……we didn’t think about this one.
The Netherlands is known for its Windmills, this inturn means that there must be a lot of wind. We had noticed that since leaving Belgium we had been up against a constant head wind, if it was not infront of us it was across us but because we were hading North it was in our face much of the way.
Dam you
Another tip for young players, when cycling Belgium to Netherlands, flip it and start in Amsterdam and end in Brugge….now we know.
We were close to the centre of Rotterdam which was completely destroyed by German bombing during WWII. There were many interesting buildings and sculptures there because the Artists and Archetects were given licence to do what they wanted with the city and make it sort of a cultural capitol for the Netherlands.
So we got to see some other buildings compaired to the ones that we had seen on the ride in. We also had McCdonalds for the first time this holiday, it was for a lack of finding anything else, but Rotterdam had a Macas on every corner.
I then went to sleep in an effort to rid my self of the flu before Amsterdam, Ryan went to drink in the park with some of the people in our room (hmmm alco).
When I went to check into the ROOM Hostel in Rotterdam I looked a bit worn ( flu, dried salt, dirt and all that good stuff), I have been drinking lots of water but the flu is annoying. Anyway at room there is a bar next to reception and there have been many Australian’s everywhere we have been, but when I looked across and saw Blair ……
Who I plaid Hockey with and was the year below me at school I new that sleeping wasn’t going to happen.
It is random running into people from home so far away and in a random place like Rotterdam (most people skip it straight for Amsterdam). He has been away for about 2.5 months and has been driving around Europe (ask him about his story, it is crazy).
Also the friend he is travelling with Shawn, had his sister and her friend fly in that day and they were heading to Barcelona, Is sister is Niel Vaughns ex-girlfiend, random I know.
Small world hu.
Lucky for us there was no backpackers in Breda and we got a cheap hotel for less than what a hostel would cost us, this was needed after the moral crushing day we had prior.
strange dutch people…..
The ride from Breda to Rotterdam was one of the more interesting we have done. As we left Breda there was a lot of unexplained stuff on the GPS such as river crossings and routs that needed to be taken.
Go Team
We set off and had a very scenic ride; it was cold but not raining and had some sun patches that were nice. We went through many small towns (it was the southern end of the Netherlands) and then went far into the country side.
more good weather…….awsome
We asked in one of the towns if there was a river crossing ahead as there was a blue line on the GPS which I hadn’t seen before. They said it was a ferry across the river (caal really) so we headed in that direction. The ferry was only 90c which was nice, and it cut about 1 hour of the alternate route time.
booyah….this just saved us 2 hours of riding
Once across the signes to Rotterdam got much clearer and we could follow them almost into the city (they disappeared a few times but it didn’t delay us for to long). The weather got a bit worse but what can you do. Once entering Rotterdam we headed for the Hostel ROOM (name of hostel), we had two nights there before we headed for Amsterdam so it should be a good chance to rest after the two days of riding.
downtown riders in rotterdam
photos are on Flickr.
Today was a bad day, even though I had the flu I had a couple of beers last night, the problem is that the Belgium beers are about 2-3 times stronger than English or Aus beers. This in-turn led to an escalated night that ended late, real late.
The plan was to get up about 9-10 am, have breakfast and ride out, it was a shorter ride (50k or so) and we new it would be fine. Instead we came out of a deep sleep at 12 noon as the guys were cleaning our room for the next people, in the frantic dash to get out of there we threw everything into our bags and onto the bikes. To make things better a cold front had come in over night and after leaving our riding shoes outside for 2 days to dry the were saturated by the rain.
finally
We then went in circles around Antwerp for about 1.5 hours until we found our way out of town we headed towards Breda in the Netherlands.
thank you kind choc people
To cut the post short we rode in the rain all day, the best part was when we knocked on a chocolate factories door and asked for chocolate, they were nice and gave us some (so we got to visit a Belgium chocolate factory, tick that off the list).
YEAH NETHERLANDS
Another lucky thing was that Breda was a direct line from Antwerp and required very little navigation.
Why are we in France?
Riding in the rain did do wonders for my flu………
if you want to laugh at us riding in the rain you can see it all at flickr.
Antwerp had a good vibe to it, it was the same sort of vibe that we got from Gent but the city looked like it was newer. We went for a walk up to see a castle that we had seen the day before when we rode in, unfortunately it had been turned into a boat museum but you get that.
Storming the castle
We then walked down the shopping area (Antwerp is the capital for shopping), nothing was bought but there were a lot of shops and many people walking around.
It was only a quick walk around but we got to see much of the city. After getting back to the hostel I had a lay down because I got the flu and it is really annoying me, It is hard to get rid of because we are riding every couple of days but what can you do.
