After our enjoyable cycle the previous day Emma and I set off from thr Port at Dordrecht in the early afternoon. Our efforts of the day before had clearly set a trend and other passengers had borrowed bikes to cycle around Dordrecht. It is a pretty place with lots of canals and bridges.
I had been going to try to navigate, using Google Maps, but Emma has an Apple Watch, so she could refer to the directions on her wrist, making navigating a lot easier so she set off in front. We seemed to go a very circuitous route around Dordrecht, passing some nice buildings en route.
After crossing numerous canals we finally reached the outskirts of Dordrecht and Emma continued to navigate with clear directions to left or to right. We had to go through a tunnel with some kind of obstacle halfway up the hill. It turned out to be a parked truck; leaving just enough space to squeeze by. Alighting from this Emma indicated to turn right and we came to the village of s-Gravandeel. We stopped here for a few minutes and were delighted to see a mother duck and her young ducklings waddle by.
The only problem with the route that Emma was following was that it was a walking route, because we suddenly found ourselves approaching a main road without a cycle path. A motorist stopped and told us we were on the wrong route and we needed to go back to the tunnel so we retraced our route through the village and pretty soon picked up the cycle path. It must say that for a cyclist Holland is the perfect country.
We were well out in the countryside now and had been cycling for nearly two hours so lunch was now uppermost in our minds. We were cycling through a village, which seemed to be built just on either side of the road. Emma stopped to look for somewhere to eat on her Google maps and I photographed a typical Dutch Church.
,According to Google there was somewhere to eat in the next village; which was about three miles away. On the way we cycled on a beautiful dyke with a small canal to the right and a long row of just budding poplar trees. I managed to get a photo while cycling with Emma up ahead.
The village of Strijen came into view and we could see immediately that it was of a more substantial size. We made a couple of enquires as we seemed to be just in a residential area and were reassured that there was indeed a pub very close. The centre of Strijen proved to be a little gem. It was lovely and sunny so we sat outside to be near the bikes. Having ordered a Dutch beer for me, a cup of tea for Emma and been given an indecipherable menu in Dutch I crossed the road to photograph the very pretty canal and 18th century pub where we were eating.
The patron of the pub was very friendly and spoke excellent English. He asked us if we’d like a translation of the menu to which we quickly concurred. It was lovely sitting in the garden soaking in the sun and listening to two elderly gentlemen putting the World to rights, well that’s what I guessed as they were speaking Dutch. Our food arrived and my goats cheese salad with nuts tasted delectable. It was the perfect place for lunch and just what I had hoped for; part of the adventure of a long cycle ride. We couldn’t linger any longer, because according to Emma we still had 15 miles to cycle and we needed to make the boat by 6.45pm.
We set off on our way along the main route, but then turned off and after 100 yards picked up a designated cycle way, which was built on a dyke. Eventually we shared it with the odd car of local traffic as there were now houses on either sides of the canals served by private small bridges. It was similar to the road to Strijen. This went on for about 9 miles, followed by a slog up and over a very long bridge running alongside a motorway, with cars coming more slowly in both directions. Finally we were across on a quiter road and rewarded with signs to Willemstad.
We came to a point where we could see sails from the yachts in the harbour and Emma directed me along a path, which quickly became grass but was still okay for cycling. Emma who was behind me distracted me by calling out just as I became aware that there was a flock of sheep chasing me on the side of a small hill. I lost my balance and in trying to retrieve it did a very slow motion tumble to the right. Fortunately it was grass so I wasn’t hurt. Emma was laughing hysterically at the whole scene. We then came to a gate with an electric fence and a style so Emma lifted the bikes over for me to take on the other side. An interesting short cut!!! Then it was through another gate and along another path where the welcome sight of Brabant awaited us. We could see the windmill of Willemstad and that it looked pretty, but as the boat was leaving in 15 minutes the thought of a cup of tea was more appealing after our exertions. We had had a lovely ride.
