Saturday August 24
Cycle: 44.99km // 2h52m // 15.66 km/hr
Today we woke up next to an abandoned windmill. We quickly and discretely made breakfast and came up with a plan to escape our predicament (predicament: dirty
everything and tired of camping). The plan was to train to Utrecht in Holland, bypassing less desirable cycling through big cities and surrounding spraw and get a hostel for the night. We rode from our makeshift campsite to the nearby town, Kleve, and then on to Nijmegen (crossing the Germany-Holland border in the process, yippee!). In Nijmegen we discovered a very old city centre and an bustling Saturday food market underway. We nabbed some tapas (probably the most flavorful thing we've had in a week), our first syrup waffles, and then proceeded to the train station. We got on a 4:30 train to Utrecht, and found our way to the Stone Hotel. First on the
must do list was shower. Next was wash our dirty dishes from the day before. Then, buy food, do laundry, and fall asleep watching a terrible TV movie (in English!). The Stone Hotel sort of ruined our budget, but was necessary in light of our state. The lesson seems to be, don't let things get too dirty and stretched, otherwise you get desperate. Wild camping multiple days in a row is impossible because of the lack of shower.
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| Our wind mill camp site. We pitched the tent to the left behind a bush. Not quite visible from the road, but close. It doesn't really look abandoned, does it... |
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| Only 1000m to go to Holland! |
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| Its official, we are now in the Netherlands. |
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| Jenn strikes a celebratory pose |
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| I was on the lookout for food in Nijmegen, but Jenn spotted the curious legs. |
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| On the train to Utrecht the bikes have a jumbled spot. |
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| I am so sweaty and gross, I stick to the seats... and hope that no one sits next to me. Jenn's feet are also a deterrent, along with the pile of panniers. The novelty of moving at high speeds under someone else's power held sway over me for a while. Then I fell asleep. |
