A long way to Dalfsen: We really didn't mean to go that far

August 22, 2015

We learnt a lot about our GPS today. I had bought a Garmin Touring Plus loaded with European Cycle Maps and had been feeling pretty happy with it. That was until today - we set it on what looked like our first point on today's route, well it got us there but not without first doing an extensive tour of the uglier and industrial parts of Emmen. In the end it got us to the next point but after that it gave up altogether, it seems it doesn't recognise smaller places. Signage proved to be extremely poor so goodness knows where we went but it was a long way. Then I remembered I had our old Garmin Etrex with us. It knows nothing about cycle tracks but at least it knew the places we wanted to go. Ken fixed the attachment back on my bike and we were saved from being lost for ever. Arriving in Dalfsen the Touring Plus once more came to our rescue and found us this hotel which is a fair way our of town - I think it must have been feeling embarrassed about its previous failures. When we got here we had done 91 km (it should have been about 70). The hotel was well out of town and we had no supplies at all for tomorrow Sunday so we set off to remedy that and by the time the wheels had stopped we had done 97km and I feel good if a little tired.

After that huge amount of moaning you might imagine we had a pretty awful day but actually it was great. We stopped for coffee at the dear little village of Dalen and were befriended by a woman of about our age who was obviously a keep cycle tourist. Not only was she interested in what we were doing but she told us how she had recently ridden to Amsterdam. She has three bikes the one she was riding today to get the supplies at the bakery, a racing bike and an ebike. It was on this that she rode to Amsterdam and she says she just loves it for long distance cycling, on the way to Amsterdam one day she rode 150 km and another 190km. Seems to me an awfully long way in a day to me.

Today was a lovely warm Saturday and all the Dutch seemed to be out having fun. There were lots of boats on the canals, the camping grounds looked full and great groups were out cycling. Ken again had lots of success on the tractor front. He was admiring a John Deere on the side of the road when a man beckoned him into a big shed. He was a collector of John Deeres and so the two tractor enthusiasts had an enjoyable 15 minutes or so

We are seeing so many windmills we have almost stopped photographing them. If you look carefully you will see this one is thatched

This is 1953 model R 2 cylinder diesel, the first diesel tractor made by John Deere

A lot of the cycle ways and small roads are made of brick - they look pretty but are a bit bumpy

There aren't enough of these, there always seems to be a vital one missing

Today's ride: 97 km (60 miles)
Total: 960 km (596 miles)

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