Day 10
Sleeping location: "Camping service Berndt Bast" about 15km outside Koln
Distance (km today/total): 162 / 1067
Estimated climb (m today/toal): 200 / 7900
Litres of rain absorbed by clothing during storm: 25
Day in three words: Holland uber Deutschland
A mega day in an attempt to knock off substantial kms to make the next couple of days easier in our quest to reach Mannheim by Wednesday evening. Scenery very uneventful again, although there was one hill (actually more of a slight rise) in the afternoon.
Had breakfast in a small town called Veghel, which was great for two reasons. First, they were in the middle of "construction village", where all the kids were building cabins out of pallets with (minimal) assistance from adult helpers, which they would then go on to sleep in later in the week. Second, we had breakfast at a cafe which supported kids with Downs Syndrome and employed adults with learning difficulties, all of whom seemed really happy to work there. It brought a warm glow to our hearts, and the pancakes were really tasty. Hilariously we only went there because it was called Brownies and Downies and we thought they might sell hash cakes. Anyway, Veghel was great and when I die please bury me there.
Discovered the most amazing Dutch food called "dadel brood". It is basically a hockey puck made of squashed dates and walnuts, containing 700 calories of delicious cycling energy. The packet said it was "perfect met kaas" and it was indeed excellent when eaten with a babybel.
After lunch we crossed into Germany, where immediately the cycle infrastructure became much worse and if started raining. They can't be blamed for the weather but the cycle lanes etc were a bit "here we've done some stuff and you can figure out the rest". Still miles better than the UK though. About 6pm there was a strange period where there was blue sky ahead and an absolutely massive storm behind. We tried to outrun the storm for a bit, but we weren't fast enough and ended up getting absolutely drenched. Warmed up with some beer, schnapps, goulash and pork knuckle, so Germany redeemed itself a bit there.
1000km came up today. Theoretically this is 1/17th (ish) of the journey done already, albeit by far the least exciting part. I think 2000 will come up somewhere in middle Italy.
Tomorrow, on to Koln and kolsch for breakfast.
Distance (km today/total): 162 / 1067
Estimated climb (m today/toal): 200 / 7900
Litres of rain absorbed by clothing during storm: 25
Day in three words: Holland uber Deutschland
A mega day in an attempt to knock off substantial kms to make the next couple of days easier in our quest to reach Mannheim by Wednesday evening. Scenery very uneventful again, although there was one hill (actually more of a slight rise) in the afternoon.
Had breakfast in a small town called Veghel, which was great for two reasons. First, they were in the middle of "construction village", where all the kids were building cabins out of pallets with (minimal) assistance from adult helpers, which they would then go on to sleep in later in the week. Second, we had breakfast at a cafe which supported kids with Downs Syndrome and employed adults with learning difficulties, all of whom seemed really happy to work there. It brought a warm glow to our hearts, and the pancakes were really tasty. Hilariously we only went there because it was called Brownies and Downies and we thought they might sell hash cakes. Anyway, Veghel was great and when I die please bury me there.
Discovered the most amazing Dutch food called "dadel brood". It is basically a hockey puck made of squashed dates and walnuts, containing 700 calories of delicious cycling energy. The packet said it was "perfect met kaas" and it was indeed excellent when eaten with a babybel.
After lunch we crossed into Germany, where immediately the cycle infrastructure became much worse and if started raining. They can't be blamed for the weather but the cycle lanes etc were a bit "here we've done some stuff and you can figure out the rest". Still miles better than the UK though. About 6pm there was a strange period where there was blue sky ahead and an absolutely massive storm behind. We tried to outrun the storm for a bit, but we weren't fast enough and ended up getting absolutely drenched. Warmed up with some beer, schnapps, goulash and pork knuckle, so Germany redeemed itself a bit there.
1000km came up today. Theoretically this is 1/17th (ish) of the journey done already, albeit by far the least exciting part. I think 2000 will come up somewhere in middle Italy.
Tomorrow, on to Koln and kolsch for breakfast.
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