Rockanje to Delft

 Today was to be a shorter day… only 40km (24 ish miles) we only had one snag that almost took us from Not quite lost to all out lost. We were nicely zipping along and had just crossed over a major waterway and found ourselves in an industrial/port area of town. There was unfortunately a major road project going on with the bicycle route blocked by the road construction(highway looking like an interstate) So there was an arrow pointing to a detour. Unfortunately the arrows for the detour were only on every 3rd to 5th intersection which made following it rather nerve wracking. Well the detour ended up being a six mile detour that would have been about 1/4 mile direct. But we could not have asked for a better bicycle tour of the port facility.

We started our morning with an incredible breakfast at the B & B we stayed at last night. 

So at de Jongens we definitely did some Eten, and some Drinken, and enjoyed some Slapen.

Along the way from Rockanje to Delft we went through several areas with housing that was clearly higher density. We biked through a stretch like this with row after row of condos or apartments. (Not sure which) It is no wonder the Netherlands is the country with the highest population density in Europe.

So Yesterday I mentioned issues with almost getting lost. We are using a Garmin bicycle GPS as our routing guide. The tour company like the more simple models as he felt less can go wrong. (This may be the case) One issue that does seem to be a bit of a problem is it does not alarm or warn you that you are off the route.(our Garmin does this) As a result we can be going along and suddenly I realize that we are off route and need to back track to pick the route up again. Another problem is sometimes the route may be between two roads which eventually part. At times I cannot distinguish which road we need to be on leading to back tracking when we finally discover we are on the wrong one. Nothing has been really bad although we likely did go an extra 1-2 kilometers yesterday on our way to Rockanje. 

Todays Windmills seen as we biked along.

This is the same windmill as above. What I hope you can get a sense of is the height of the water relative to the buildings. It is a good example of how the water is confined at times above what would be considered ground level. We also saw this as we were biking along side a canal on the top of a dike when a highway went under the dike and the canal. 

More of the quaint towns built along the canal system.

After arriving in Delft we went to visit the Royal Delft Blue Factory/Museum. Evidently around 1500 some imported china (from China) was brought to Europe and was a big hit. So some clever Delft businessmen started making Delft China. It was a big hit and at one point there were 30 different factories making china in the city of Delft. Unfortunately English china factories developed improved fabrication methods and companies like Wedgewood started taking over the china market. From 30 factories at it’s peak Delft dropped to one remaining factory. A new owner in the mid 1800s changed the production methods and added several other innovations which saved the factory. 

All of the art work is still done by master painters.

On our way to and from the Delft factory we passed by this:

Now is this where Fred got his idea…. Or did this Meijer copy Fred??? Or is Meijer expanding to the Netherlands??

Sorry for the late update but we had a wonderful B and B in Delft.

It was like a one bedroom apartment with small kitchen and separate bedroom. Unfortunately the wifi was terrible with no upload ability. More coming soon.

Peace,

Dale and Ila

Middleburg to Rockanje

 

This gives you a rough idea of where we were today. We were basically traversing islands and then spending time riding on very large man made bridges/dams across the western side of the Netherlands. Today was supposed to be 45 miles but due to some accidental route deviations (not quite lost but close) we ended up doing 50 miles. Not a big deal except we were riding into a 15-20th head wind the entire way. It was really bad on the long bridges which was about half of the ride. We were beat by the time we arrived in Rockanje. The town we are staying in is very different from everywhere else we have been. There are no old buildings. Everything is new (like 1970s and newer) I think it is a resort ocean front community. We in theory are just a stones throw away from the beach. We didn’t look for it… we were sick of the wind. 

We are literally on the edge of town and have goats out our window. We are staying at another B and B. This one called De Jongens which means the boys in Dutch. 

The sign notes three things you can do while here.. Eten, Drinken, and Slapen. Well we so far have done two of the three(eten and Drinken) with some plans for good slapen later this evening.

As for our ride here we got to spend quite a bit of time on the bridges between the islands that make up Zeeland. It is part of the Delta works project that was built to control North Sea flooding of Zeeland. There was major flooding with property damage and loss of life in 1953. The project was huge with moving huge amounts of dirt to form a large man made island. Originally the plan was to completely seal off the water and make all of the water fresh water. Ultimately they decided to allow continued salt water in. The project was completed in the mid 1980s. There is now a plaque in Dutch that says the tides are controlled by the moon, the winds, and Us. 

Since completion the gates have only been fully closed around 20 times. Last in January of this year.

We did have some pretty sites along the way like here where we were cycling along side a canal again.

We did quite a bid of riding up on the dike although this picture is just beside the dike. The Dutch have reclaimed a huge amount of land over the centuries. Even well before modern equipment. Look at these maps.

The have even added an entirely new province with 500,00 people living in it that is solely reclaimed land.

So I did not take a picture of every windmill today… But here are the ones I did snap pics of:

Tomorrow promises to be a shorter but not necessarily less windy. We were encouraged to do the route from south to north as the prevailing winds are favorable to the trip…So far quite unfavorable.

Will talk more about why we almost get lost tomorrow. Hoping for less of that. Until then we will keep the pedals turning and keep moving north.

Peace

Dale and Ila

Bruges to Middleburg

 Today we started our bicycle tour. We left Bruges behind and started toward Leeuwarden which is where we functionally end our trip. Riding out of Bruges was no easy task. The roads are all cobblestone and quite jarring on the bike. After we left the old city(of Bruges) we ended up on what seemed like a bicycle trail except for the occasional cars.

We followed this canal for quit a distance. It was striking with the double row of trees planted on both sides. The first town we came to was Damme. It was a sleepy little burg that must rely on tourism and commuting to bigger cities as there was not much else there except houses.

Damme is another of these old towns that if you look at it on google maps you can see exactly where the defensive walls once stood in a star like pattern. There are remnants of it that you bike by.

Along the way we saw several more Windmills. (Only missed getting a picture of one.)

These were definitely the real thing not a modern reconstruction. We also saw several new wind turbines generating electricity. 

The land is flat and were it calm the bicycling would be very easy. Unfortunately today we fought a strong north wind the majority of the day. Not sure if this is true but the roads we road on were elevated from the fields. I don’t know if the road was first placed then the water drained out to make way for the fields. We are biking today and most of tomorrow through the province of Zeeland. It has multiple islands separated by large bays from the North Sea. Today we needed to cross a larger one and there was no bridge so we hopped on to a ferry.

You can see a ferry in the picture. 

Our total distance to day was 51Km or about 30miles. Tomorrow is our biggest day. Our bike tour company encouraged our current route as this time of year the winds are generally South Westerly which should push us on our way. Unfortunately today was all North easterly which fought us the whole way.

Tonight we are staying in Middleburg which is the Capital of Zeeland. We are in a B and B which has been great. We walked into the old city and found this large building complex. It was the remains of a large monastery. That is until the reformation when it was goodbye priests and monks and hello to the Reform pastors. The church had a list of ministers in succession from the 1500s until 1977. It currently is actually split into two churches each using half of the old cathedral. The art work is not what I would expect to see in an American church…

Definitely Adam and Eve before the fig leaves.

Well I hope you are enjoying the nightly updates. As long as there are flat fields and windmills look for more pictures tomorrow.

Peace

Dale and Ila/

Bruges Belgium

 We spent a day and a half in Bruges or Brugge depending on which map you read. The town is actually about 120,000 population but we stayed mostly in the city center area which is the old city dating back to the 1300s. The town was quite wealthy at one point but then fell on hard times especially in the 18th and 19th centuries. The result is the city retained much of the very old buildings which make it the quaint old city that it is today. Admittedly we were around on the weekend which are the two busiest days of the week. Still it isn’t too hard to avoid the crowds. Also after 6pm the number of people drops quickly as many are day visitors from Brussels or Antwerp. 

We did a walking tour of the city and this was our first stop. This is the Church of Our Lady in Bruges. It is the second tallest brick cathedral in Europe. It stands 379 ft tall. The building next door and semi attached is actually the home of the wealthiest family in the 1300-1500s Bruges.

This is inside the church building and is one of the first Sky boxes ever. The wealthy family would be able to sit in there house and watch the Sunday mass right from the comfort of home. The door below is so the Priest could go up to give communion. This is just off the alter area. Quite unique for churches then and now. 

A comment on Belgium and Dutch history. The two countries are culturally very similar. The predominant language is Dutch. (Our guide said “Flemish” is Dutch with an accent. Similar to to American English and England English) The two countries were at times one and at other times separated. One of the biggest differences was during the reformation years Spain initially controlled both areas but William of Orange successfully was able to drive out Spanish control from what is now the Netherlands. Flanders or the area of what is now Belgium stayed under Spanish control for many more years. The net effect is Belgium under Spanish rule stayed Catholic while the Netherlands became a largely Protestant country.

Back to the church….

As a sign of how wealthy the church was this is an original Michelangelo  Sculpture. The Church is quite proud of the sculpture. 

So this is a bit gruesome. They started a road project by the church and found human remains. This  made them stop and call archeologists in. The area was previously part of a cemetery. There were some formal brick tombs with remains in, and numerous bones. I suspect the loose bones were people buried in simple shrouds. The shrouds decomposed over time and now just bones.

Another unique thing to the Netherlands and Belgium are Beguinage. They are areas that women would go to and lead a somewhat secluded religious life. They were not nuns and did not take vows. As such they could leave and marry if they so choose. It was not a life of poverty. Some of the more wealthy young women might stay in one of the units alone and have servants to help with cooking and cleaning. The Beguinage in Bruges currently is occupied by nuns. 

Our guide said one of the great things about Bruges is the beautiful streets and it seems you can take a picture around every corner in the town.

Before coming to town I wanted to do a brewery tour and our guide recommended the Half Man Brewery. The tour was quite interesting. The brewery has been in the family for six generations. They are one of the last Breweries to stay in the old city. The problem was how to meet the production needs in such a small building. The solution was they ran a pipe with several internal lines for over 3 kms to the newer city. So they brew the beer at the old brewery site and pump it the 3km to age and bottle at the new site. At the end we got free glasses of beer and I was the lucky recipient of most of Ila’s beer.

Bruges had several windmills used for grain milling in the past. The sites of 4 are still present although much of the old structure has been rebuilt over time. One of the four was spinning when we walked by.

The last notable event of the day was taking in the Belgium snacks. We had Belgium Beer, Belgium Waffles, Belgium Fries, and  Belgium Chocolate.  The Belgium people know how to live! Or at least snack.

This evening we got our bikes and the run down on the trip ahead. We should be in for some fun and interesting Cycling without hills. 

Peace

Dale and Ila