Bunde to Ohe en Laak

June 16, 2024

We have had a great experience staying with our Vrienden op de Fiets host Beppie at her home. We had wonderful visits with her and she also gave us the space to relax. Our room is massive, very comfortable and the “cherry on top” was a superb breakfast.

She thought of everything and set it up so beautifully. We feel honoured to be treated so well by someone we have just met.

What a spacious room she gave us with room to relax, a frig and a kettle for tea and a coffee maker.

What a lovely woman and a great sense of humour. We managed to have some good conversations despite language barriers. Thank you for your warm hospitality.

Along came this woman with three dogs, two of whom were instantly wanting a cuddle. The third one at the front is quite nervous of strangers. All of these dogs are rescues from bad situations.

This woman has fostered rescue dogs for a long time. She told us that she no longer fosters as these three dogs continue to be vulnerable and she feels they need to stay together. So she decided to keep them as her own pets. It looks like it has been a good solution.

The dog on the left is very nervous of strangers and we were advised to keep our distance. It was rescued from Romania where some idiot threw it, while still a very young puppy, into a garbage bin. The mother couldn’t reach it but she stayed close outside the bin.

It is Old Timers Club today and locals will be gathering here and going on a tour today.

The car is a Salmson. Don’t know this car, but it is a beauty.

This Chow watched me from the Art Gallery where his owner works. There is nothing like a Chow with its beautiful coat on a husky frame, its fan like tail, sunken dark eyes and a black tongue. Love the relaxed rear leg that seems to be a balancing feature. A character.

The Chow is finally outside ready for a walk…what a beauty.

Another family celebrating the Secondary School graduate in their family.

Our ride since Maastricht has been rich with old manors and castles. This one is quite beautiful and has a moat surrounding it with ducks and water lilies

We are loving our ride today, particularly because we have so missed having Seavo to ride.

We are seeing so many working horses on our ride.

A peloton of happy folk out for a Sunday ride.

We shudder when we see tress like these ahead, which are full of the parasite mistletoe. It is so sad to see trees which have been stripped of all greenery and dying as a result.

Loved the way they decorated this home with old tools and wooden shoes.

The sheep are quite happy in this village. But once we stopped to have a look, they all came running. Oops!

Hello there you beauty. I have affection to give but no food, sorry.

We can’t imagine this type of road being possible in Canada. It is basically a one lane road - for two lanes of cars including designation for bikes. Perhaps it works here because usually we see more bikes than cars, plus bicycles are a valued part of the culture here. Somehow the cars and bikes coexist in harmony.

We don’t know the significance of this rodent by the road, but we liked it.

This is Holland for us…..beautiful flowers and bikes.

We are feeling like we need to stop and perhaps get some food. We’ll see what this village offers. Meanwhile we are loving the old buildings here.

A local pub decorated for the Football (soccer) match between Holland and Poland competing in the European Cup. We’ll give this place a try.

Popeye is alive and going strong at this pub in Holland.

No lunch available, but cake and coffee will do.

Loved the burgundy coloured shutters and garage door, as well as the distinctive Dutch architecture of this home.

The striped effect of the exterior design seems to be typical of this area.

A home from 1909…a more modern take on the traditional style of homes from an earlier century.

There is so much to appreciate about this Dutch home ….the shutters, roofline, lace curtains, interesting front door and attention to detail with the painting.

Congratulations to another young person for graduating from high school.

It is a joy to cycle in Holland with so many like minded people enjoying the day on their bikes as well. All shapes and sizes… all levels of expertise come together for a ride.

We are watching them and they seem to be watching and talking about us as well.

The Dutch have it figured out….garbage pails that are positioned and angled just right for a cyclist to toss their garbage while riding by.

We are on our way to our accomodation in a small village by the lake. We can’t find any stores on google maps, so we have decided to cross the River Meuse to a larger community. All of the grocery stores were closed so our only option was to get take out omelets to go.

We could feel this coming and it rained very hard. What a cold day it is,, but we have cooked omelets for our dinner.

Thank goodness we travel with backpack rain covers to cover our seats when it rains.

Next we headed to a pub to get some brojies (sandwiches) for our lunch tomorrow. When we went into this town we thought that we were still in Holland. We couldn’t figure out why there were decorations in support of the Belgian football team as the few people in the bar were watching Holland vs Poland. When we went outside we met a couple who were excited to see that we were from Canada. We said that we love Holland very much. The couple said,” this isn’t Holland it’s Belgium!” Oops!

Liked this art piece in the shopping area.

The border between Belgium and Holland is located in the middle of the River Meuse. We hadn’t realized this until we had royally put out foot in our mouths.

The bridge over the River Meuse spans the border between Holland and Belgium. The towns on each side created this symbolic connection between the two countries with this cooperative image of support from both sides.

Celebrating the arrival of a new baby for this family…the stork has arrived.

The quality of light after a storm is quite beautiful and highlights the scene.

This area is considered to be quite beautiful with untamed beauty.

This area is known for the farms with beautiful horses.

The gate for the hiking paths and nature park.

Couldn’t resist taking a picture of these affectionate horses.

Our accomodation is situated in this beautiful area. When we chose it we had no idea what an incredible location it would be.

The rain storm has passed and the result is a lovely sunset.

Today's ride: 44 km (27 miles)
Total: 1,267 km (787 miles)

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