An adventure is nothing more than a crisis that you accept. Put the other way, a crisis is nothing but an adventure against which you try to defend yourself. - Bertrand Piccard

Whew. This is going to be the last blog post, folks. Thanks so much for following along with us, we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!

The highlights of the trip for us were the following:

• Seeing Paris for the first time! What an amazing, historic, beautiful city!

• Ghent: we loved everything about it (Saroja especially loved, loved seeing The Lamb!)

• Steeping in the history of Brugge

• Sleeping on a houseboat in Rotterdam

• Relaxing in Amsterdam, we especially loved De Hortus and the House of Bols
• Penguin: forcing Saroja to give up on using a hair-dryer.I felt like I should have made a covert nature documentary of her rarely seen air-dried (and therefore very curly) hair (which I love). I would call it, 'Wife-rabbit in its natural state'. 
• Saroja: learning that we're just as good a team on bicycles as we are in a canoe. I loved spending all that time one-on-one with Penguin. It meant so much to share all the highlights with him, it just wouldn't be the same otherwise. He always finds a way to make me laugh when things are wet/cold/miserable. I've never loved this man more. 

Here are a few things we would do differently:

• We would have spent more time in Paris, 2 days just wasn't enough! We would also have downloaded a city-guide app onto the tablet or phone so that we would get more out of our experience while we were there. 
• Had we been able to pre-plan what sights we were going to see, we would have definitely downloaded more apps in general. Most of the museums have guide/information apps that would have saved us both time and money. 
• We would have booked our accommodations more than just one day in advance. We had done this on purpose so that we wouldn't feel pressured to reach a certain goal on any given day, in case we had bad weather or other misfortunes. But in the end, Saroja found it especially stressful not knowing where we'd be sleeping that night if someone hadn't gotten back to us right away, especially if the weather was lousy, having a warm bed and hot shower waiting for you meant a lot. That said, though, things always worked out for us! 
• We would have turned off the Garmin a lot sooner and blazed our own trail. Trying to stick to someone else's route and feeling perpetually lost was really frustrating. It's nice to have a "mostly traffic free" route through places, like leaving Paris, but when that route involves turning at every other intersection, following odd one-way streets, and generally forcing you to look at the map again every 2 minutes, it's not really worth the hassle. We decided in some cases it's better to take a slightly busier route if it's more straightforward, so things improved significantly once we decided to take navigating into our own hands. 
• We would have decided from the get-go whether we were going to camp or stay in B+Bs/hotels. Carrying all that camping gear for only a few nights didn't seem worth it in the end and without it, we would have had a lot more space for more creature comfort stuff (like more than one non-cycling shirt, says Penguin) 
• We would have brought more food with us. We were really hungry during parts of the trip and on more than one occasion, skipped lunch or went to bed without dinner because there just wasn't any food available. Having a bunch of extra protein bars in our bag would have made such a difference! 

Here are some things that we thought worked out exceptionally well:

• Doing spin classes all winter to prepare for the trip. That said, no matter how many 1 hour spin classes you do, nothing will really prepare you for spending 8 hours a day in the saddle day after day after day. But we're quite certain that psychologically, it helped a lot to know that we could do those spin classes. 
• Taking a bike mechanic course pre-trip so that we weren't intimidated by the, admittedly minor, repairs we had to do along the way. 
• Bringing our own bikes. We couldn't imagine doing this trip on a bike that didn't fit us perfectly and we were perfectly comfortable riding. Especially for Saroja, who is on the smaller side and would have had difficulty finding a rental bike that fit her. 
• Getting a European SIM card for Penguin's phone so we could upload blog posts, email B+Bs, and google directions whenever there wasn't an WiFi available. This was definitely a lifesaver! 
• Using Sygic as our map app on the tablet once we started navigating for ourselves; it was definitely the most reliable and user friendly one. 
• Planning our trip based on other bloggers experiences / routes. The advice to head east to west along the Normandy Coast of France was very good advice indeed! 
• Checking out bike-friendly accommodations on Gites de France and TripAdvisor was very handy. B+Bs were by far the most bike friendly and had the best food and hospitality. 
• Lastly, we were really glad that we made this blog. We normally each keep a journal when we travel but this was the first time we made an effort to blog as we went. There's so much that we would have forgotten if we hadn't taken the time (and effort - trust me, some nights it took a lot of effort) to write it all down. But, the blog itself is probably the best souvenir we have from the whole trip.

Amsterdam, at last!

Well, we've been back in Winnipeg for several weeks now, so apologies for not getting this blog post up sooner! There were gardens to plant and weddings to go to and all sorts of other non-vacation things to take care of. But now, here are our final days of the trip, at long last!

Location: Amsterdam
Distance: Many km, but all on foot
Accommodations: Fleur d'Amsterdam (B&B)

Our accommodations at Fleur's B&B were excellent! Fleur had warned us in a previous email that she didn't actually have 'official' space for us at the B+B but her son was travelling through Vietnam, so we could use his room. Her exact words were, "Could you please tell me if you would like an extra mattress on the floor? Or are you madly in love, and would like to share the 1.20 bed?" Haha. As it turned out, the bed, although still on the small side, was larger than we expected and fit the both of us comfortably. Fleur also provided a lovely blue and white duvet that said 'liefde maaks een smal bed breed' (love makes a small bed big), which was very sweet and very true.

Fleur also had some spare bikes to lend us if we wanted to use them to bike around the city but we decided we would do some walking instead - in part because they didn't have something where Saroja could still touch her feet to the ground and also just to take a break from the biking. Breakfasts were tasty and on top of the croissants, bread, cheese and jam we also enjoyed eggs from Fleur's own chickens in the backyard and chocolate sprinkles (a true Dutch treat), which were all delicious.

Saroja got a picture with a chicken at last! Thanks Fleur! 

Shortly after arriving at the B&B Fleur pointed out many of the sights of Amsterdam on a map and so that day we ventured out for a evening walk just to orient ourselves - but not before resting up during the afternoon. The next days were spent walking around Amsterdam and taking in various sights. Here's a breakdown of what we saw...

Photo-bombed by a Goose

Day 19:


Our first stop was De Hortus, the botannical garden. Saroja has a photo of a giant lilypad on our fridge from De Hortus and wanted to see it for herself. Unfortunately it was still early in the season so it was rather small, but there were still thousands of other plants to keep her entertained. She loves plants. I loved watching Saroja scamper about cavorting with all things green.

Here's Penguin with the Wollemi Pine - a tree so rare (there are only 60 left in the wild) - that it is kept under lock and key in De Hortus. 

Saroja poses with a cycad tree, the oldest plant at De Hortus, at over 300 years! 

After a snack in the garden cafe, we headed to the Resistance museum. The way it was described to us was that it was sort of like the Anne Frank museum, but from the viewpoint of the entire country during WWII. It basically goes over the whole of how the war affected the Netherlands from start to finish, with a focus on the underground resistance. It actually took much longer to go through and see all the exhibits than I expected, but it was really interesting.


The last stop for the day was the Artis zoo. Having just watched the Blackfish documentary, we were of two-minds about going in to see the critters but in the end it exceeded our expectations. We especially liked the free-range small mammal exhibit and there was a really great penguin exhibit for Penguin.

Free range mammal exhibit: who looks more at home, Penguin or the monkey? 

Somebody was excited to see the penguins! 

Hello from Amsterdam! 

Dinner that night was at cafe 1900, a restaurant close to the B&B that was recommended by Fleur. It was very nice, although their new summer menu hadn't been translated to English yet. Luckily by then we were getting pretty good at figuring out menus in foreign languages, our waiter was very impressed with us. Saroja loved that it was very veg friendly.


Day 20:


After another tasty breakfast, we walked up the Arthur Straat Market, which is sort of like a farmers market but only if you throw in other stores like drugstores and clothing stores - essentially an outdoor market for anything. I thought I'd try some tasty chocolate and bought a chunk of 85% cocoa chocolate. I like dark chocolate but I now know that I don't like my chocolate 85% dark...so bitter!!!!


From there, we walked to the Rijksmuseum, which had been closed for renovations for quite a long time but fortunately it was open by the time we got to Amsterdam! Despite being warned of long lines we made it inside without really having to wait at all. It's certainly not as extensive as the Louvre, but still has quite a few nice pieces... I really loved the giant model ships they had of the Dutch Armada and Saroja swooned over the Vermeer paintings.


Lunch was at a restaurant called Cobra, where Saroja had salty pumpkin soup and we enjoyed the typical European service - for example, we learned that if you don't know what you want to drink off right off the bat, you're ignored for a good 30 minutes afterwards. We were also served our neighbours food by mistake at first, which was unfortunate because they ordered what I wanted to eat but then when my food arrived, I realized the waiter had misunderstood my own order. So close.... Someone told us that the waiters don't bring your cheque at the end of the meal because they don't want you to feel rushed to leave. And maybe we're typical North Americans - always on the go - but we were often frustrated trying to plan our exit from restaurants because we couldn't find our waiter to pay for our meals most of the time!


Regardless, with food in our bellies, we were ready for the House of Bols, also known as alcohol heaven for Saroja. For anyone who doesn't know yet, Saroja has discovered that gin is the best form of alcohol in the world. Bols makes jenever, which is basically gin's forerunner. We went on a tour of the distillery which included experiences for all the senses - feeling the herbs, smelling all the flavours of jenever that they make and, of course, tasting! You get to choose from a menu of mixed drinks at the end of the tour and also get to try 2 shots of your choice of the different flavours of jenever. It was delicious.

Sniff test at Bols House: can you correctly identify the ingredient? 

Enjoying our free cocktails! 

That evening we walked the 9 Straats and finally found some art that we could take home. We ended up buying a print from a local artist whose shop we almost thought was closed, but wasn't. The artist literally flipped the 'closed' sign to 'open' when he saw us peering in the window and invited us in to chat. How could we say no? :) We got a linocut print of a canal scene in Amsterdam. Linocut is Saroja's favourite kind of art. This worked out much better than the $500 tapestry Saroja had been eyeing in Brugge..... Almost across the street was a quiet Indian restaurant, where we stopped for dinner before walking back to the B&B for the night.


Day 21:


After all the walking for the last few days we decided to sleep in (just a little bit) before heading out to visit the bloommarkt (flower market). In case you missed it from the description of De Hortus, Saroja loves plants. Loves loves loves. We also picked up a few souvenirs at the Delft store. Delftware is blue and white pottery that is quintessentially Dutch.


We then walked over to check out The Bank - a special Starbucks concept store. It's the first official Starbucks "laboratory" in the world, with special vintage and exclusive coffees available, onsite bakery, and "floating" community spaces- it's where Starbucks is experimenting with coffee and the environment we drink it in with the goal that what works in Amsterdam can be applied in their other coffee shops around the world. It was definitely a pretty cool space to hang out! Amsterdam's tradition in coffee very interesting since it was the Dutch (via the Dutch East India Company) who stole a coffee plant from Arabia (who had previously had a monopoly on coffee), grew it in their greenhouse (De Hortus!), and then shipped seedlings to South America where it truly took off.

Taking cool artsy photos with my camera at The Bank. No big deal. :) 

Loving this lifestyle. 

The museum of choice for today was Our Sweet Lord in the Attic. This is a hidden church that was built on the upper floors of three adjacent canal houses. When Protestantism rose in Amsterdam, mostly due to the King's conversion, most of the Catholic churches were shut down as Catholicism was made illegal. Those Catholics who wanted to practice their religion had to build hidden churches in which to congregate. Despite being hidden, it still had more fanciful decorations than many other churches I've been to.

Our Sweet Lord in the Attic 

The museum was followed by a walk through the book market which sets up once a week. Apparently, this was Rembrandt's favourite place to come peruse other's prints for inspiration. Then, we took a canal cruise, which actually ended up being kind of lame. The best of the three canal cruises we had was definitely the one in Ghent. We did come away with one cool fact, at least - the terminal station at the harbour is home to 60 000 bicycles every day! There's definitely a lot of bikes in Amsterdam.


We toyed with the idea of going to the Ann Frank house museum, but the line was very long, and we had a whole headful of info from the Resistance Museum so we decided to move along to the next cultural masterpiece....the movie theater! X-Men: Days of Future Past had just come out, so we bought tickets to see it in English with Dutch subtitles. And everything was so civilized!! By default, you get assigned seating (no paying extra), and even the seats in the front row are not as close to the screen as they are here. We were in the third row from the front and still had a great view of the screen. You can even buy beer in the lobby to enjoy with your movie. The only uncivilized part was the butter dispenser for the popcorn, which ended up spraying Saroja's jacket in grease. Poor jacket....


Day 22

Route: Amsterdam to Schipol Airport
Distance: 40km
Ride Quality: excellent
Accommodations: Citizen M airport hotel


Yes, on day 22 we were back on our bikes. The route to the airport was a little longer than we thought, and it didn't help that you can see the airport for quite a long way off. By the time the bike paths bring you to the terminal you've basically circumnavigated the entire thing. But the nice thing about the Schipol Airport is that you can actually buy cardboard bike boxes at baggage services, which meant we didn't have to drag anything with us to the airport. We took our bikes down to baggage services, took them apart and packed them up right there. They were left in storage overnight, so all we had to do was come back in the morning and take them with us to check into our flight.

Arriving at Schipol Airport! Hooray! 

The Citizen M hotel is only a few minutes walk to the airport, and was our best option for a place to stay that night, balancing cost and proximity to the airport. It was also pretty cool. The whole thing is made out of old shipping containers. The hotel rooms are long and narrow - the bed takes up the far end of the room and there's no way to walk around it as it's flush with the walls. The shower and toilet are in tube-like enclosures in the middle of the room, and you can control the window coverings, lighting and TV all from one remote. It was definitely different but clean and pretty new. There's no restaurant there but you can get a wide variety of food from the snack bar, including hot options, and they have cocktails and beer at the bar. They also had free on-demand movies - so we ended up watching 3 movies in the hotel room before going to sleep. A lazy day at last!

Citizen M had some pretty entertaining bath products. 

Day 23: Homeward bound!


Our flight was at a decent time in the morning, so we were able to sleep in a bit before walking back to the airport to reclaim our bikes. Everything went fairly smoothly - at least, as smoothly as it can when you're trying to wheel two large bike boxes around the airport on the baggage carts. The lineup to check in for our flight was long but when the attendants saw that there was no way we'd fit through their lines with the bikes, we got to head straight to the Executive boarding desk - so the bikes actually helped in that regard. Although we booked with Air Canada our first flight was on Lufthansa, so we kind of got screwed by having to pay our excess baggage fees for the bikes in Euros instead of Canadian dollars. But aside from that we managed to check in just fine, enjoyed a quick breakfast - including a stop at the chocolate bar, which was pretty heavenly for me - and then boarded our plane for home! Or at least, to Frankfurt, then Ottawa, then home. We managed to make all the connections and our friends were waiting in Winnipeg to pick us - and our bikes - up at the airport.


So that's it! We'll have one more post in a couple of days which will be our wrap-up post, so stay with us for just a little longer.

So long, Amsterdam! We'll be back for sure! 

Day 18: and then there was rest...

Sleeping at Camp Zeeburg was OK,  albeit a little noisy. It also looks like the weather is turning back to rain,  so we're glad to have found accomodations at Fleur D'Amsterdam,  a little B+B just outside the city center.

For whatever reason,  finding a place to stay in Amsterdam has been rather difficult and even Fleur had no space but offered us her son's bedroom (her son is currently traveling through vietnam). It means sharing a 1.2 size bed but I'm about 0.2 in size, so it should work out just fine.

We're going to take a little break from the blog while we explore Amsterdam and enjoy the last few days of our honeymoon. Don't worry,  we'll keep a list of all the fun things we do and update you after.

We're also working on a "if you want to do this trip  too,  here's what we would do differently..." post. Most of the information we got about routes/gear/planning,  we pulled from others' vacation blogs,  so hopefully we can pay things forward a bit by writing our own.

See you in a few days and thanks for reading!

Day 17: Victory!!!

Route: Rotterdam to Amsterdam
Distance: 93 km
Ride Quality: Hot and Textured
Accomodation: Camping Zeeburg

We made it to Amsterdam!!! Hurrah!!!!!

This morning we had a relatively leisurely morning on the deck of our houseboat enjoying some tea and hot chocolate. I say relatively leisurely since Saroja was eager to get on the road to our final destination. So we packed up and after a quick stop for breakfast we were off!!!

Enjoying morning drinks on our boat-for-a-day. 

The LF routes, as usual, were rather winding. At least we expected it by now, so the fact that the roughly 70 km drive by car was 93 km by bike wasn't unexpected. The signage definitely suffered more today though. Where there are no other light poles or sign posts, the route signs are placed on small posts about 2 or maybe 3 feet off the ground. But the gardeners need to do some trimming since more than once we had to backtrack until a gust of wind revealed the hidden post behind the foliage . We also had pretty much every kind of trail today, from smooth paved road to really narrow & bumpy paved road to gravelly/sandy goat trail to paving stones. And when I say narrow, I mean only room for one bike despite having bikes coming from both directions. This made things pretty hairy when you have an electric fence for cattle on one side and a canal on the other. Despite this, the last part of the ride into Amsterdam was quite nice - smooth, flat road along beautiful canals. The perfect homestretch for our triumphant arrival.

Along with the mixed terrain we did have some pretty nice scenery too, at least. We even drove through a neighborhood where the houses were just on the other side of the water, so that they driveways were actually bridges over the water to their home. Pretty cool!!!

We drove past some free range sheep! No fence in place to keep Saroja away from these little guys

An excellent shot of one of the scenic windmills. 

The sun today made for another hot day though, just like yesterday. We were sunscreened up and avoided sunburns, but we were sure feeling the heat. The next two days are supposed to rain, so even though we could have taken a more leisurely pace to get here, it's probably just as well that we avoided more biking in the rain.

Towards the end of the day I just wanted a short rest in the shade. Saroja said I should get up or people will think I'm dead, and she wouldn't know enough Dutch to explain otherwise to them. I think it was just more militant behavior. 

We had a bit of trouble trying to find accomodations in Amsterdam. Apparently lots of business people stay here in town to work during the week, then head home for the weekends. Even a lot of the B&Bs are booked. We did find a fairly nice campground though. It's on the east side of the city and right on the water. Way nicer than the sketchy campground from Antwerp. They even have Wi-Fi all across the tent field, and the vending machines sell non-carbonated canned mineral water. Mmmm... I think we've got some leads on nice places to stay for the rest of the week though!

-Penguin

Day 16: boats boats boats!

Route: Roosendaal to Rotterdam (via LF-2...mostly)
Distance: 95km
Ride Quality: good*
Accomodations: Logeerboot Visithor (it's a houseboat!)

After an excellent sleep last night at Hotel Central,  we enjoyed a lovely buffet breakfast with our first taste of gouda cheese on native soil. Yum yum! Then we hopped onto the bikes and were off on the LF-2 headed for Rotterdam. Normally,  it would take us some time to find the LF route again but Hotel Central is located literally right on the LF-2, so we had a pretty speedy getaway this morning. Astonishingly, the hotel staff were completely unaware of this,  in fact most of the locals we've stopped to ask directions from haven't known what the LF routes are. Instead, everyone here uses local 'node' maps,  where every intersection is assigned a number and you plan your route by following the nodes along the way. Penguin and I have yet to get our hands on one of these precious documents. Not that it would do us a lot of good since we'd need the local maps for a dozen municipalities a day... but if the Dutch authorities are reading this blog,  it would be totally awesome if you could upload the maps along with the LF routes online!  :)

It doesn't get more convenient than this: the hotel patio is basically the LF route! 

*Today, the LF route was well paved with long stretches of cobblestones and laid brick. Thankfully there was no dirt tract today. The route however was very meandering. I'm sure that the creators of the LF routes wanted to make sure that you get the full scenic experience but at a certain point,  the riders of the LF routes would also like to just arrive at their destination, too.

Signage on this part of the LF route was more sparse and we lost our way a few times. First of all, LF signs with a u-turn do not mean that you're going the wrong way and should turn around. They mean 'go over this bridge then turn immediately afterwards and follow the new path in another direction'. Also, the sign posting people occasionally mixed up the LF a and b signs,  which caused us some confusion until we learned to ignore them. Apparently, in the Netherlands, the LF routes are marked 'a' when going in one direction (North to South or East to west)  and 'b'  when going in the other direction (South to North or west to east). This is particularly handy in preventing you from going back the way you came after you've done a few loops around during the same traffic circle looking for your exit... except that they occasionally mix up the signs and then you feel like you've gone down the rabbit hole after so much circling.

Lastly, the signage at the 2 ferry crossings we took today was also less than ideal (read: non-existant). The first ferry takes you from Dordretch to Papendrecht, which is the port you can see just across the river (node 98 on the local map) and the first of 2 Papendrecht landing options. From this terminal,  you can also catch 3 other ferries,  one of which goes directly to Rotterdam (sorry legs, no shortcut for you!). It was unclear to us if you needed to pay for this ferry (the ones in Belgium had been free and we didn't see anywhere to buy a ticket). Fortunately,  no one kicked us off the boat and made us swim for it. The second ferry crossing was in Kinderdijk -  we took the ferry straight across the river again (to Krimpen aan de Lek), which at the time had looked like our only option. This, however, was a mistake. You are definitely supposed to take the ferry going to Slekkerveer, which uses the same dock and presumably runs along a similar schedule. Either way,  this ferry definitely has a toll (albeit a cheap one at 1.75 euros for 2 people)  and someone comes around to collect it,  so have some change ready. If you do take the wrong ferry it's no big deal. We navigated our own route to Rotterdam along some quiet roads and eventually found the LF2 again without having to recross the river.

And here we thought we'd chosen a luxury vacation with no carnivorous animals to worry about! 

On the bright side,  the weather was even better today and it was finally warm enough for Penguin and I to wear t-shirts! Hooray! We are both now sporting impressive cycling tan lines that I look forward to flaunting when I get home. Haha.

We had lunch today at a little cafe that appeared mysteriously at the edge of a forest along the route and it really did just appear out of nowhere. There were no signs and it was located in the middle of a long stretch of fietspad (bike path in Dutch). The food was decent and definitely kept us going for the afternoon. Also, the opportunity to use the washroom was great. During much of France, pee breaks were a side-of-the-road-off-in-the-bushes affair but ever since entering Belgium and the Blue Banana, these opportunities have been infrequent. And trust me, cycling over cobblestones with a full bladder is no fun!

The other great highlight today was seeing all the windmills in Kinderdijk. The LF2 takes you right down the center of the UNESCO heritage site where nineteen 17th century windmills line both sides of the canal. It really is quite beautiful. And popular! Sundays in Holland,  it seems, are the national everybody-go-ride-your-bike day and the fietspad was full of people all on our route! In fact, sometimes we found it easier to cycle on the road because there was less traffic! Despite this, it was really great to see so many people, of all ages and sizes, getting outside and getting some exercise. My favorites were the tiny kids who were all suited up in their spandex shorts and tops and pedaling like mad to keep up with mom and dad.

So many windmills! So sunburnt! 

Tonight, Penguin and I are staying on a houseboat in the center of Rotterdam. It is AWESOME. Definitely a little more money than our other accomodations but way too cool to pass up the opportunity. Our boat is moored next to another boat that is a floating restaurant (Gravy Daveys) - and they make some darn tasty British food! I had a goat cheese and sweet pea tart with minted potatoes for dinner and a lemon tart for dessert,  all rounded off by a Pimm's Cup. It was delicious! And now I'm sipping tea and writing this blog post from the deck of our boat next door while Penguin is down below singing this song.

Dinner was delicious on-board Gravy Daveys'

Followed by lounging on a beautiful, warm evening aboard our houseboat right next door! 

Soon to be followed by sleeping on said houseboat... Mmm sleep! 

Tomorrow will likely be our last day in the saddle since our goal is to arrive in Amsterdam. We're both a little sad to be done biking, despite the saddle sores and aching legs. I think it's the prospect of not being able to eat as much of- and anything we want without guilt that makes us the most sad. Haha.

We'll be arriving in Amsterdam a few days early (Penguin keeps muttering to himself about me being militant and if we'd just taken more rest days/done shorter distances blah blah blah)... which means that we'll get one full day to just lounge and 3 additional days to explore the city. Any suggestions for what to do?

Cheers!
Saroja

PS: Happy Birthday,  Mom! :)

Day 15: Road bikes can do anything - except ride through sand

Route: Antwerp, Belgium to Roosendaal, NL
Distance: 55 km
Ride Quality: Variable
Accommodation: Hotel Central

We woke up early this morning to escape from the sketchy campsite as soon as we could, although there was a delay while we washed all the bird poop off the fly. There were a lot of noisy birds overnight, and apparently they were loud because they were literally right on top of us. Heading back through the tunnel and out of Antwerp we kept an eye out for a breakfast place but the city was very quiet for a Saturday morning. Our last resort was a gas station at the edge of downtown, where we bought some food and ate it on the side of the street like the dirty hobos we were starting to feel like. Although to be fair, the gas station had good pickings. Croissants and other pastries, yogourt, juice, and even pre-made Starbucks drinks. It was almost on par with some of the other breakfasts we've had along the way, really.

The ride out was fairly slow since we were both still hurting from the extra mileage the day before. The LF route was again very well signed but often meandered off onto dirt or rocky trails. At times it was nice going through the scenic forest paths, and at other times it was just annoying. Saroja also managed to get yet another flat tire which brings her total to three - two on the ground and one (somehow) on the plane. Fingers crossed that's the end of it!

Still, the weather was warm and sunny and we were feeling good.  Lunch was a stop on a town called Kalmthout, where we ate milkshakes and sandwiches at a restaurant next to a small train station (Heide Station). Not a particularly European meal but it hit the spot and it was great to take a nice lunch break. We crossed into the Netherlands officially after that although since we were just on small paths there was no official welcome sign. The bike paths did improve after that though, inasmuch as there were no more dirt roads. In some of the towns there were even divided lanes for the bike paths with their own sidewalks for pedestrians - but no cars allowed anywhere!

The hotel we booked tonight is actually very nice. It wasn't done on purpose; there just aren't a lot of hotels and B&Bs around here to choose from. But we couldn't have picked a better place. Even though it's a bit expensive, the showers are great and the beds comfy. The restaurant attached to the hotel - Sistermans - was fabulous. We just had what was probably our best dinner of the trip. Bedtime is fast approaching since we're both still pretty beat, but it was a good day.

-Penguin

P.S. Sorry for the lack of pictures, it was a slow picture day.

Day 14: sunshine makes everything better!

Route: Ghent to Antwerp (via LF5 + LF2)
Distance: 95km
Ride Quality: terrific
Accomodations: Camp Du Molen

This will probably be a short post tonight because we're pretty tuckered out from today. When you punch in Ghent to Antwerp on Gmaps, it estimates about 65km for a cyclist. However, the LF routes definitely don't take the most direct path and our actual logged distance (without getting lost for once!) was much higher.

The said, we had the perfect day to spend clicking away at the kilometers. Warm,  sunny, with a slight breeze to keep things from getting too hot. Bluebird sky. Wonderful.

And despite not getting lost, the route was not without its own surprises. First of all, you have to cross the Schelde River twice by ferry on the LF5 before getting to the LF2. This came as a surprise to us and we thought we had taken a wrong turn when the signs directed us down to an empty dock. But a friendly Dutchman waiting at the bottom explained that the ferry was free and came every half hour. After this, we noticed that there were really quite a few opportunities to cross the canal by ferry, with docks spaced every 3km of so, if you were so inclined. And the service was well used, too! On our second scheduled crossing,  there were at least 15 other cyclists taking the tiny ferry across with us.

Penguin waiting for the ferry to cross the Schelde

The other surprise of the route was finding the tunnel across the canal once in Antwerp to reach our campsite. There's only one cyclist/pedestrian tunnel and we would never have found it if Penguin hadn't befriended a lovely lady on a bike who took us to the secret, unsigned tunnel entrance and then across the tunnel herself. The tunnel under the canal is 31m deep and 5km long! It's kind of a big deal!

The cyclist/pedestrian tunnel in Antwerp is 31m deep! 

Saroja zooms through the tunnel

The accomodations tonight are less than ideal. This well-rated 2 star campground is the worst we've ever seen. It's essentially a parking lot with a corner of drunk teenagers encircled by a ring of RVs owned by chain-smokers. Our little tent is set up under the neon lights of the adjacent Chinese buffet / windmill. It is a far cry from the serenity of the Algonquin backcountry. But at least it's only for one night.

The remaining highlight of the day was the number of sheep we saw along the way. There were so many! I knew my Wikipedia research about Ghent couldn't have been wrong! All kinds of sheep lined our path today: baby lambs to big rams, white and brown and black. I got a picture with some of them. They weren't very snuggly but they were curious. An elderly man watched Penguin and I do the sheep photo shoot and I'm pretty sure he thought we were nuts.

Hello sheep friends! 

Aww look at the little wobbly baby sheep!  So cute! 

Alas, our data and batteries are running low on the electronics - so I might have to upload this in the morning when we find a cafe. Tomorrow we cross the border into Holland! It will be sad to leave Belgium behind but we're excited for Holland as well.