June 17 - Day 12
Distance 90.00kms
Total distance on the trip 681.84km
Moving time 4:56 hours
Todays elevation 56m
Total elevation 1214
Weather - 11 -> 26 degrees - no rain, Winds SE at about 11km/h - in our favour for once.
Not too many photos today as I was not feeling it, and it was all about the riding, and we rode through a lot of rural farm land which was different shades of green.
The weather was sunny with no rain forecast for the day, and thankfully no serious winds to contend with. It was a bit cool to start with, but we warmed up pretty quick once we were on the road. I was still feeling pretty lousy from a head cold I was suffering from, but Babybel cheese helped me to ride 90kms. I cannot even remember if we stopped for lunch.
We rode through much farm land and an interesting place called Frederiksoord (rough translation - Frederiks resort) where paupers from the city were housed and given land to work on through the ‘Colonies of Benevolence’ in 1818. The paupers were originally volunteers, but then they did not get enough volunteer paupers, so many were were forced from the city to these remote areas to make a new life for themselves as farmers. The first public housing initiative I think. It was a failed social experiment as it was very costly.
Wayne got a puncture about 20kms from Gronigen - the tube had a massive gash in it, and went down with a bang.
The church above is in a little town called Norg. It was built in the 13th Century, however the small village has remnants of people living there about 650 BC. We stopped here long enough for a quick photo and bathroom break.
We finally made it to Gronigen, which looked like an interesting town. On the outskirts on the south side we stopped to find accommodation on the Booking . com app and found something we liked on the north side of town - about 10kms away, so off we went.
The little room we had secured was fabulous. It was in a renovated barn at the back of the farm house, which was no longer a farm. The outlook was rural (there was even a balloon in the distance). The temperature rocketed to about 30 degrees in the afternoon, and we took refuge in the cooler room. We washed all our clothes and hung them outside to dry, with the sun and dry, hot wind, they dried in no time.
I was feeling pretty poorly, so it was rest for the afternoon. It was about 2:30 when we checked in, so we had made pretty good time for the day. The plan was for rest, drugs and sleep so we could explore the city of Gronigen in the morning.
Dinner was delivery via the food app as we were about 5kms from town.
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