No hills, windmills, dikes, and bikes!

Monday, 7/25

When we woke this morning we were ecstatic to see blue through our skylight, which was still amid high striated clouds, but no sign of rain in the near future! The animals were singing a chorus of contented clucks and whinnies as Greg and I consumed another legendary breakfast (this time Hannie had noticed we didn't eat the meat from yesterday, so she left that out and replaced it with additional fresh boiled eggs!) I was chomping at the bit to get out the door and explore. We threw some sandwiches and some of Hannie's plums in our day pack and by 11 we were on our bikes and riding along the dike. Riding bikes here is really easy, bike lanes are everywhere and the land is so flat, there are virtually no hills. About a kilometer down the road from our B and B was a ferry station, where we were able to cross over to the other side of the river Lek. After we crossed over we biked past a variety of adorable small towns with a great variety of thatched roof houses. Greg found signs leading to a bike path that took us over cute old bridges and through pastures and past farms that led to a row of old fashioned windmills. Hannie had schooled us before we left this morning on windmills. She told us, "You will see many windmills. Some will have the wooden shoes and bikes out front. Not all of these are for tourists because people do actually live in them." Sure enough, we could see row boats docked up, laundry strung out to dry, lawn furniture, plenty of evidence that some of these windmills were residences. We did find one on Kinderdijk that was clearly labeled as a tourist sight, complete with ticket booth, and got to go inside and climb up the the many steep ladder like stairs to the top where the cogs and wheels were housed. Parts of the windmill were preserved inside to show how people long ago lived in them. Greg and I wondered how modern owners had renovated these to make them liveable. We sat near the mill to have our sandwiches and watched the proprietors attach the fabric sails to the blades of the windmill and the wind set it into motion. Lunch and a show! Back on the bikes, we made our way back across the river. When we crossed over and looked at the mile markers, we realized we were about 10 kilometer from home. This could have been a pretty quick ride back, but every 2 minutes there was another photo worthy sight. We were constantly hoping off our bikes to take a picture of that cow, or this house, or that garden! Towns with ding-donging churches, an ancient looking watch tower, charming homes and gardens, more goats, ponies, even some deer, were our distractions on the ride back. About an hour after crossing the river we finally coasted down our driveway. We had been on and off the bikes for about four hours so we needed a little rest, followed by figuring out our train/ bus schedule for tomorrow. A dinner of leftover Chinese take-out supplemented by instant noodles, plus trying to snack our way through some of the remaining groceries before we depart tomorrow, will hopefully fuel us enough to pack. It will be hard to leave since we've been so well taken care of by Hannie. Truthfully, we've had countless gracious hosts so far on this journey. Tomorrow, on to Belgium to meet another hostess with great reviews.