Border crossing... wait where?

Saturday September 11, 2010


Domburg, Netherlands to Dudzele, Belgium (80k).

This morning we arose from our chamber in the castle, ate another delicious Stayokay breakfast, and boxed our complementary afternoon breakfast as usual... We then headed out, backtracking over our route from yesterday back to Vlissingen and took a20-minute ferry across the bay (which surprisingly was free today!!) where we easily conected up with the bike route and headed south toward Belgium. The weather today was very pleasant, sunny and mild, and despite a strong headwind we covered ground faster today because our navigation skills are steadily improving. We worked out a system where we write down a list of all our intersection numbers in order, then McKayla keeps us posted as to what we're looking for as we ride along (amie is usually otb and therefore catches the signs Erin and McKayla miss). We took a break in Sluis, a cute little bike friendly town just outside the Belgium border. We ate our boxed afternoon breakfast in the town center and bought groceries all the while wadling around clutching our bladders because we are too cheap to pay 50 cents to go to the bathroom when we can pee for free on the side of the road. Thirty kilometers later, we made it to Dudzele where we finally bought fuel for our fuel bottle(straight out of a gas station pump) and successfuly managed to live up to our unneccessary extra 10k hostel searching routine (yesterday we were bicycling up a sandy beach path in search of our unmarked castle and we were actually not that far off). Upon arrival, we cooked the most amazing dinner of whole weat pasta with zucchini, spinach, peppers, onion, tomato sauce, cheese, and various spices along with a bottle of wine (yes we ate it all and the entire meal only cost us 10 euro!). We finished it off with european tea cookies dipped generously in Nutella (thank you grandma corso for the nutella). The hostel has free wi-fi which is AWESOME (because nothing is free in Europe), so we made some phone calls home and have uploaded pictures onto the internet for your viewing pleasure: http://picasaweb.google.com/111756067304857775012/TheNetherlands?feat=directlink



Tomorrow we're going to head into Brugge to explore and perhaps do some errands, and then hopefully bike a bit of a short day to another hostel down the coast of Belgium.

WHAT WE'VE LEARNED SO FAR:

1) they are so trustworthy that no one checks to see that you actually paid for your train ticket in the Netherlands... everybody must be very honest ...

2) don't book a hostel online, it's costs 2 euro and you can't cancel, but if you call to reserve only, it's free and you can cancel

3)write down route intersection numbers, DON'T pull off to look at the map every 2k

4) Free WI-FI is there if you look (McDonalds, for example, all have free wifi in the Netherlands)

5) DON'T FOLLOW THE "Red signs" - white signs with red writing and bicycle pictures, probably meant for cars, and all full of shit.

6) Free breakfast = free breakfast and complementary lunch.

7) skype calls are 2.3 cents per minute, anywhere

8) McKayla and Erin were in the same second grade class...the class sang "my heart will go on" for the librarian and she cried because the class was so good

9) Unclip both peddles when looking at maps... erin....

10) "Donkya" means "thank you" in Dutch, but in French means "up your ass"
 
Quote of the day:
The best routes are the ones you haven't ridden. You could pedal the same loops year after year. Many people do, literally or figuratively. But to grow, you need new rides. Risks. Turn down lanes you've long seen but never traveled. Get lost once or twice, then double back to where you started and try again.
Live like this and you come to see unknown territory not as threatening, but as intriguing.
-Mark Remy, Bicycling Magazine 9/01