Sorry, we haven't had internet access for a few days. Well on Monday we left Gelderen relatively early and headed towards Nijmegen. For the last couple of days we've noticed that some of the large barns are completely covered in solar panels. Hundreds of square meters of panels so we wondered if a subsidy was available to make it worthwhile.
We rode from Gelderen to Goch, to Kleve, Kranenburg and then via Bergendal to Nijmegen. Let me tell you that I didn't like the Berg bit (mountain), it wasn't very steep, but a very long hill. I tried all the gears and ended up walking bits because my legs were just too tired. I did however appreciate the Dal bit (valley), going downhill is great, appreciate that. Didn't get anywhere near the centre of Nijmegen. We essentially cut the corner and carried on to Elst and from there on to Wolfheze. Total distance about 75km. It was a hard day for George because for parts of the trip I was frustratingly slow, with jabbing pains in my knees. He ended up carrying one of my bags to ease my load. The GPS worked great and even directed us to use this cute little solar powered bicycle ferry across the Rijn River. At this point it is a narrow branch with most the water going down the Waal and Maas Rivers.
Got to Wolfheze about mid afternoon and managed to sweet talk the nice lady behind reception in letting us use the guest room (logeerkamer) for an extra day. We weren't really expected until the following day you see. After a quick shower I crossed the corridor to go and see Oma Dijkgraaf (my grandmother). She was very surprised to see me because nobody had told her that I was coming, and I hadn't told her either. She has short term memory loss, I've rung her at least once a month for the past 6 months to let her know I would be turning up, most recently the week before we left NZ. Never mind.
While I was there Mrs Zus de Boer arrived too. She is a lovely lady and has been visiting Oma for years on Monday afternoons. We chatted about all sorts of things, including the story about how somebody in NL has found a swan. Tried to take it to the SPCA (Asiel) but they only deal with cats and dogs. Tried to call the animal ambulance, but the swan is perfectly healthy so they didn't want it either. He was going to try lost and found next.
All in all I've probably chatted to Oma for about 10 hours over the last few days. She's told me lots about what it was like when she was young and has a wicked sense of humour. I've made notes of what she said and will share that with the appropriate people. She is in a rest home for poorly sighted and blind people. The staff there are absolutely awesome and really nice.
Tuesday we designated as a rest day. So I only cycled about 20km to Wageningen and back, and George kept it to a mere 50km because he included a visit to Ede also. In Wageningen we wanted to see where an Uncle of George used to live. This uncle was captured by the Germans during the 2nd World War and died in a concentration camp in Poleland. The house has long been flattened and replaced by other buildings, but is was still nice to visit the locale. After that we visited the memorial plaque in the University, as he was a assistant at the University during the war, when he was active in the resistance. It proved a bit hard to find, because there are University builings scattered throughout Wageningen, and finding the right one wasn't easy. With the help of a Professor and several office staff using Google we managed to track down the right building. But we couldn't see the plaque anywhere. Turns out that it was inside a building! Thanks to some electricians working inside the Aula, we managed to get a peak at it and take some photos.After lunch I chatted to Oma, while George went to surprise his cousin Dick in Ede. Lots of good and interesting information about the family to add to the family tree. He sprinted the 11km from Ede to Wolfheze. After that we treated ourselves to proper Dutch chips with mayonaise, a lot cheaper and almost a lot nicer than the expensive food from the only restaurant in Wolfheze.
This morning (Wednesday) we left Wolfheze shortly after 8:30 and headed north. Most of the route has been in or around forest. This is quite different to NZ forest, very little understorey, widely spaced trees, most of which are probably less than 50 years old and rather spindly by our standards. These forests tend to be multi-purpose, recreation, wildlife preservation, maintaining traditional jobs (such as charcoal making), and provision of timber.
In Apeldorn we were going to stop and have a coffee, but somehow completely missed the town centre and other cafes didn't open until 11:30am (still an hour to wait). We followed the signs to the the royal Dutch palace (het Loo Paleis) in the hope for coffee there. The entry fee was 10 Euros each, and although there was a cafe inside the gate the high entry cost put us off. Did take some photos over the fence though. So we carried on to the Princess Juliana Toren, in the hope for coffee. This turned out to be an amusement park, and includes moving dinosaur through which you cycle on a monorail. Again a cafe inside the fence, and a stiff entry fee to get there. So on we went.
We took a shortcut through the royal forests. This was very pleasant, and there was lots of wild pig sign, but no pigs. A hard compressed fine gravel track was reasonably easy to manage, and going downhill was fun (after the uphill bit first of course). After that the landscape changed to flatter with more canals and very rural. Enjoying the views and buildings, and the different and often specialised lifestock (like Texelian blue sheep - actually whoever named those was colourblind - they looked more ginger to me).
Eventually we stopped for coffee, near midday, at a nice little cafe near Heerde . We ordered coffee, hot chocomel and a cherry tart with cream each. While we were sitting there a motorcycle police officer turned in to the adjacent road and tucked his bike into a hidden area behind some bushes. Must be lying in wait for an offender we thought, good place to see out from but not be seen. So we took a sneaky photo. Then a lady motorcycle police officer turned up and parked her bike next to the first. George asked if he could take a photo. We ordered some more cherry tart and while waiting for that to turn up a third motorcycle policeman turned up and parked his bike beside the other two. Must we really serious we thought........ But no, they came to the cafe for some lunch.
Two cherry tarts each later we hopped back on the bike direction Zwolle. My legs were getting rather tired again so we debated as to whether to find accomodation in Zwolle or try to reach picturesque Staphorts. My legs pretty much gave up in Hasselt though so I enquired at the local VVV (think AA office) about accomodation. Everything in Hasselt was full up. Only one expensive room left in a hotel in Staphorst (11km further on) and after some 5 or 6 phone calls she tracked down a farmstay bed and breakfast just outside Zwartesluis. Get back on the bike and cycle another 7km. Total distance today is probably a respectable 80km.
It is a very nice place, built to look like a traditional Dutch haybarn. A working dairy farm. We've tried to pet the grumpy shetland pony, made the chickens fight over some apple cores, watched the cows come in for milking and got slobbered over by the calves. They milk about 60 cows here, 8 at one time, and it takes about 2 hours. The milk goes to a local cheese factory. We watched the milking for a while. They have calves scattered throughout the year, so they milk the whole year, and each cow can produce milk for up to 400 days after calving. The amount of milk varied greatly from one cow to the next, some produced 30 litres and others a mere 10 or so. Apparently this difference is because the amount of milk produced varies according to the needs of a calf. So a modest amount to start with, heaps when the calf is growing heaps, and then it tapers off to wean the calf. http://www.bedandbreakfast-ebenhaezer.nl.
Further north tomorrow.....
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