Dolly's Bike Blog

We knew about the storm arriving from England overnight, but were hoping that if we delayed our departure, the rain and wind would abate.  The good news is we stayed dry.  Can’t say the same for the wind.

Our route took us over the Zeelandbrug, a 3+ mile bridge over the Oosterschelde.  Tulip Cycling had planned for us to go further west to see the storm barriers, but we had eliminated that plan last night with the weather forecast.  The winds were gusting over 25 mph on this bridge, so we ended up walking 3+ miles – it was impossible to try to bike in those winds, directly in our face or just off our right shoulder.

It was not hard to decide not to continue to ride the 15+ miles further west to our overnight stay in Middleburg.  With help from a friendly Dutch woman, we figured out how to purchase train tickets for ourselves and the bike from the town of Goes to Middleburg.  The train station was less than a mile from our B & B.  Even with the “hike” we arrived before 3 pm.

Of course, we wandered a bit in the city, seeing the old Stadthuis (City Hall) and the Lange Jan, a very large Protestant Church, with two Sunday services: one more traditional, the other seemed to be more Universalist, and no cross in either sanctuary space.

14.3 miles total

We got quite an early start this morning, after enjoying breakfast presented by a friend of the B & B owner.  Actually heard the 8 am bells ringing as we pedaled away from Brielle.

We knew it was to be a longer day (57 km, about 36 miles) and we were worried about the wind as much of the ride was close to the coast of the North Sea.

The area is called the Delta Works, causeways built between 1954 and 1997, after a disastrous flooding in 1953.  One of those we biked across was a large sluice system with moveable barriers on both sides. The fresh lake water inside is higher than the North Sea salt water on the outside. When the German rivers melt and send large amounts of water to Holland, they actually release water out of the lake into the North Sea.  And the barriers prevent the storming North Sea to penetrate the lake and flood everything inside.  The second one we biked across had large dunes, likely with concrete supports below, and there were numerous recreation areas along the North Sea side with wind surfers.

We stopped for lunch in one of the harbor towns before arriving in Zierikzee by 2 pm.  Our hotel is called De Wilde Man, seemed appropriate with our biking charges into the wind today.  Later in the afternoon we walked around town, noticing the City Hall and the harbor with mussel boats.  Enjoyed a delicious pot of mussels in wine for dinner – each larger than a quarter in size.