Day 6: Early end..

Dear family and friends, we had an unfortunate incident today that will cut out trip short. We both crashed our bicycles while crossing, what turned out to be a very slippery wooden bridge. I crashed first and tried to get up in time to warn Linda who was behind about 100 yards about the slippery conditions. She came around the corner on the bike path and immediately crashed as well. The local folks called for an ambulance to take her to the nearest hospital. We were concerned since she hit her head hard and cracked the side of her helmet.

The good news was that there was not neurological damage after tests and a CAT scan. The bad news was that she broke a bone in her elbow that will need surgery to have a pin or screw pull the bone back together. We opted to not have that done here in Germany but return early back home and see our doctor there.

So, we are sorry that we don't get to finish our trip, and that you don't get to read about it anymore. Linda is in fairly good spirits but obviously in some pain as well with an awkward cast on her arm. She was having so much fun on the trip and was looking forward to seeing more of Germany and the larger mountains beyond. The Germans have been very kind and helpful despite their lack of English. We are already talking about coming back next year to finish what we started.

We'll be in contact once we are back home (hopefully Thursday/Friday). I just need to plan the logistics of moving us and all our stuff from this remote village In Germany to Amsterdam and catch an early flight home. That will be an adventure in itself, but no blog entries any further...

Walt & Linda

Mostly disappointed that we had to stop early..

 

 

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Day 5: Into Germany..

• Day 5: 61km / current location: LINK

It was raining when we got up this morning, so we took our time getting our stuff ready. Had a wonderful breakfast thanks to Annick with a fresh hard boiled egg each, compliments of the chickens in the back yard. The rain stopped and the sky was looking lighter outside, so we quickly got our stuff packed before we changed out minds and stayed another day.. I know it must not be easy running a B&B, but it sure is fun to stay at them.

We were faced with our first real hill right outside the gate of the B&B farmhouse. Not exactly the best way to warm up sore legs this early in the morning. It was about 2 miles long, but at least didn't make us use our granny gears on the bikes (yet). Today was a day of stopping lots of time to put on jackets and take them off as we went up and down lots of hills and had both a good share of sun and rain. We both are wearing Road Holland jerseys which really help deal with all these variations of weather. They are part merino wool and are the brainchild of our friend Jonathan Schneider who does a brilliant job producing and marketing these fine garments. They are perfect for our tour as they were last year as well.

We rode over the only hills in Holland, but I will say they have a bite to them. We stopped in the last Dutch town before the German border to visit an Apoteek (real drug store) to get some more drugs to help us fight off our colds. We both are not getting all the sleep we need to keep pedaling all day. You have to describe your symptoms to the person behind the counter before she prescribes the remedy. I was doing this in Dutch for both of us so who knows what drugs they ended up giving us. We'll see in the morning when we wake up (I sure hope we do)..

It was interesting to see the differences in bicycle infrastructure once we crossed the border into Germany. They had bike paths, but in many cases they were not in the best shape or you had to jump a curb to get on and off. We had gotten spoiled in Holland again, just as we did last year when we went to France afterwards. Oh well, we just need to appreciate the differences and look for the positives. Once we crossed the border we immediately were in the outskirts of the large town of Aachen which has a lovely Christmas fair (see, that was positive).

Anyway, we went into the center of Aachen looking for a Telecom store to buy another SIM card for our Ipad so we could access the Internet when we didn't have access to Wifi. BTW, the europeans pronounce it "weeefffeeee" which we find very silly... Anyway, we finally found a T-Mobile store and figured they would be a dominant Telco carrier here since they are a German company. Well...., after almost 2 hours of discussing why I didn't have a German address, bank account, drivers license, or mobile phone number we finally completed the transaction. My German is good for ordering beer, schnitzel, and bratwurst, not getting a pre-paid Data SIM for my Ipad mini. I really think it would be quicker to drop in a local BMW dealer and buy a car than doing this.. It was so easy doing the same thing in Holland...(there I go again..). The good part is that we found a nice Starbucks and enjoyed two latte's in the square outside. Kate, we charged it to your corporate Starbucks account..

The ride the rest of the day was tough through hills, rain, and muddy trails, so we decided to make a shorter day of it. Found a nice little hotel in the town of Schevenhutte and are now winding down. Our quads are definitely talking to us, but we haven't told them to "shut up" yet. Enough yakking, here are some pics...

Halfway up our first hill in the morning.

Still in Holland..

Dutch village with hills.

On the weekends you can see many bikers with matching outfits showing that they really only joined a club to yak and drink beer.

German architecture is starting to show up.

Last Dutch town where we procured drugs (legally).. Lemiers is a three country community (Holland, Germany, and Belgium)

Entering Germany at the old border crossing

Eating our lunch in a large park in Aachen. See Kate, I am making good use of the Opinel knife you gave me!

Yes, of course, a pic of the bike in the park too. A real beast of burden..

The Starbucks in Aachen..

Right across from this church..

...and proof we were there. I told them our daughter is a big wig at the corporate headquarters but that still didn't get us free coffee's..

Our route through one of the German villages past Aachen.

Wet, muddy dirt roads for a good while (and going up hill too!)

The village of Schevenhutte.

Waiting for the Hotel owner to show up and open the door.

One of the many trails that are part of the Camino De Santiago.

Love these old style homes. You probably can't tell but the windows are made out of hand blown glass

It is schnitzel, frites, and beer so....... we must be Germany!.

And bratwurst as well!

The day ends well with a nice rainbow as we finish dinner

 

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Day 4: Bemelen

• Day 4: 85km / current location: LINK

We both slept in longer than usual. I think I can attribute it to many pills including NyQuil for my cold... The good news is that I am feeling a lot better today; the bad news is Linda has started to get the sniffles. We are hoping that this is one will pass by quickly for her. She is much healthier than me, and unlike me, she doesn't make a big deal out of not feeling well...

Looked out the hotel window and saw clouds in the sky but dry roads below which is a good sign. Packed up quickly and hit the road with our bikes while the getting was good. It was good cycling weather with temps in the low 60's. I had sent a booking request to a B&B on the other side of Maastricht about 80 km down our route, and got a quick reply from them saying they had a room available and that they would have coffee and cake waiting for us. Well,what more motivation did we need? This is our first B&B of this trip and we were both looking forward to it. We had some great experiences with them on our bike trip last year. They are much more personable than a hotel and you get to find out a lot more about the local area. Most times the accommodations are better too along with a great breakfast in the morning.

Had a very uneventful but enjoyable ride today with no rain. Yah! Most of the route went through Belgium along the Dutch border which gave us another country to add to this year's trip. It was nice to see how both countries collaborated on creating a wonderful network of bicycle routes.

We made our way through the center of Maastricht (one of Hollands larger cities), although it wasn't exactly easy. They had blocked off several streets for oudoor concerts going on. I will say, the Dutch love concerts even if the music is somewhat cheesy (no, not the Gouda kind, probably more like velveta). We would have loved to have explored the city further, but coffee and cake were waiting for us at our B&B about 10km further down the road. Besides, we had been to Maastricht before.

Made it to the small town of Bremelen and our B&B, where Annick our hostess was waiting for us with our coffee and cake. Another beautiful B&B, this one a converted farm house from the 1600's. Many dogs, cats, and chickens around which made it a lot of fun. This will be our last night in Holland before we go into Germany tomorrow. Hopefully we can find a similar experience there too.

Well, that's all for today with some pics below...

Lovely route through the forest.

Nice Belgian village we rode through.

Nice, except for the roads as Linda can attest. It almost rattles the fillings out of your teeth. Belgians love these cobble stones.

We were riding through the forest when we heard lots of gunshots. Most of the shooters we aiming these huge guns up in the air to what looked like rows of sticks...

Their targets..

Basically large matchsticks in a row..

Starting them young..

Good use of an old boat..

The city hall of the Belgian village where we stopped for lunch..

Figured I better order a healthy Belgian waffle with strawberries and whip cream. Why can't the strawberries in the U.S. taste this good?

Large field of bright orange pumpkins.

Spotted a strange sculpture in a corn field

Crowds in Maastricht were blocking our route

These cows were waiting for the farmer who brought them two large buckets of leftover bread. We were tempted to ask him if we could have some too.. If I come back to earth, I want to be a Dutch cow..

Arriving at our B&B

Saw this painted on the road as we walked up a steep hill to our restaurant for dinner. The Amstel Gold is one of the Spring Classic bike races. A big deal for most Pro riders..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Day 3: Into Limburg..

Day 3: 80km / current location: LINK

We picked up our bikes from the underground bicycle parking garage relatively early and got on our way around 9 am out of s'-Hogenbosch. Nothing really impressed us about the town when we walked around after dinner last night. Dinner itself was average at a Greek restaurant. So, I really can't give this town or it's establishments much a favourable rating.

Our streak of good weather had come to an end when a light rain started. Nothing really that would stop us from riding so we donned our jackets and kept moving along the way. We stopped to pick up groceries for breakfast and lunch along the way at a small grocery store. Amazing how many choices of breads, cheeses and hams they had in such a small place.

I forgot to mention that our route pretty much follows the Dutch "Lange Fiets" (long bicycle) routes which are all over Holland. They typically go through the more scenic side, and avoid towns and heavy traffic areas. Of course in order to do so they don't exactly take a straight path between point A and B. It is meant for those (like us) who value the journey more than just getting there as quickly as possible.

The scenery is starting to change as we head more into the southern part of Holland. The landscape and smaller towns remind us more of Belgium which is not that far away. The farms have a wilder look to them vs the more organized ones up in the northern and western part of Holland. The accents of the people is starting to sound more Flemish too, where the "G" sounds softer than the typical Dutch guttural "Ggrrrr". Pretty soon more hills will appear too...

The rain started to get heavier as we crossed over from the province of Brabant into Limburg. I found a small hotel further ahead on the iPhone and plotted a more direct route to it. I was feeling a little more fatigued today with my cold, so Linda did more of the duties leading the way into the wind while I tried to stay close behind to get a draft.

We got to the town of Nederweert around 5pm and didn't have difficulty finding the small hotel in this little town. Nice to take a nice warm shower and get out of our damp riding gear. Found a nice Belgian style restaurant in the town square where we had one of our best meals so far.

Had a lot more dirt paths today. Still very nice to ride on.

The sun came out for our breakfast stop.

Pretty windmill along the route.

Walt catching up to Linda

This house had a large selection of wicker animals in the front yard. I didn't see an Arc nearby..

Beautiful draft horses watching us go by.

One small town looked like it was getting ready for some sort of race today,

The weather was nice on this section of the ride too

Found this memorial near a forest to an American soldier who led the liberation of this part of Holland during WWII

The plaque has more about him.

Walt taking a break along the way..

Stopped by a farm that had a vending machine outside selling fresh strawberries. Linda was happy.

My dinner of delicious mossels..

Linda's salmon and pasta.

It wouldn't be a Belgian restaurant without frites, mayo, and a good Trappist beer

Nederweert. Our restaurant was right next to the church.

 

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