# A ride to the Netherlands, Part 5



## totallyfixed (15 Sep 2013)

More farewells, and even more heartfelt, we had sampled a little of Dutch life and liked it very much, so with the clouds gathering overhead we set forth, this time heading almost due west and back into that pesky headwind. The lady of the house [with young daughter on a seat with a small windshield on - brilliant] escorted us out of Nijmegen and on to our route which we had gone over the previous evening [all 4 of us] in clinical detail until we were clear on every turn from Nijmegen to Breda - did you ever hear about too many cooks spoiling the broth?
It was quite apt that when we said goodbye a few kilometers outside Nijmegen the rain started, although it never got particularly heavy it was enough to dampen the spirits somewhat. For reasons I can't quite explain, we began to find ourselves temporarily misplaced [I refuse to say lost because I knew with some certainty that we were in the NL]. The first part of our route went Grave, Zeeland, Nistelrode, Heeswijk Dinther, St Michielsgestel, and after that it was pick up a canal and then through a forest. Easy peasy, except we lost the plot in Grave [aptly named]. It might have been because at some stage along the way we caught sight of a group of roadies ahead of us so we er, gave chase and let me say here and now it wasn't my idea [ouch!]
After many, many consultations with the map we eventually made it to the canal, the sun was shining again so we stopped at a convenient picnic table and had lunch. The rest of the journey consisted of many miles along a canal and then best of all was this incredible strip of tarmac through a forest, as smooth as you like and quite surreal.





We approached Breda through Dongen and because of the way Breda was laid out it was actually quite easy to find the street we wanted........however, within this street were three or four very smart rows of houses and five tower blocks. They are not really leaning honest.




The house number we wanted was quite high, in the five or six hundreds and we quickly eliminated the "normal" houses, we just couldn't quite see how it could be a tower block though, could it? We cycled round to one of them and sure enough there on the list of occupants was our hosts name, 10 floors up! We had also noted in the communal garage opposite were his and hers Porsches, these were not cheap apartments. After being shown how, we rang the bell and a cheerful female voice answered saying she would come down.
To cut a long story short, our bikes were taken down [in a bike shaped lift!] to a basement room and we were whisked up to the most amazing apartment overlooking the city and in the distance we could even see the wind turbines in Belgium. Our hostess was an artist and the apartment was full of her work, we sat and talked for ages, unfortunately my stomach was rumbling so once again we set off to walk to find our evening meal in Breda and explore a little. This church was so big I couldn't fit it all into the viewfinder




Whenever we looked for somewhere to eat there was always a lot of choice, sometimes too much and we often spent too much time wandering from one menu to the next when all we really wanted was a bloody great pizza or a heap of pasts with a beer and a glass of wine.
Some of Breda's cafes




There was never a feeling that any of the restaurants / cafes were too posh or expensive, no one arrived by car simply because they were never allowed in the town / city centers, everyone either cycled or came on foot so there was never a feeling of "not belonging".
Back in our exclusive lodgings we talked and drank coffee before heading off to bed with the sad knowledge that this was to be our last night in the NL
Our mileage to date




Next and last, a Star Fortress city, a tiny ferry, a big ferry, a mad German and home.


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## Hill Wimp (16 Sep 2013)

Excellent once again.


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## totallyfixed (16 Sep 2013)

Apologies for Part 5, it was meant to be the last but we were so tired after travelling back from the hill climb up north it was all I could do to stay awake, will try and finish tonight.


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