Phew – we had no issues with getting caught last night sleeping in pretty central Rotterdam. I was a bit worried, with us being so central. We set off at 8am after a dry evening with cold temperatures (9 degrees) and a headwind for much of the day.
The route was fantastic. The whole day we were in perfectly paved paths, away from cars. We went on rural paths between farmland, along paths beside canals, on the path through Vondelpark (Amsterdam’s big Central Park), and finally with the thousands of local Dutch residents, on the city bike lanes of Amsterdam itself.
The country is incredibly well suited for biking, probably because it’s so flat. The road is ruled by bikers. Cars always yield, going so far as to anticipate when you might cross its path, and slowing down. And everyone seems to bike. There’s a continuous “ting ting” of bike bells chiming as people pass one another. Viki proclaimed that she wanted to move here (but then I reminded her that there aren’t any mountains).
It was only 70km today after our 152km day yesterday. We arrived at our hotel, right in downtown Amsterdam, around 2pm. We showered and set our devices charging and clothing drying and then went for a stroll through downtown. We went to the supermarket and got stroopwaffels and Gouda. We had some typical fries with mayo, onions, and some traditional sweet curry sauce. We walked past the national monument, the many “coffee shops” (that actually sell more nefarious intoxicants), and the souvenir and food shops littering downtown. Viki fell somewhat out of love with the city based on how geared towards drugs much of the downtown core is. “It’s so sad when it’s so pretty and there are so many bikes”.
We had tortellini with tomato mascarpone sauce for dinner, waffles with Nutella for dessert, and I had two Dutch beers “Brouwertij’tij Zatte”, a bit plain tasting, and “La Trappe Quadrupel”, a nice strong and complex beer that meets the “Trappist” designation as it is brewed by monks and one of the nine original monasteries that did so.
