Europe 2014: Heading west..

Today's distance: 93km (58 Miles)

Took us a while to get to sleep last night in Ommen since there was a large party in the restaurant below our open widow still enjoying themselves late in the evening. So you say, "Just shut the windows then!". Well, most hotels and homes in Europe don't have AC so the open window is really the only option on warm evening. Really wasn't too big of an issue, we managed to get a decent nights rest anyway.

The day started off with low hanging clouds that eventually burned off later in the day. We had a general destination of Harderwijk in mind, but really had no idea how far that was on a Bingo route. Turned out to have been one of the longest days of the trip so far. Tomorrow will be a shorter day into Amsterdam where we get to take a break from our bicycles for a couple days. Our butts will be happy!

It was another great route through Dutch farmland into the larger town of Zwolle where we had lunch. It was market day and we did a lot of people watching from our outdoor table. There was a middle eastern vendor across from us selling hookah's and lamps. Funny to watch the whole haggling game going on. The vendor was clutching his heart like he was going to die when he must have received a bid he felt was too low. Great showmanship at play..

We also stopped at a local bicycle shop to see if we could get Linda another pair of bicycle shorts. She had two, but one seemed to give her more pain than the other. We are hoping the new pair will help.. Also picked up more chain lube for the bikes. The owner of the store was very interested in our extensive tour through Holland, especially since we were Americans. He was trying to get us interested in a ride his shop was organizing from San Remo, Italy back to Zwolle, Holland. He said that it would take 8 days, averaging about 140 miles a day, also going over the Alps! Crazy!!!

As soon as we left Zwolle we were in the midst of a large crowd of cyclists going the same direction we were. We all ended up at the edge of a river where the path stopped. Finally a small bike/passenger ferry arrived and as many as possible tried to get on board. The ferryman must have been a great Tetris game player because he managed to fit way more bikes and people on board than we would have thought possible. There was a large family on board as well. The father started speaking to Linda who replied that she didn't speak Dutch. He quickly switched to English asking her why not, when Linda replied in her first learned Dutch words (from me): "Ik hou van jou". Translation: "I love you". Well that stopped him cold. His wife was laughing..

Off the ferry we went when we discovered the reason for the large number of bikes and people. There was a medieval festival in the next little town of Hattem. The streets in the center of town were completely filled with stands and people walking around. We had to find another way around to get back on our route. The same thing happened about an hour later in another town. This one was more of a old car collector gathering with a traditional Dutch "Boeren band" (farmer band) providing entertainment. We could still hear them singing on the top of their lungs a couple miles out of town. They could not have asked for better weather for these festivals. We would have liked to have stopped to hear and see more, but then we know we would never make it to Harderwijk where we already had made a hotel reservation for the night.

Pulled into Harderwijk around 5pm, pretty tired and ready to relax. The nice girl at the reception must have upgraded us to a luxury room, because it had a whirlpool tub in our bathroom! Linda took quick advantage of that with the bath salts, soothing weary and achy legs. The small pleasures in life!

Hoping for to have our final day on the bike in Holland tomorrow be another great one! Amsterdam here we come...