Day 34: Roosendaal to Biesbosch

September 12, 2024

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We had worked up the courage to pay 15 euros each for breakfast at the hotel this morning, but when I got downstairs and saw the very meagre offering, I pulled the plug, going back up to tell Dodie that the plan was off. This is quite unusual for us, since I am usually the one that wants the treat, regardless of cost.

Fortunately, we found an open bakery right across the street. It turned out to be the only open anything in Roosendaal before 8 a.m. The bakery stuff was good quality as well, though even there we are finding costs as much as double those of France.

These breads are good, but not fancy, typical of Holland. Dodie was impressed that the bakery had a poster on the wall tracing its lineage to the late 1800's.

By the bakery was a main square or intersection of Roosendaal. It is remarkable for its low key appeal and also the fact that there are no cars visible in or near it at all.

Leaving the bakery area, I took this shot from the middle of the road. There are two cars in the photo, bu they are parked!

By contrast, here now at the train station, this is the bicycle scene. To be fair, all these cycles are parked as well. (p.s. I wonder if the fallen down bikes just fell down or if they are long abandoned. If so, they would be fair game for anyone with a nipper.)

My impression that Roosendaal was just a very quiet small town got blwon away as we pedalled just outside of town. There we encountered a huge windowless building occupying something like a city block. I took the photo below, but then looking back I saw that this was a distribution center of "Primark", which is a large clothing retailer headquartered in Ireland. That one building was impressive enough, but we soon saw that we were in a "farm" of them, all huge and windowless. There was Lidl, Albert Reijn, and many others. It was clear then what the source of employment for Roosendaal would be, although admittedly no people or even many cars were to be seen around these buildings. There was, to be sure, a smattering of trucks at the loading bays.

No windows, and lots bigger than what you see in this photo.

Any lingering doubts about the industrial power of Netherlands would be wiped out as our route crossed essentially the Rhine, paralleling the A16 as it headed for Dordrecht and Rotterdam. The A16 was a continuous stream of fast moving transport trucks, reminding me of I5 or I90 in the States, but with more trucks than cars.

We were sure glad that Netherlands provided this totally safe bikeway on the A16 Rhine bridge. It's a combination of industrial might with consideration for the feeble cyclist.

We were able to get away from the A16, and to enjoy paths like the one below, and many other pleasant cycleways. One thing on the downside it that it remained chilly, at about 12 degrees, and also prone to torrential downpours. Today again we started out in full rain gear, and found ourselves one time again sheltering under a tree from heavy rain and hail.

A year ago, Dodie had spotted the existence of the Biesbosch National Park, which is a wetland that I might describe as part of the Rhine delta. Biesbosch was high on the agenda last year, but had to get cancelled out as our plans changed then. With us coming around again, Biesbosch was sure to be inked back in. We had an image of it as a haven of exotic (to us) birds, and maybe it will be.

The heart of the park is reached by a ferry from the Dordrecht side. You can see in the photo what an interesting marine area this is:

We had unsuccessfully tried to figure out the ferry schedule the night before, but we struck it lucky and just got to immediately roll on. We enjoyed seeing other cyclists on the same mission as us.

We mostly don't know what they are talking about.

"hier sta ik" means we are now perched on that island in the middle of (to us) nowhere.

Our first step was to go to the Biesbosch eco museum, to see if we could find more information about the park. Reasonably, perhaps, they would not let us bring our bikes inside and did not have a secure lockup or lockers or anything like that. They also had an 11 euro admission fee, which combined was enough to turn us off.

The eco museum is hard to spot, because it is so eco.

A pile of people is getting ready to cycle around the Biesbosch on rented bikes.

We cycled happily along to our hotel, which uniquely is right in the park. We were very early, and so took the opportunity of going over some of the bits on our bikes that had suffered in the 1500 km since Boubiers. We checked for wear, tightened, cleaned, and lubed our chains, and significantly worked on tightening the brakes. With brakes, it's not just the matter of twisting the adjuster, but the whole song and dance with Magura rim brakes of fiddling the clamp that holds the cylinder near the rim.

I was reasonably successful with three of the four brakes, but with Dodie's rear brake, though the pads were moved near to the rim and though the twist adjuster was all the way in, the braked remained mushy and not giving much power though squeezing the lever all the way. All I can think of is to check the fluid, for which we need a bike shop...

Along the way today we again passed various wetlands, or at least wet fields. There did not seem to be much new in them, in terms of birds, or especially ducks. But there was this:

There were also lots of ducks, mostly or all Mallards. Mallards seem to have lots of variations. For example the duck below does not have a green or blue head, but is probably still a Mallard.

Today we passed very closed to Dordrecht, and we are close enough to see lots of road signs for Rotterdam. Just as passing by Thiepval makes us think of "Letter to Marie", passing near Rotterdam makes us think of "The Dutchman" as sung by Steve Goodman. The older we get, the more poignant it seems.

Today's ride: 60 km (37 miles)
Total: 1,544 km (959 miles)

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Suzanne GibsonSorry you're having such terrible weather. So cold!
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3 months ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Suzanne GibsonBelieve me, you're not half as sorry as we are. Nevertheless, we have warm clothing and try to keep a positive attitude. We ARE still having fun.
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3 months ago

Karen PoretYep! Fun on bike beats butt on barge any day!
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3 months ago