One of the delights of this trip has been the wildlife. We've seen many of these grey herons; I'm not enough of a birder to recognize the other birds we've seen. Squirrels here are mostly red and even the insects are new and interesting!
Rain until 2 pm made today a little less than perfect.We started shortly after breakfast even though the weather radar was predicting clearing by 10. Good thing, because it rained most of the day. Fortunately we are from the Pacific Northwest and are used to riding in the rain. Our hosts last night are experienced bike tourers, and they recommended a rest day or even two after every 3-4 days cycling. Sounds good to us!
One fun experience today was the hand operated ferry we used to cross one of many canals along our route. As we pulled up to the ferry, we saw:
These cyclists were already crossing when we arrived at the pontveer
Tim pulled the ferry back to our side of the bank but generously allowed me the fun of cranking us across. We have been picnicking lunches but went to a bar-cafe for koffie verkeerd, hot soup and tosti sandwiches today. The warm meal really lifted our spirits and the rain cleared up shortly after we resumed riding.
Today we saw crew rowers on the Amstel and the unique Utrecht red-light district, had a hard time finding our way out of Utrecht (the route is not well marked in the big cities), rode really hard to make up for lost time, and took far too long to find our B&B, but arrived in time for an afternoon concert at the Grote Kerk in Vianen. The concert featured a young organist, Satoko Okitsu, and the three young artists of the Augellin Ensemble: a mezzo soprano, a cellist and a young man on recorder. The program featured cantati by Scarlatti, J.S. Bach, Handel and Pepusch. Delightful! After a shower at our homey canal-side bed and breakfast, we walked back to the old town in a cloud of mist for a delicious dinner.
Click on the link to see the map of our rainy ride from Duivendrecht to Vianen. For dessert, here is a YouTube video of a performance by Satoko Okitsu (on harpsichord) playing Bach:
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