- 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...
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| Lovely route through the forest. |
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| Nice Belgian village we rode through. |
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| Nice, except for the roads as Linda can attest. It almost rattles the fillings out of your teeth. Belgians love these cobble stones. |
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| 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... |
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| Their targets.. |
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| Basically large matchsticks in a row.. |
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| Starting them young.. |
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| Good use of an old boat.. |
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| The city hall of the Belgian village where we stopped for lunch.. |
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| 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? |
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| Large field of bright orange pumpkins. |
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| Spotted a strange sculpture in a corn field |
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| Crowds in Maastricht were blocking our route |
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| 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.. |
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| Arriving at our B&B |
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| 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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