So yesterday, while getting ready for our trip, we found out there was a code yellow all over the Netherlands for today. After a quick but healthy breakfast, we hit the road at 8:45 for an almost 80 km drive to Bourtange.
After two days of rest, our legs were OK, and so was our bottom. We already felt victorious.
We continuously kept an eye on all the weather apps, one eye on the road, and another on the sky. These kinds of exercises really need a third eye, so see to it that you developed one if you want to do this.
The first part of the day was just beautiful weather! Sun, backwind, a lovely landscape (we biked through the Drentse Aa), what more could anyone want.
On some segments of the trip we reached an average of 20 km/h! This really became a race against mother nature and we were in a winning mood.
In the afternoon the thunder storm really started to catch up with us. Slowly but surely.
During our stop in the village of Stadskanaal, Leen expressed an urgent need for caffeine, and at that moment, I realized the situation was beyond my influence. The two photographs below depict the sky from the identical location, with a 180-degree rotation in my perspective: mother nature is catching up.
We still struggled for a few kilometers to stay in front of the rain. In Onstwedde we had to surrender and take shelter for the rain. Luckily a good shelter this time.
After the biggest rain peak had passed, we started biking again in the direction of Bourtange.
Bourtange is a fort on the border with Germany that was founded in 1580 during the Eighty Years’ War. Now it is a lovely touristic city that was completely restored in it’s original shape. We arrived there at 15:50, just in time for a late fika. As the terrace was seemingly closed due to the rain, I needed some serious convincing skills for the waitresses to let us sit there.
But after some minutes, the sun was shining again. And we could enjoy a cup of coffee and a nice piece of apple pie.
We were almost at our destination, just two more kilometers to go! The place where we shall sleep is an old pig farm. The farmer and his wife retired a few years back. They gave us a warm welcome and a delicious dinner. We swapped a lot of stories going from finance to farming. One striking story is that they have a huge family: 11 kids, 28 grandkids, and 4 great-grandkids so that triggered a lot of interesting discussions.
I do have to mention that I probably already gained some weight after 1 weeks travel. Muscles probably. Because killed a chair by just sitting on it 😁.
We’ll crash in one of their many small but cozy bedrooms (11 kids remember?), which is just perfect for us. But before that, they invite us downstairs for coffee and to watch the news at 8. After a while, our eyelids got heavy and it was time to go to bed.
Still 700 metres till we reach the German border.
Leave a Reply