Europe 2014: Cycling along the dikes in Zeeland.

Today's distance: 58km (37 Miles)

Woke up around 4am with little "pitter-pat" sounds of light rain on the outside of our tent. It was still very dark, but the rooster at the farm we were camping at felt like letting everyone know that it was time to get up... You could also hear the wind howl in the trees above us, luckily our tent was nicely protected from that behind the hedge. West Holland, Zeeland is especially notorious for heavy winds that whip up from the North Sea.

The light tapping of the rain started turning into a much heavier beat, more like a snare drum. Got out the Ipad with the new SIM card and checked out the weather radar where we were. Sure enough it showed a large green blob right over us. It looked like it would blow over in a few hours and it looked clear after that. Really nothing for us to do but wait it all out before packing up the tent and getting our stuff ready on the bike.

The rain stopped around 10am and we were able to head out fairly dry on our bikes at 11:30 in search of coffee and a bite to eat. We found the perfect place in a village not too far down our route that served pannekoeken and poffertjes! Yeah!! Pannekoeken are like large crepes with butter, powered sugar, and anything else you like inside. I got one with apple slices. Linda went for her favorite poffertjes which are like little puffy pancakes, also with butter and powdered sugar. That with the extra strong European coffees and we were ready to tackle what was ahead..

I will have to revise my helmet/no helmet ratio from yesterday and will now make that 2 to 100 instead, at least for a weekend. We saw a lot of sport riders out in large groups, matching outfits, fast bikes, and helmets on their heads. I wanted to take a picture for the blog but they were by us faster than I could get the camera out of my handlebar bag. Most looked pretty senior in age which was encouraging. Saw many of them later in outside cafes enjoying a few glasses of beer, hopefully after their rides were done. We also saw many folks out and about, typically with their families out enjoying the weekend doing some sort of sport or exercise. Linda can't get over her observation that all the Dutch kids were blond and very cute.

We were making good time down the road with the heavy wind mostly in our backs. Saw a large dark cloud to our left over the North Sea heading our way when we riding across the Delta works dike across the Oosterschelde. You could see a definite squall line over the water which meant that heavy rain and even heavier winds would soon be upon us. If I was on our sailboat, I would immediately drop all sails and batten down the hatches. On bikes however, the only real remedy is to find shelter immediately. Luckily we were about halfway across the dike close to Neeltje Jans, an island the Dutch built to house most of the Delta Works operation. We stomped on our pedals to get there as quickly as possible, trying to beat the squall coming up. There was a small Frites restaurant right at the beginning of the island and we managed to make it inside without too much incident.

We rode out the storm in the cafe and saw the sun peeking through the clouds so headed back on the road. We went past the museum on Neetje Jans that has all you need to know about the amazing Delta Works project which was built to help protect Holland from such devastating floods that it experienced in 1953. We skipped the museum his trip since we had been there when we lived in Belgium. It is a real treat for those of you interested in what man can do when faced what would seem an impossible challenge. It is referred to the 8th Wonder of the World. You can see how the Dutch are the best in taming the seas. I wont delve any further but you can read/learn more here: http://www.deltawerken.com/23

We decided to call it a day since we got a late start and find a place to stay in Ouddorp (Old Village). We hit the jackpot and found a nice Bed & Breakfast near the center of town. We were walking around town looking for a place to have dinner when we saw another working windmill spinning at a good clip. The windmill caretaker motioned us to come in and visit inside. "Just go and climb the stairs up and look around" he said in Dutch. So Linda and I did just that. This windmill was originally built in 1753 but looked to be in great shape. All the working parts were still like it was originally, mostly all wood, even the moving parts that helped to turn a large mill stone to grind the grains. The stairs were a little scary since they were really steep and worn. They had a large rope with each one that you could use to pull yourself up. Hope some of the pics (and maybe videos) do it justice..