Noord

Made it to the ferry jetty just as it was leaving. Rats. Next one was half an hour. Settled down with some strawberries & proceeded to try & sort out some issues with the sat nav. I did not. Anyway the ferry left packed with bikes - off to Kinderdijk - apparently a world heritage site - unlike Liverpool. It is an area harking back to when windmills were everywhere in Holland and there really were tonnes of them. On leaving the ferry you were directed to a path & there were windmills wherever you looked pushed on beyond the masses & it was a pretty peaceful place disturbed only by the occasional boat trip. A visit here was always the plan but the original route had been a little circuitous so I thought I'd try to find a shortcut. Messed around with the sat nav & it appeared that 30 miles had been turned into 20. Pushed on with the new route except I hadn't read carefully. The 20 was what had done & when I looked a little while later what I had left to cycle was a rather grim 65. Panicked. Reason then took over. The scenic route originally was 50 so it couldn't be 65. Did some on the hoof navigation. Tolerated some bridge issues, diversions and a heavy shower. Made it to Breda - birthplace of the Big Man and the hotel was in the middle of an industrial estate. Not really a problem since the neighbouring hotel had a restaurant, except it didn't - short staffed. So had a pleasant / bizarre evening walk through the industrial estate to the nearby retail park. Almost succumbed to the promise of Aircon in McDonalds but resisted & had a dollop of pasta.Read more