Day 31 Dordrecht, Netherlands - Livestock, Farming & the Canals

Tony's View

The first thing that we needed to do today was work our way out and through someone's house. So, this picture shows the tight fit. 

Traveling out of Amsterdam was a little bit of a challenge with bicycles coming from everywhere. Just like driving a motorhome in heavy traffic, you need to leave room in front of you because stopping takes more time. Well, when I leave the space for the tandem, another bicycle just moves in. There was a boom lift on the bicycle path that everyone was going around. In this traffic it is a tight fit. I ended up clipping the fender on the boom lift and it jerked us, but I was able to keep us upright. I do believe, we bent their fender. Thank goodness we didn't wreck. After about 5 miles we were out of the hectic area. Coincidently, many of the workers, we believe, were going to work at the Amsterdam hospital so traffic went down significantly at that point. A little later we went across another cool bicycle bridge.

We went another 5 miles and were completely out of Amsterdam. We then found a bakery and a grocery store and got our treat from the grocery store. There was also a fresh fish truck that Joan checked out. She said they had a lot of yummy stuff. There was fishing in the area.

Our route today took us by many very nice houses and several vacation resort towns with many channels or canals with houses on both sides going to a bigger lake. Here is a picture of a channel.

The one-way roads which were mainly bike paths had pull offs alongside so either a car could pass another car or move over for bicycles. 

Our route today took us right through another farmer's market again. This one was very big and when we thought we saw the end, our Garmin said go right. Wouldn't you know it the market continued on that street too. 

The good news is that when we turned, there was a strawberry stand, and the strawberries were a deal. Joan bought some and we went to a park to eat them as soon as we got out of the crowd. Yum, yum.😋😋

We tried to get a photo on how they make it difficult for cars on the road. They have these on both sides to slow the cars down. Traffic engineer talk. It's called traffic calming.

Speaking again about traffic engineers, there are many roundabouts over here. However, the bicycle path goes around the outside and bicycles always get the right of way. So, cars need to stop going into the traffic circle and coming out. Bicycles rule!! Just hard to get a picture to show you.

We got into the country and the trails for the first time weren't living up to the Netherland standards. Maybe I just took the wrong way. They were paved on both sides and not gravel. The second photo shows in this section there was a water problem.

Along this road, there were canals on both sides of the road and about every 100 feet. The farmers used the canals as fence with cattle and sheep in every sliver of land. We took a break and ate some more strawberries. You can see the cattle in the rows of canals. 

I looked up to see Joan over talking to the cows. She went up to them and one of them licked her. Joan yelled at the cow like it was our dog, Luna. She said, "don't lick me." I am not sure the cow understood, but it did stop. 

We went a little farther down the road and decided to stop so Joan could get a picture of this cow. 

In the second half of the trip today, we had to wait on two lift bridges. Here is a picture of one.

We also went on two ferries. One over the Lek River and the other was the Oude Maas River, both being pretty good size. We were wondering if they were the Rhine River. Joan asked on both ferries and they said these names. The second ferry people told us there were three rivers coming together. So many big rivers. It is confusing what is what.

We did run into construction just 1/2 mile from the Airbnb. They were putting in new granite curb and granite pavers. The construction worker helped point the way around. 

Joan's Extras

Dinner tonight was outstanding. We ate at Restaurant Post recommended by our host Onno. It was one of our favorite meals of this trip, except for our meals with the Pues in Glandorf, of course. Tony had a peach fusilli pasta dish, and I had a fish filet with mussels, scallops, risotto and broccoli. We topped it off with cheesecake for dessert.

On our walk to dinner, this cool dude posed for a photo shoot on the sidewalk outside of a store.