- Total 1808km
- Today 47km
- Heerjansdam to Schipluiden
- Cloudy with afternoon rain, high 24c
Very heavy dew last night, and with the clouds this morning we had to pack our tent wet and hope we could dry it before the rain started this afternoon.
Our ride took us through Rotterdam, and as with all the other Dutch cities the cycling infrastructure is fantastic.
When we arrived at the Nieuwe Mass, the Komoot map seemed to show us taking a bridge across, but all we saw was a ferry. We hopped on the little boat, tied our bikes to the rail, then went in to pay the captain. It turned out this ferry wasn’t going to where we wanted to go. That ferry had been discontinued, and we were meant to take the pedestrian tunnel. What tunnel? The thing about tunnels is that you can’t see them, and this was our second tunnel today. The first one was a bike path running next to a major highway, a fast run down then a climb up the other side, racing a group of kids. They seem to think I’m easy pickings because I’m heavily loaded. Ha!
Anyway, with this tunnel, if you’re walking or with light bikes you go down an escalator. With heavy bikes you take an elevator, then it’s straight shot across under the river. So cool, let’s do that again! Maybe not.
Our planned 30km ride today ballooned to 47km as we diverted to Delft. What were we thinking! To ride past Delft and not go in to see the old town would have been a huge mistake. The old architecture is amazing.
Old-town was crowded with tourists, and maniac children on bicycles that seemed to be on a time sensitive scavenger hunt. They all had sheets of paper, and it appeared that they were required to check off all the important places in as little time as possible. Just don’t get in their way!
We had another mission in Delft. Remember way back in France when I said it was a mistake to bring our Aeropress coffee maker because we could get an espresso was 1,40€? Well coffee isn’t so cheap in the Netherlands. Thus I had decided that the coffee maker wasn’t such a bad thing to bring, and it was time to make our own coffee. Better late than never, so last night we purchased some ground coffee. The thing is, I forgot that we hadn’t packed coffee cups. This clearly was going make the process difficult.
The first shop I went into had lovely blue and white souvenir cups which were unfortunately also highly breakable. Not what we were looking for, but the nice lady in the shop directed us to a place that had exactly what we were looking for. Not souvenirs, but nice sturdy metal cups.
With all our sightseeing we arrived at our campground late, but fortunately the promised rain was late as well, and our tent was set up and dry before the rain made it wet again. As I sit writing this I’m outside, and the tent is once again dry. The forecast for the remainder of our time in Europe is for dry weather. So nice for our ride along the North Sea.
- Camping Het Zonneveld (mini campground)
- 18€ all included
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