Aah the comfort of a bed and a pillow!! Had a great sleep and awoke at 7.30am. Bart and Wendy were both off to work this
morning so we just caught up with stuff this morning. We counted our kms so far (4253), and weighed
our bags as we were curious as to how much we were carrying. I carry the sleeping mats, groundsheet,
cooking pot, gas cooker, first aid kit, sewing kit and all my clothing,
sleeping bag etc and Pete carries the tent, food, computer, camera, chargers
and adaptors, the tool kit, frying pan and plates, as well as his sleeping bag
and clothing. All my gear weighed 15.3kg
and Pete’s weighed 18kg.
Then we cycled with Kate to Bart’s allotment where we all
picked raspberries for about forty-five minutes. There were so many, we thought we had better
drop them home before going to the supermarket so the weight of them wouldn’t
crush them all. Then we cycled to the
supermarket and Kate led us around with her price gun, adding everything up for
us. After we’d paid she loaded
everything into the front basket of her bike.
I had brought panniers but she insisted she could carry everything and
she did. The ease with which they use
their bikes over here is fantastic.
Watching Bart cycle home with his prizes from tennis in the front box of
his bike with his tennis bag on his back while he talked on his telephone was
quite something and then to watch young Kate place these shopping bags in her
basket, unlock her bike in one second and she was off – no fluffing around
undoing and doing up pannier bags or undoing clumsy locks and then to cycle
with all this shopping so confidently along the streets of her hometown. It’s all so easy and natural here – why
wouldn’t you cycle?
As we were having lunch, Wim arrived with Jenny and they
invited us to go to Netherlands biggest camping store with them. Well who wouldn’t want to go to that so we
said Yes Please and off we went.
Unbelievable!!! Think Mitre 10
Mega and times it by ten.
 |
| Jenny and Kate select their tent |
It was massive
with tents, caravans, awnings, and all the furnishings to go with them all out
on display. We came away with two new
sporks for 5 euro. We almost bought a
new tent but wanted one a smidgen longer than what was on sale. It does however, give us an idea of what’s
available in Europe and tomorrow on our way West, we plan to go to another
couple of stores to see what they’ve got, one of which caters for extreme
outdoor activities, so all lightweight
stuff as well.
 |
| Pete with Kate at Oberlink |
Wim has a Mercedes and very nice it was too cruising along
in it. He’s just sold a Merc. Cabriolet and told us he’s had Mercedes for the
last thirteen years, ever since he retired. Arrived home and after a bit of
pottering around, we were on our way to Wendy and Bart’s friends’ house for
another barbeque. There we enjoyed good food, excellent company and even though
the conversation half the time was in Dutch….a lot of laughs. Finished there about 10.30pm and took the
short walk home before crashing after a talk to Bart, who we won’t see in the
morning as he’s got work early. It’s been lovely seeing these guys and the
girls again and we have really enjoyed it here. So, tomorrow we move further
through the Netherlands on the final leg to England.
No comments:
Post a Comment