Against the Wind!

 


We started our day by sailing two hours out of Ghent to where we crossed into the Netherlands. By 9:00 we were docked and ready to ride! Before long we were back in Belgium as we were cycling along the border. At one point we stopped to see check out the border posts. We cycled through fields and forests and marvelled at the size of their cows, they are huge!! We have had sunshine everyday but unfortunately the wind has gotten gradually stronger everyday. 

We had our first coffee stop at Boekhoute, another small and charming town. We found it interesting to see a table full of older men drinking Coca Cola rather than coffee. 

We stopped for lunch in the town of Ijzendjike.  Rikko had called ahead to let a restaurant know that we were coming and they made a delicious vegetable soup! It was a nice addition to our sandwiches. 

We continued on through the countryside and came across a tulip filed that still had a few tulips blooming. They actually “decapitate” the tulips at a certain point to preserve the bulbs. Sadly, we are about a week too late to see the fields full of tulips so we were happy to see a few. However, we have seen so many beautiful poppies growing wild in the ditches. 

We cycled up to the top of a dike and were greeted by not only an extremely strong wind but the Schelde River, which actually looked like we were at the North Sea but it was the mouth of the River that opened into the North Sea. We spotted some seals in the distance as well as our boat, the Quo Vadis, sailing to our destination. 

This part of the ride was pretty tough for those that didn’t have e-bikes. We peddled about 5 km alongside the river to the ferry terminal. We arrived at the Wester Schelde Ferry and walked our bikes onto the ferry and secured them for the sailing. It was a 20 minute ride across the 7 km River to the Harbor on the island. 

Then we cycled another 8 km to reach Middleburg and our boat. After a total of 58 km and lots of wind we were all very happy to see the Quo Vadis and our crew!

We had another delicious dinner and spent the evening socializing on the boat. Rikko had offered to take us on an evening walking tour of Middleburg but we told him to take the night off!  I plan to get to bed earlier myself! 






















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