Endem to Franiker

 After breakfast we went for a wander into the town for a look around. I was also on a mission to find a new battery for the bike’s key fob which had gone flat so we couldn’t go anywhere till I found one. Luckily it wasn’t too difficult, a camera store had them. 

A very nice little port area which unfortunately in the dreary damp conditions we didn’t get to see at its best.

 

We stood by a railing which overlooked a canal and adjacent walkway. There were 3 statues of fishermen facing the railing just like we were. Out of the corner of our eyes Barbra and I saw a streak of water that looked like one of the statues was spitting. It was so funny and after a period of time it happened again, any unsuspecting person on the walkway below would feel the water on their heads. Very clever. 


Thanks Reijo for your photo of the spitting. 

As I said it was very overcast and a bit cold so it was hard to decide what to wear. Are you an optimist or a pessimist?  

Anyway we packed up and set off, I can’t believe I fell for it again but Tomtom once again guided us to a ferry. This was only a short distance from the start so Tomtom got the sack for the day and Google maps got the nod. 

We still were mostly on backroads and through little villages and although it was slow it was interesting and enjoyable. 

Soon after it was time to say Auf wiedersehn to Germany and Hallo to The Netherlands. This was marked in two ways, the usual EU round sign announcing we were about to pass a border and a queue of cars at a German petrol station taking advantage of the price differential. 

Our route then meandered through rural Holland with many crops including great piles of recently harvested swedes which I assume are winter feed for the barn animals. 

Some of the rural farm houses are quite impressive and other farm houses are more modest but attached to barns at least 4 times the house size. 


The roads in the Netherlands vary in width but have one thing in common, perfect surface. It’s like riding on a billiard table. 

A few added stops today as both Robyn and Reijo really like taking photos. 


We stopped in a small town for a bite to eat and the optimists among us added extra layers to our riding gear. 


The landscape is very flat and the houses look very different to what we have seen so far. 


We then set off to an amazing structure on the coast which is an incredible sea wall. Part of the flood defences. Massive flood gates and very high dyke which has a road on top of it. Before we got there however we had to pull over in a hurry and put on our wet weather gear as the strong winds also brought the rain. So once again the photos probably don’t do justice to this place as grey is the predominant colour today. 




After this we hit the A roads and made very good time to our destination, Franeker. 

Our hotel is well located beside a canal and is very quaint. Luckily they had an excellent restaurant as the rain continued to fall.

View from the deck the hotel. 



The hotel at night. Thanks Reijo for sharing the photo. 

The bikes are safely tucked up in the hotel garage and hopefully we will get a better look around here in the morning. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

St Claude to Manigod

Image
 Only around 140km today but very very windy on our chosen route. Today we wind up into the foot hills of the French alps where we will spend a few days. Chris and Karen have hired a house here and have kindly invited us to stay.  The terrain is lovely very reminiscent of Switzerland which I guess is hardly surprising as we are close to the border. Lovely forests and pretty green meadows.  All the little villages are out of story books and are kept in absolutely pristine condition.  We passed a lookout through to the big mountains and there was a sign board depicting and naming them including the famous Mt Blanc. Unfortunately for us they were all obscured in what appears to a heat haze.It is very hot up here with temperatures into the low 30’s. A little later we did see some outlines through the haze and they are big mountains.   We watched the weather on TV last night and there is another heatwave imminent. Some areas, in fact most areas will experience high 3...
Read more

Dinan to Mont St Michel

Image
 Another grey day and threatening rain. We only have a short distance to go and we only had a bit of drizzle until we got near our destination and then it hosed down.  We were too early to check into our hotel but we could park in the hotel carpark and leave gear in the lobby.  We have arrived at probably the 2nd most photographed place in France behind the Eiffel Tower.  Mont Saint Michel is an icon. Of course there are tourists everywhere but for good reason, this place is epic.  We jumped on the free shuttle bus which traverses a causeway out to the island. The weather had fined up and the tide was out so we could wander around the island to get different perspectives and to truly appreciate the scale of this place.   We then entered the compoumd and meandered up and up and joined a queue to get tickets into the abbey proper. We opted to get the audio guide as well which was well worthwhile.  The design and engineering of the abbey is off the s...
Read more

Kassel to Celle

Image
 A lovely day today. The weather is pleasant and our journey has also been very pleasant without being spectacular. Much like yesterday really, many lovely farming villages and perfect back country roads meandering through rolling farmlands and woodland forests. For several km the road was lined with lovely oak trees, very nice until I considered the possibility of having to take evasive action at some point……I stopped thinking about it then.  Our destination is the town of Celle which we didn’t know too much about but it is a gem. After checking into our hotel we walked through a lovely park into the old town.   We visited the palace dated back to the 12 th century. It is now a really beautiful museum.  There are many pieces of period furniture in place and some of the cabinets amd bureaus have staggeringly beautiful inlaid wood patterns. The last permanent resident of this palace was Caroline Matilda the sister of King George III.  She married the Danish king ...
Read more