Bergen op Zoom, Netherlands to Rotterdam, Netherlands
I’ve ridden in the rain enough on this trip that another day of it wasn’t all that bad. Even with the rain it was a quick 41 miles from Bergen op Zoom to Rotterdam. With a heavy downpour the entire ride I decided not to make any stops, so there is no photo evidence of today’s ride.
I started the day with the hostel breakfast buffet. It was the typical breakfast spread with one additional item I’d never seen for breakfast before (more on that in today’s musings). The rain started overnight, and the forecast called for a steady downpour until 4:00 PM. The hardest rain was supposed to pass by 10:00 AM, so I waited until then before heading out.
Riding in the rain isn’t all that bad. The hardest part is committing to start the ride. I started during a lull in the rain which was a nice way to ease into the ride. After 20 minutes of drizzle it was back to a heavy rain that didn’t let up until I got to Rotterdam.
The ride started with some nice roads through a wooded area and then moved out to town roads and farms for the rest of the day. The bike paths and shoulders for cyclists were the best I’ve experienced all trip.
The most exciting part of the ride was a tunnel under the Oude Maas River that was just for bicycles. The cycling infrastructure in the Netherlands is amazing and the tunnel gave me a few minutes out of the rain which was nice. Once through the tunnel I was close to Rotterdam and found myself on bicycle paths all the way to the city center where my hostel is located.
The hostel is in some very unique cube shaped houses. The architecture looked odd from the outside, but the hostel is very nice inside. The angled ceilings did not lend themselves to bunk beds on one side of the hostel room, so I’ve got a standard twin bed tonight.
After checking into the hostel and getting my bike stored, I got all my wet clothes off and took a warm shower. The last few hostels have had push button showers, so you either have to hold the button or you get 20 seconds of water at a time. I must have pushed the button 30 times. It felt great to warm up after being in the rain all morning.
I found a laundromat close to the hostel and was able to dry all my cycling clothes. It would have been miserable to put on wet clothes to ride tomorrow morning. After dealing with my clothes I went for a walk and found a great food hall to grab a snack. I hadn’t stopped during my ride, so I hadn’t eaten since breakfast. I picked a croquette place because I had read that croquettes are one of the specialties of the Netherlands. The mushroom truffle croquette I ordered was great and was enough to hold me over until dinner.
I did some more walking around and found a nice brewery to grab a few beers and a full meal. By the time I was done with dinner it was already after 8:00 so I headed back to the hostel to get a few things done before having a couple of beers at the hostel bar. Tomorrow is another 40 mile ride. I’ll be heading to the town of Utrecht where I am going to spend 2 nights, then it will be off to Amsterdam for my last ride of the trip.
Musings:
- Sprinkles for breakfast!! I was putting together a plate of food this morning and noticed that next to the butter and jelly for toast were 3 large bowls of different colored sprinkles. They were what I am used to seeing on ice cream or cake. I had no idea what the sprinkles were for but google had me covered. In the Netherlands they have something called hagelslag, which is basically buttered toast covered in sprinkles. I wish I had known what the sprinkles were for before I finished breakfast, because I did not get a chance to try it. Maybe tomorrow.
- No one else here seems to care about getting wet in the rain. While I was riding with my rain jacket and long tights feeling miserable in the rain, I saw tons of other people riding in their regular clothes not seeming to care at all that they were getting soaked. I’m sure they weren’t riding all that far, but it still looked a bit odd to me. I’m sure I looked odd to them covered head to toe in rain gear.
Ramblin' Dan: Bike Touring Adventures 