Just as some people have to have their coffee fix first
thing in the morning, it seems that I have been destined to have my morning
confrontational…….that’s right, not constitutional…..confrontational..!
Once again, the morning dickheads were up as dawn was
looming, this time, two guys still drinking from the night before, both with
two bottles of beer in hand. This time they weren’t only loud and obnoxious,
but they wanted to argue as well.
One thing we’ve noticed, especially since we’ve been in
Amsterdam, is the amount of young smokers. Smoking cessation programs obviously
aren’t high on Dutch priorities. They
also like to text whilst cycling and when you see the amount of cyclists,
pedestrians, cars and trams that you have to negotiate, you would think this
would be a recipe for disaster, but we didn’t see anyone get bowled or fall off
while we were here, although we did see and hear a lot of ambulances last
night. That could well have been to do
with all the drunks at the bars after the World Cup game though.
Today we will leave the rat race behind and get back to a
slower, more civilised form of living and travel, as we journey east, to Lochem
before heading north to the German border.
Packed up our gear leaving only the groundsheet, as Michele, Curtis and Jakobi were bringing
breakfast out to the camp to say goodbye, then taking in a cheese and clog
farm.
 |
| Pete, Michele and Ju |
Not quite sure how they go together…… Anyway, sure enough
they arrive at camp with delicious fruit bread, cream cheese, fruit and a
variety of healthy drinks. Enjoyed our last hour together before they clogged
off and we were once again back in the saddle.
The riding for the first hour was great, but we weren’t
moving too far away from Amsterdam, due to the course we’d mapped out.
No pollution, no irate workers hurrying to get to work, no
crazy……and they are crazy motor scooter riders zipping past on the cycle lanes
in excess of 50km per hour. The odd snort from a pig, the distant whinny from a
pony and life was moving at a more relaxed pace.
Found a bank in Abcoude, one of many lovely little villages
we passed through in the first few hours and replenished our euro supply. The Cash Passport is working just fine. Then we stopped at a pub in Baambrugge so we
could get wifi and check our directions.
The wifi was very slow though so didn’t bother updating our blog
here. As it turned out, we didn’t follow
our planned route either as we hadn’t been making much progress so wanted a
more direct line. Unfortunately that
meant busier roads but we still had our own cycle lane with a good surface. It was just one of those compromises that
need to be made sometimes. Got a
downpour as we reached Hilversum and took shelter under a tree with a lady and
her Bernese Mountain Dog. We’ve seen
quite a few over here – at least ten since we reached mainland Europe. After enquiring about the local supermarket
and given directions, we were soon stocking up with what we needed for our
evening meal and also breakfast. Then we
zigzagged round a bit trying to find the forest track to Baarn.
Found it eventually and had some lovely
riding on a forest track and enjoyed the quiet after having to listen to
traffic for the past hour or so. Whilst
we were riding through the forest, we passed the retired queen’s forest
residence which was heavily protected with security at the gates and ten foot
high fences.
As we passed through the lovely little village of Schoest,
we came upon the Palace where the current King and Queen reside.
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Just past this we found our campground for the
night and set up tent after 76km in the saddle.
Cooked a lovely dinner of macaroni, mackerel in tomato sauce mixed up
with a bag of sliced mushrooms and onions that Ju had fried first. Followed that with a cuppa and a bikkie while
we wrote up the blog and downloaded the photos before turning in for the night.
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