Europe 2014: Floating through Drenthe ...

Today's distance: 78km (49 Miles)

I had to go back and update our total miles on yesterday's blog from 83 to 98km. I had posted it before leaving for dinner thinking that a restaurant couldn't be that far away.. Well, we followed our hostess' recommendation of one that was supposed to be 2km in the next village south. Turned out to be over 4km and was completely full for the evening with no other choices in the village. The owner was trying to be nice and recommend we come back 2 hours later. It was 6:45pm and we were very hungry so we kindly declined and went to another town that was 8km back north on the other side of the B&B. Unlike the restaurant we couldn't get into, most in this town seemed deserted. There was a nice looking Chinese place, but the only one seated was the waitress. Just didn't seem like a good sign to us. Finally found one a small brasserie that had some folks actually seated and eating. We were desperate for food by now so opted to try it out and were rewarded with one our best meals of the trip. The ride back to the B&B afterwards was nice on a full stomach, albeit in the dark. Luckily we were prepared with front and back lights for the bikes!

Today we decided to try and follow one of the national bicycle routes instead of the bicycle signs to the next town or the GPS. Found a route online that goes through the heart of Drenthe, the province south of Groningen. Wrote down all the "knooppunt" intersection numbers on a piece of paper so that we could use them as well. They have little sign posts on the side of the bicycle path indicating the number and direction to follow to get to the next one. Almost like a game of Bingo and "Ride by numbers". It definitely made you pay attention..

Anyway, we were rewarded with one of our nicest rides. Our route kept you in the nature area and outside of most towns and villages. Drenthe is probably the least populated province in Holland and has a lot of beautiful forests, heather fields, and farm land. Our route took us through all of that including having great weather on top of it all! The only issue was not really knowing where we would end up at the end of the day since the route criss-crossed all over the place. Almost like a sailboat tacking into the wind. Lots of effort for little gain in actual distance..

We stopped for a mid-day snack in the little town of Rolde where they have some of the Hunebedden that this region is famous for. Hunebedden are basically tombs that were built over 5,000 years ago by the first farmers of Northern Europe. It is still somewhat of a mystery how those large granite rocks came there and how they were able to balance them on top of each other..

We were getting tired by mid afternoon and pulled out the trusty IPad to find a place to stay for the night. Found another good B&B that had a room available, plugged in the address into the GPS, and made a direct of a route as possible. The good part is that there is a restaurant within walking distance as well!

Not the actual route of the day. The real one went cris-cross and took 78km. This it the one the GPS would have taken, only 50km..

The calf in the middle of the picture was just born right before we arrived. The farmers were assisting Mom and her newborn to a separate pasture so they could be away from their nosy friends..