August 21, 2012
To Dorpin about 10km from Holland
Garrel is a lovely little town. There is nothing very old or special about it. Nearly all the buildings are fairly new and as usual around here they are red brick. People clearly take a pride in their gardens, there is lots of topiary and I would love to be there when the rhododendrons are out. One thing that made it particularly appealing to us was the Hotel Zum Post. The woman running it was about the best front woman for a hotel I have ever met and she was still exuding calm friendliness when we ate our large Spanish salads, complete with goat cheese and prosciutto in the evening. Of course our room was a haven from the heat of the day. Ken ventured out more than me but I did get as far as the ‘Ease Café’ to have one of those huge, elaborate ice-cream sundaes you see other people eating when you have a small cone. I was keen to repeat the experience but Ken assured me once was enough.
The hotel gave us breakfast at 6am so we could get away before 7am in an attempt to beat the heat. Actually I don’t think it was quite so hot today probably only about 35 degrees and lying on my bed in the early evening it feels reasonably cool and Ken tells me the temperature is down to 31.
Navigation was always going to be a challenge today as I had photocopied maps and left out one stage, we just knew that we had to head west. We did have the GPS though but the use of this is a bit difficult when you don’t know where you are going. Around 10 o’clock my brakes began to drag then both our cycle computers gave up. After a lot of fiddling to no avail Ken disconnected them so progress looked up. Then a marvelous bike shop appeared (I don’t know where it was). It had about 10 people working in the workshop, the brakes were fixed up in just a few minutes but the computers were another problem and eventually they were judged to be dead and we bought new ones. All this took a while and we watched the customers come and go including a man with nasal oxygen coming from a cylinder strapped to his back – he arrived and left by bike! I also decided to call Jane (in Australia) and as we were departing again got this wonderful txt which describes so well modern communication ‘Amazing how you can get a bike fixed, chat to someone on the other side of the world who then uses face book to get an email address for you from someone in a third country – all when you have no idea where you are!’
Eventually low and behold we were back on a map and have stopped at Dorpin which seem to be a transportation hub at the meeting of two canals and railway lines. Luckily there were cycle tracks beside to road so we avoided being squished.
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Today's ride: 72 km (45 miles)
Total: 943 km (586 miles)
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