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