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Day 20; cycling through Holland.

Afbeelding
Day 20; back home Today 115 km home, crossing 4 major rivers. The recent flooding in Belgium and Germany made the water level very high for this time of the year. Normally we would have used little ferries, some of them were out of service now due to the high water. We had only one ferry, after 20 km over the river Maas. On board 2 huge tractors with grass cutters to be taken across. The ferry had major problems having these two vehicles on board, the skipper started manoeuvring them in a favourable position and at one point the deck of the ferry subsided with a serious amount of water. A Belgium car driver was so scared by this that he reversed his car in and swiftly drove off the ferry to take a bridge further down. We trusted the skipper and safely arrived at the other side of the river.  We had coffee and cake at a trout farm and crossed the last 3 rivers by bridge. The day was uneventful but pleasant with a good average speed of 25.3 km with a slight headwind. For a moment we even
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Day 19; cycling from Holland to Belgium

Afbeelding
  Day 19; cycling from Belgium to Holland Today was the best breakfast so far, amazing place this NH hotel. It was a National Holiday in Belgium and the papers were speculating whether or not the King was in a divorce because his wife was not at the ceremony. I think she was bored stiff with ceremonies, I wouldn’t go either if I was spouse to the King. Leaving a big city is not the best part of a cycling trip, after 15 km we were once again on a towpath that led us out of Antwerpen. We crossed the border at 40 km and had a light lunch just over the border in Holland. Today was a short etappe and we decided to push on to ‘s Hertogenbosch at 100km. Ben was moaning because the wind was in front again, Esther told him to shut up and stop talking about the wind on a beautiful day. Front wind is now described as the weather condition that shall not be named. ‘s Hertogenbosch was set on the agenda because it has the only serieus  Cathedral in the Netherlands. We looked at it and compared
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Day 18: Cycling on a Belgium Highway!

Afbeelding
  Day 18; the cycling highway to Antwerp We were early birds this morning; until we took the bike and it had a flat on the rear. The inner tube we bought in Dinant had a bad valve so a grumbling Ben took this inner tube out and replaced it with a repaired inner tube we had for “just in case”. 09.30 we were up and rolling. We left Ieper through the Menenpoort, it felt strange that we were leaving the city and these names will stand here for ever. The first miles were through the battlefields to Passendale, over the roads the soldiers took to the front between 14-18.  The hills were over by the time we reached the river Leie and the cycling (tow) path there was very good. I had been a bit worried about this day diagonally through Belgium. In years before in Flanders there had been very bad tarmac or even worse; the concrete plates shaking your bike and body every 2 seconds. But I did not have to worry, after Gent we got on the cycling highway between Gent and Antwerpen.  It was bril
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Day 17; leaving France

Afbeelding
  Day 17; back to Belgium. 110 km. Weather today; super. In the morning already warm and almost no wind. We were out of bed early but the hotel was very lazy and no breakfast or any activity that looked like it was going to happen any time soon. Ben went for a bakery and a supermarket to get lunch and win back some of the lost time. Lucas and Erin sent us off before heading to the train themselves. Climbing out of Boulogne-sur-Mer is quite a thing, what made it worse is that they put a traffic light at a 13 % climb. A tandem can never start up at 13 % so halfway we had to walk. Once we were out of the greater city it was one of the best rides so far. We did have some steep climbs but most of the ride was flat through a lovely valley. There were many cyclists with panniers on these nice roads, later we found out that we were riding part of ththe Noordzee route. The names of the villages became Dutch with a French spelling, this used to be part of Flanders but it got nicked by the Fre
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Day 16; Un jour de Repos

Afbeelding
  Day 16; Jour de Repos a Boulogne s/m What to tell about a rest day ? Bike cleaning first; the tandem was dirty after all the rain of the last few days and Erin had reluctantly obliged to bring me a new cleaning cloth from home.  After breakfast Es and Lucas had some  shopping to do and after this event we all walked to the beach. Ben does not like beaches and hates sand in his shoes but was tempted to walk on the long beach of Boulogne. Can see the UK in the distance and you can watch these big ships and ferries passing the Channel. The family went for a swim and Ben raced back to the hotel. We had a nice box of petit fours salés and watch the last stage of the Tour and Silverstone. There was one quite remarkable observation; we cycled all the way, Lucas and Erin came by TGV but still expected  their cycling parents to bring sun protection, toothpaste, lens cleaning fluid etc etc. In the evening we went back to the Swan for Moules frites, our favourite dinner. Lucas had an
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Day 15; serious bike riding

Afbeelding
Day 15; a serious day on the bike. 125km After le dejeuner sucré we said goodbye to the B@B owner and went straight to the Boulanger and Fromagerie. We are back in the North and you can no longer rely on finding shops open.  Komoot was having a very poor day, sent us several times over gravel or even worse than that. Still, we were making good progress and at the battlefields of Crecy ( 60Km) there was a bar open and we had a sandwich. After the lunch the terrain got more challenging and the wind was starting to be frontal and strong again. We managed to keep the pace and after 125 km we were in Boulogne-sur-Mer at 17.00. We just had time to shower and change to normal clothes and went to the Gare to pick up the kids who were paying us a visit this weekend. As the corona delta virus is making a return the corona rules for entering France have just become tighter. Erin, whose vaccination is not protecting her yet, had to be able to show a negative PCR test on entering the train in Bruxe
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Day 14; the discovery of Sainte Rita

Afbeelding
  Day 14; half day cycling, half day washing, 58 km to Amiens The distance between the cathedrals in Picardy is too short to make a full bicycle day. In a radius of 60 km you can find cathedrals in Beauvais, Amiens, St Quentin, Laon, Soisson and Noyon. And not the least of cathedrals! Amiens used to be extremely rich due to the trade in cloth. The cloth went to Troyes and from there to Italy.  Today after a good breakfast in the bit run down hotel we cycled without too many problems to Amiens, the wind in front was still there but you can get used to it apparently. In Amiens the same procedure; looking at the cathedral and getting an stamp for Ben, a good lunch with al local specialty the ficelle (roll of pancake with ham, cheese, ham and lots of cream). But then we went for something completely different and intensely satisfying; we went to a laverie, or: a beautiful laundrette. Our “evening” clothes were getting quite smelly over the last few days. By sitting in our raincoats in
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