Day 63 Nijmegen to Heerewaarden

Day 63. Nijmegen to Heerewaarden. 76.31 kms cycled. 4.46 hours cycling. 32.5 km/h max speed. 15.95 km/h average speed. Weather – sunny and warm perfect for cycling.

Well, after 63 days cycling it all finally came together today. Perfect weather without a cloud in the sky (an added bonus was a nice tailwind); fantastic scenery and village after village with so much to see.

  It was also Sunday, so everyone was out on the bike tracks enjoying the beautiful weather … it was great to see.

  One woman who stopped to talk to me when she saw my head buried in my map, claimed the weather was “exceptional” for Holland. She also asked me if I knew why the landscape was so green? Without giving me a chance to reply she finished her sentence with the answer, “because it normally &*^%&#@ rains so much”.

  So as you can imagine the locals were lapping up the mid to high 20s temperatures, as was I.

  There is something very enjoyable about starting a day’s ride with basically no idea where you are going to end up at the end of the day.

  Basically as I head over towards Rotterdam I am just going from town to town on a whim with no real purpose to where I am going – and love it.

  As I had once again lost track of the days and forgot to buy food yesterday to cater for Sunday (Holland is like every other country I have visited – absolutely nothing is open on a Sunday), I was scouring every village I went through looking for something to eat.

  Fortunately I finally found a café when I was starting to despair so enjoyed a nice lunch along with about another 10 or so other cyclists who looked as though they had the same problem.

  In the end I found a campground wedged between the Waal and Maas Rivers at the end of a great day’s cycling. Bring on tomorrow!!

captions: Pic 1: Don't you just love the Eten and Drinken sign. Pic 2: Nijmegen Pic 3: They have these great drink stations along the Waal track in Holland. Pic 4: All the cyclists getting onboard to cross the river.