally ready to ride, off the train, there's castles in the background I promise.

Castles!

Ok, I really love castles (Reuben).

Castles!

Castles!!

Castles!!!

Caststles!!!!

Castles!!!!! (and bikes <3)