The Big Bike Year

Well sportsfans, I write this in the rec room of a gorgeous little camping spot we found today - which means, yes, Mustang Sally is back (let's see how it all goes tonight)! We had a magical day today with our t-shirts finally seeing the light of day, and tail winds giving us an enormous lift on our 45km ride.  I'm a little dulled as I write by the glorious sunshine we've had, the wonderful scenery, and the fact we just came back from an after dinner walk where we saw a crane building his nest on top of the neighbour's chimney.  But before I can talk too much more of our best day so far on the bike, I need to return to yesterday. Yesterday.   Yesterday morning we left our little local hotel (where Mike wrote the last blog post from) in a light drizzle.  We had 30km to get to Enkhuizen, a harbour town where we had to get the ferry over to Friesland, and of course it rained all the way.  All the way. We arrived soaked through - but never fear, we were lucky enough...

Our usual reporter is chilling tonight, so it's my turn to try and make sense of this crazy journey!  Before I tell the tale, let me update you on things from my perspective.  They are going GREAT!  It's amazing.. it's been confronting and intense, but also it feels like the fields here, just an enormous expanse where we can go and do whatever we want! So, we left you last time in Delft, where we headed north to our old stomping ground (from 2 years ago) Leiden.  We had a great tail wind, and made easy work of it, arriving in time to have lunch at our old haunt. The sun was shining and with the wind at our backs we decided to keep going, and rode another 15k to the town of Lisse. The weather started to turn and we grabbed a cheap hotel, across the road from the Keukenhof gardens, a highlight from our last trip. As expected, this year we were too late for tulip season, otherwise I doubt this hotel would have been on our menu!! The next day was a very relaxed 18k into ...

So, it's been one week we've been on the bike.  One week (well technically one week and one day).  I can't believe it.  230km, two rest days, fab food, a guest appearance by the tick (and luckily no sign of Lyme disease), a love hate relationship with Sally, an abuse of Codral and cough lollies, crazy weather, amazing scenery, and we're actually finding our cycling rhythm.   We're currently holed up in a cute hotel on a canal in Delft - I finally hit my edge yesterday in the pouring rain coughing up a lung by the side of a glorious canal and the cutest houses ever, so it was decided we'd take 2 nights and a rest day in Delft.  Woohooo!!  And I am lying on my comfy bed with a view over another gorgeous canal resting after checking out the Royal Delft Museum (you know, the beautiful blue and white Delft ceramics).  I just got Mike to shoot me through some pics so I could include them, and I can't believe all the action over the last two days.  The l...