Trip to The Netherlands: Part 3
April 16,2023
Sunday
The power in the boat would be turned off at night to conserve fuel, except for heater/air conditioning in the cabins which ran on inverters. This meant the electric kettle in the dining room would not operate overnight until 7 am. Rayne would arrive at that time and start boiling water, setting the table with milk, yogurt, granola, corn flakes, juice, fruits ,butter, jam. Pauline would come by 7:30 and bring boiled eggs, sliced turkey or chicken and vegan ingredients, variety of sliced cheeses to the table. The bread would come to the table only at 8 am. We had to fix our breakfast out of this as well as make sandwiches to carry on our bikes for lunch. Paper bags were provided for the lunch sandwiches.
The bikes would be ready for the road a few minutes before 9 am.
We woke up on the lake at Ouderkerk Sunday morning keeping in mind the above timetable. It was quite cold. Yet,much to our horror, we saw a few locals taking a dip in the waters of the lake early in the morning.
In contrast, we were all bundled up in layers from head to toe. The only skin showing was the face. This morning we set out for the ride to Gouda. The Dutch pronunciation is Howda!
What an enchanting ride it was ! Through farmland, past windmills, on paths that were sometimes as narrow as 5 feet, lined on one or both sides by canals or rivers, with plentiful wildflowers and generous presence of daffodils and tulips alongside these bike routes we peddled away under the blue skies. The scattered clouds kept the Sun strategically and pleasantly shielded from our faces. We realized we were entering into the territory that really belonged to the swans, geese, ducks, herons, water fowls, egrets, sheep, goats and cattle. They pretended they didn’t see us except for an occasional lazy glance thrown in our direction.
The small villages we passed through were charming, clean and particularly quiet on the Sunday morning. A few mothers had arrived early with their young kids and waited outside the churches before the doors opened for service.
Hank made the first stop at one such village at a small cafe. Another group of bikers was there when we reached and told us this place has a particularly delicious apple pie. My first hot chocolate of the trip with the truly amazing apple pie was the highlight of this stop. One major advantage of these stops was the access to bathrooms. The food was only secondary. The short stop was very effective to get us recharged for further biking.
We reached the city of Gouda a bit past 1:30 pm. There was a park near Gouda station where there were benches to sit and much into our sandwiches. There were swings and see-saws nearby and families with kids enjoying there. The park had a lake and we saw some ducks and other birds in the waters. The station nearby had restrooms.
Once everyone was ready we got back on our bikes and proceeded to the central square of the city.
The cheese outlet stood right across from where we parked our bikes. The store staff enthusiastically shared samples of each of their artisan cheeses. Herb, garlic, pepper, tomato, olive, fenugreek, cumin and so many other ingredients flavored the intrinsically good cheese. It was difficult to choose. We browsed through some souvenir shops in the square and walked around the square taking pictures.
The Feniks had docked at Gouda by then. We headed to the boat on our bikes.
Everyone decided they would go back for a walk in the town. Since there would be no more biking for the day I changed into a saree. It was a charming town with cobbled streets, churches, dainty houses with small tulip gardens outside each of them. There were sculptures and benches showcasing Gouda Pottery. We walked around leisurely and got back to the boat in time for dinner. Pauline served lamb that night and a strawberry with cream dessert.
We had logged in over 45 km on the day’s biking. Thighs and bottom were sore. The Theragun massager I had carried along and a couple of Advils allowed some relief for the next day.
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