Two 100+ kilometre rides in 3 days.. yes folks, hippy has gone mad(der). I don’t know why but just recently I’ve become a little bored with stopping in towns, unpacking and walking aroung on foot exploring or hitting up a pub or “coffee” shop or whatever.

I’ve been really getting into pushing the GT across the country. With the (generally) fantastic bike path signage in The Netherlands I’ve not been using a map while riding – I just look at a map the night before to find a town I think I can make in a day and then head in that general direction. This has worked quite well so far. I still get lost, but the sheer number of bike path signs means quick directional recovery.

Bergen op Zoom to Breda

I had planned to leave Bergen Op Zoom and head straight to Rotterdam, but I didn’t leave the hotel until lunchtime and then spent an hour or so on the phone (totally eliminating Tam’s food budget for the week – know you know why she’s so skinny ;P) before finally ‘getting down to business’.

So this ride was only a short 54 kays because I wanted to get accomodation sorted earlier rather than later and Breda looked pretty nice to explore on foot.

My legs took about two hours to warm up as well – yesterday obviously worked them over.

I explored town. It was nice. I threw some coins to the cool bongo drumming guys in one of the main shopping streets – I like drumming.

I chilled out in the Grote Markt square enjoying the music that was pumping out of a second-story window as well as the icecream I could finally buy after finding some cash machines.

I stayed in “Singel Pension” just outside Breda’s centre. Initially I had the larger, cooler, more expensive (37euro) room but just as I’d paid a booking was cancelled so I changed to the smaller, warmer, cheaper (26euro) upstairs room. This proved to be a mistake!!

The room was tiny with a foldup bed to make more room. It had a TV and DVD player (they have a DVD collection you can raid for free) and a desk but with the bed down there wasn’t much room. This was a non-issue for me – I was only sleeping there. What the problem proved to be was the heat. It was STIFFLING in this room!!! I had the window opened to the fullest extend (5cm) and the door open but there was no breeze coming in!

I was sweating like a maniac and resorting to standing on the footpath to feel the breeze or pouring water over my head in a futile attempt to cool down. It was insanely hot! I think I lost about 5kg that night. If you ever stay here in the summer – pay the extra and stay downstairs!!!!!

I finally slept and the next morning enjoyed a nice breakfast and chat with the owner, a friendly woman who gave me a good route.. to explore castle-rich area around “Heusden (vesting)” – “land van Altena” I think the area was named.

BERGEN OP ZOOM to BREDA STATS:

54k, 3h 02m, 17.8kph

Breda to Zaltbommel to Den Bosch to Utrecht

7 hours and 5 minutes riding to get to Utrecht.

Breda to Oosterhout was a pretty canal path. I got all screwed up in town here though and did quite a few double-backs before giving up on the Heusden (vesting) idea.

I’m really starting to enjoy the riding much more than the walking around towns thing anyway so I didn’t mind ‘just riding’.

Made it to “Den Bosch”, the shortened version of the area’s capital city “‘s Hertogenbosch”. This is where the Bosch Ball comes from. Pastry ball filled with whipped cream type stuff and covered in chocolate sauce 🙂 Mmm..

I took a wrong turn here, apparently, because when I stopped at a pub outside Empel for water (free again, thanks dudes!) and asked directions they laughed at me. There was a guy from Sydney in there! It’s totally amazing where you find Aussies! Sorted out a route that didn’t involve returning to Den Bosch. Instead, I continued along the road I was on and took a 50c barge ride across the river, found the road-a-bout Sydney-dude had mentioned and took the road to “Zaltbommel”.

Zaltbommel then had cyclepath signs to Utrecht (about 42k to go).

Sydney-guy mentioned that it was easy to get cash-in-hand work along the river. I swore when I left Mildura I’d never pick fruit again, but if it lets me stay over here longer.. 🙂

Oh yeah, outside Empel I saw a helicopter that looked like a frickin’ Apache gunship. I hid under a tree until it was gone, hoping he didn’t have his IR gear turned on 🙂

It was about 3 or 4pm and I’d been riding almost non-stop since 10am and I was yet to have a piss, even though I’d had 6 bidons of water! :S

I stopped a couple more times for an ice slushy drink and another drink and to ask for directions. I finally had a piss. Mmm.. SUPER YELLOW URINE! The bike path signs become hard to follow in towns so I had to ask locals for directions again. I caught another barge across another river or canal for 60c and continued to Utrecht.

Rode through town and took a while to locate one hostel. It was full so I headed out of town towards the other one “B&B Utrecht” (thanks Lonely Planet). I arrived here at 8pm – a rather long day, you could say.

B&B Utrecht is the strangest hostel I’ve seen thus far. You can stay here for free if you work 4hrs/day! There was an older Aussie guy, Peter, who was studying or lecturing at the university. I was obviously looking a little wrecked because everyone rushed around to offer me food and drinks. I then found out the food and stuff was free, all day! I told you it was strange!

Locked my bike up out the back and picked the matress on the floor as my own. The place is pretty much “-1 Stars” as Peter said, but it’s only 14euro/night with free food and free internet. It’s run by an ‘interesting’ woman who is attuned to student/budget traveller needs. She makes daily deliveries of food to her various Utrecht hostels and even buys beer and fans for the residents when it’s hot! Did I mention this place is a little crazy?

Um.. anyway, I’ve been here two nights and I’ve not even made it into town yet! Well, Chris (a pommie GAP-year dude who’s “working” here for his bed) and I went out last night but I don’t remember much of that anyway and that’s about it. It’s VERY relaxed around here. This may be simply the nature of the residents it attracts or it could be the copious amounts of beer and weed around here?

There is a chick here doing an internship in hospitality. She will certainly have some interesting experience here!

Oh, there was some soccer match win the night I arrived and I think all the Moroccans? were going nuts, stopping their cars in the middle of the road and leaning on the horn, belting out tunes and hanging out of their windows with red flags.. it was insane.. did I mention this place was insane? Oh, and then there’s the bull-riding machine setup on Amsterdamerstraat (the main road to town from here) and the marching band that was walking down the road belting out some seriously loud beats.. I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned the craziness about this place or not yet? I don’t even know if I’m going to look at the town, I reckon I could stay here for quite a while.. but I should move along.. but I could just (cough) work for my rent.. and food.. and stay.. hehehe this place is like the Bermuda triangle of The Netherlands, trapping tightass tourists from around the world..

Breda to Zaltbommel to Den Bosch to Utrecht STATS:

136.66k (it was a devil of a ride), 7h:05m, 20kph, 10am-8pm