Fighting against windmills and jetlag

Our first flight to Abu Dhabi was quite comfortable and passed by quickly even though it took us nearly 14 hours. The entertainment program on board made it possible. 😉 The second flight was pretty tough: Our legs were already pretty swollen and we didn’t really know anymore how to sit, even sleeping was impossible. Therefore we were extremely glad when we finally arrived in Amsterdam and could leave the plane.

Abu Dhabi

Unfortunately, it took some time until our luggage appeared which was bad as we were already exhausted. Quickly we assembled our bicycles, put on some more clothes (whoa, it’s cold in Europe!) and started cycling in misty weather. But even that couldn’t break Alexandra’s spirit: Finally she was surrounded by European buildings again! 🙂

Ready to go!

Quite confused and very exhausted we arrived at the place of our warmshowers hosts Jan and Cootje. They welcomed us with some hot tea and coffee and after a comforting hot shower they served some nice local dinner.
When Alexandra was almost falling asleep at the dinner table we fell tired into our beds. By the way, during the night we could get rid of the water in our legs. 😉

During the excellent breakfast the next morning we finally could really enjoy the conversations with our hosts: They were around 70 years old and had started travelling by bicycle just about twelve years ago. Since then they have already travelled through New Zealand, the USA, Morrocco and Asia. Fascinating! That’s how we would like to be later on as well! 🙂

at the breakfast table with Cootje and Jan

Thanks again for your hospitality! 🙂

After we had said goodbye we cycled along a cycling path which was very nice as it lead through pretty villages with old houses, such as Gouda where Alexandra nearly bought some cheese. 😉

Furthermore, we cycling past Kinderdijk where most of the old windmills are standing. Pretty bizarre place!

Unfortunately, the cycling path made some detours and was closed at some point. That is why our planned 74 km quickly turned into 96 km. When we finally arrived at the cheapest hotel in Dordrecht we were once again completely exhausted. We had to admit that the jetlag was seemingly worse than we had thought…

Dordrecht

too late…