Wednesday, June 6, 2018

Day 3 : Broken Bike, ride around Kinderdijk


June 6 2018
Strava Link


Distance : 24.86 kms   
Moving time 1:46:26
Average Speed : 14 km/h
Elevation: 41m
Temperature : 26C



After breakfast, we walked to the local bike shop to figure out what we could do regarding the broken bike dilemma. This bike shop was not able to offer too many solutions - we could buy a brand new Dutch city bike or visit the bike shop in the next town Krimpen aan de Lek. So Wayne walked the 4kms to the next town, I walked back to the hotel to get my bike and to meet him at the bike shop there. The bike shop owner was only able to offer to rent us a Dutch city bike with 3 gears and back pedal breaks for the week for the grand price of 60 euros. It was not optimum, but it would mean that we could continue the tour. The down side was that I had to carry the panniers they would not fit onto the rental bike rack. So this was going to be a first for me. Wayne was able to store his broken bike at the shop for the week we were riding and pick it up the next week when he returned the bike.




After the bike situation had been sorted, we then were able to ride around the local area. We asked the bike shop manager about a place called Nieuw Lekkerland and if it would be worth riding around. He said yes it would, it is quite famous. So having no idea, we caught the car ferry across to Kinderdijk and started to ride around on the banks of the river. We could see there were windmills to our left, and then found a road leading into them and we were gobsmacked at what we had stumbled upon. These were the world famous Kinderdijk Windmills - a world UNESCO heritage site. There was very little signage in the area, and even the hotel we stayed at gave no indication this was so close. 






We spent a few hours riding around the windmills taking photos, (I took lots of photos, they were so pretty and it was a gorgeous day!) then we ventured into the next town.  We happened upon a fresh food truck to buy some fruit & veges for lunch and parked ourselves in a green spot next to a car park and enjoyed the fruits of our discoveries. We headed back to the hotel on a different ferry across the Lek. Wayne went ofd for a 20k ride along the river on his super speedy city bike, while I found an ice cream and cheese shop. I bought some food for dinner and we had a picnic in our room.




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