Day 66. Willemstad to Stellendam. 87.27 kms cycled. 5.09 hours cycling. 29.45 km/h max speed. 16.89 km/h average speed. Weather – sunny and hot with a stiff westerly head wind.

One thing I have discovered while on this trip is that you can never plan too far ahead – or even a day ahead for that matter.
When I set out this morning I had high hopes of reaching the North Sea and, hopefully, one of the much talked about Dutch dykes.
But as things worked out that didn’t happen. The western part of The Netherlands is an endless number of islands of all sizes. My plan was to cycle across one of the big islands, catch a ferry to another of the big islands and then cycle to the sea.
So into a very stiff westerly wind I cycled over the first island for about 30 kms, all the while pleased with how my progress was going. But on arrival at the point on the map where the ferry was supposed to cross the straight, there wasn’t a ferry of any size in sight.
After a fruitless search for the ferry – or a possible crossing point – I went into a nearby bar and asked where it departed from. It was, I was told, a seasonal ferry and it only operated from July 1 to August 31. Can you believe it, I was a day early!!!!
Anyway, there was no choice but to backtrack, but first there was a review of my route for the day. Not keen to retrace all of the 30 or so kms I had just cycled I decided to go via another island. And just to put a little bit of extra pressure on myself I knew I needed to keep moving if I had any hope of being in Rotterdam on Saturday to see the Tour de France criterium.
So the upshot of all of that is that I ended up cycling 87 kms for the day, way more than I thought I would be doing at this stage of the trip. And much of that 87 kms was into a westerly head wind, so it was a tough day indeed.
But the opportunity to see the Tour de France live is too good to miss though, and to make the day even better Joel and Linda who I stayed with for a couple of days in Germany are planned to meet up with me for the day.
So all in all Saturday in Rotterdam is shaping up to be a great day, I just hope there is room for me in the campsite outside of town with so many people sure to be in town for the race.

captions: Pic 1: A beautiful scene in a village along the way. Pic 2: I don't know what they are selling, but I think I will have one!! Pic 3: To get over this old lock I had work out how to get it to operate ... not an easy task. Pic 4: Boats lining up to get through a lock. Pic 5: Wind mills everywhere and which way are they facing, the way I am going of course.