April 28 - Biking Middleburg to Brielle, Netherlands

Monday

We slept very well with the window open for half the night (no screens needed) When I got up to shut the window, I heard something light hit the floor, but I couldn't reach it. When we got up, Verle was missing his glasses. I remembered the sound, and we found the glasses on the floor between the two twin beds. Franz served us a wonderful and elegant breakfast of boiled egg, bread broiled with soft cheese on top, WONDERFUL breads of all sorts (I especially enjoyed the raisin bread), cheeses, and two kinds of meat, coffee and tea. His house is new inside, very nice, and comfortable.
We had worried about finding the train station since we had arrived at Franz's house following a circuitous route. Franz volunteered to walk us to the station. We left our bags at his house and he helped us rent the bikes. We got each bike for a week for 42.50 Euros. If we have them longer, we will pay the extra charge when we return them to Middleburg. When we arrived back at Franz's house, Truus had ridden in about 20 minutes by bike to tell us good-bye. They sent along candy, and I took sandwiches I'd made from the breakfast bread, cheese, and meat. We got our bags strapped onto our bikes and were on our way at about 10 a.m. Franz rode with us to show us the LF1 trail. What wonderful service these "Friends of Bikers" give us. I wish there were some way to repay them.
We had been worried about rain, but it didn't rain all day. We were also worried about the winds that usually blow off the North Sea. They were blowing, but were behinds us, so we sailed right along, especially as we went across the 6-, 3-, and 1-mile dikes. What fun! It appears that the knowledge that the prevailing winds are from the southwest worked for us this time. Verle had wanted to ride south from Amsterdam.
It was a real joy to ride through the villages and many farming areas



and to see the Delta project, which consisted of big concrete structures with movable gates that can be adjusted to keep the sea out when necessary.



We had and interesting ride through the Westensenschouwen Forest, but we were almost too tired to navigate the hills. We stopped twice to take some of our energy food, and it helped a lot. We bought a map for the LF-1 route. It is in a book at cost over $12, and covers only as far as Delft. It wasn't as helpful as we had hoped, and we still had problems staying on the trail when we couldn't find the LF-1 markers along the way. Although we were often worried about whether we were along the trail, we really didn't lose much time getting off. One of the most interesting route questions worked out very well when we were about 9 miles from Brielle. We weren't sure where LF-1 went, and Verle saw a sign for 9 miles to Brielle by bike. It wasn't the LF-1 trail, but because we didn't know which way to go on LF-1, we decided to take it. We got to Brielle very quickly, and the LF-1 rejoined us about four miles from Brielle. We followed it into town and came to our hosts' street (Reede) at the second crossroad in town. Another "Friend of Bicyclers" saw us and we chatted for awhile. She is booked up for most of the summer.
We think we rode about 50 miles, so we were very tired by the time we reached our host's home at about 8 p.m.. My seat was especially sore. We really like the railroad bikes and their 8 speeds. (We're glad we paid $5 more for the extra 5 speeds.) We ride more straight up, so our arms and hands didn't get nearly as tired as on our Treks, but it puts more weight on our seats.
We met Laney and Cor came home right after we put the bikes in their garage. Laney made coffee and we had fun visiting. They phoned and found a place for us in the Leiden Centrum area (easy to find). Their daughter, Linda, and her American husband and Florida-born Keenan and Cory came to meet us. What fun to visit! They lived in the USA until just before 9-11. Linda got very homesick, and they moved to Brielle and lived with Laney and Cor for a year and a half. __ is teaching English at a high school here. He says that the kids are as hard to discipline as in the US. He says that the bad western influences are beginning to affect the Dutch kids.
Cor showed Verle their Internet, I typed this journal so Verle could put in yesterday and today's web info, and we showered and went to bed.