auf wiedersehen germany a new country it starts raining now we are in the netherlands
yeah i was almost forget the netherlands country number 52.
the border is there
and i found my first piece of dirt in the netherlands
and it starts raining
it's windy, it;s windy in the netherlands
I need to be careful riding with one hand
it's sandy, loose
and I got side wind
here is the netherlands
why did they pave the path in the forest?
like for bikes for fuck sake
so the main road for cars
it's a dirt road the bike lane is paved
that's insane of course now there is again the bike lane paved
I have to stay on this one because
the village where I'm going it's right ahead
it's light rain
look at that nl registration of the netherlands
a bit more dirt in the netherlands
with a little bit of rain
it's raining a little heavier
decision decision either that path or this path
I think it's this way
now the rain is a bit intense for my taste
could it have not waited like five fucking minutes
i have arrived and i'm not too wet
first day, first night and first day in the netherlands with this lovely lovely couple
they hosted me here in the lovely home this is the back but it is a lovely home
and they cooked german dinner sorry dutch dinner yeah and we also try dutch
breakfast what's the name of the chocolate thing
traditional dutch breakfast and now it's time to hit the road
and get to the city thank you so much for having me i'm very grateful - thank you for your
company - i'll see you on the road
yeah i'm leaving very late today it's 20 past 2
because it was raining and was very windy and i was waiting for the at least the rain to stop
for a few days but tomorrow it should be very windy they expect winds up to 120 kilometers
per hour so today i'm gonna get to the city and i have 50 kilometers to cycle
so even though it's late it's okay
a lot of side wind
I'm partially sheltered from the wind
the wind is coming from that direction, mostly
headwind but sideways
and this forest is sheltering me
i'm a bit sad
because I had a nice route into Groningen
with lots of dirt
but the combination and very wet sand like very swampy terrain
doesn't allow me to stay on dirt it's too hard on my knee
I have to stay basically on paved roads
now the forest is over I need to turn left
so straight into the wind
yeah left into the wind
not into the wild, into the wind
my host this morning said to me:
this is an area where there is little wind
this is an exceptional occurrence
yeah why everywhere I turn there windmills?
I got to Groningen
it's raining a little bit
good morning from assen yeah you know valentino rossi always said that assen
is the university of the motorbikes oh okay yeah i think assen thinks from valentino rossi that as well
yeah he's very popular but this is Ruud hi and he's my warmshower host with his wife
and his son lovely family so i'm leaving assen very very nice stay thank you so much i'm always
grateful to all my warmshower hosts because yesterday was raining and i was warm inside
and but today it's kind of sunny which is really strange for the netherlands
in this period yeah but thank you so much and hopefully i'll see you in italy or the road
yeah have a good race i wish you all the luck and success with your big journey let's go on the road
look at the water on the canal it's basically at the same level of the road
i'm leaving Assen got here yesterday but i didn't
actually documented anything yesterday it was pissing raining it was wet and miserable
terrible terrible day
i'm doing very short days because of my knee yesterday it gave me
some troubles again today i'm doing about 60 kilometers it's probably a bit too much for
the situation of my knee but hopefully i can do maybe 30 40 kilometers and stop for one hour
if I find a place sheltered from the wind
and then do the remaining 30 kilometers
we'll see how it goes i don't know just taking it day by day i'm still grateful that i can still do
a few hours of cycling and i can bend my knee yeah it's a bit depressing but what can you do?
I'm still alive
I'm still cycling around the world
instead of doing 140Km per day. I do 40
it's still something
i'm still privileged and i'm still able to do what i love so yeah i shouldn't really complain
and with this weather I actually i enjoy the short days
i'm very lucky that i find so many hosts but in these villages
yeah it's very much populated the netherlands
even if you don't have a host you can always ask someone to camp in their garage
I mean it's not a big deal or a church or firefighters
quite easy, quite easy travelling
yeah so let's enjoy the ride today and see it's basically
all paved road because
it rained so much it is impossible for me to do the dirt roads at the moment
i just don't wanna aggravate the situation
netherlands there is water everywhere
it's gonna be sunny this morning and then two days again with lots of rain and then
it should be cloudy slash sunny for a week i think
only maybe one day rain
we'll see let's enjoy the sun
for a while anyway
it's really nice but as you can see it's water everywhere
terrible it's closing down
that was quick actually pretty quick
i'm following the two grannies i think they are taking me straight to mickey D's
look at these houses everybody has their own little pier on the canal
sweet sweet
ah the grannies are not going to mickey D's but i am i need to kill some time
before my host gets home
and at mickey D's i can crash there for hours and nobody tells me anything
the sunny day is coming to an end
there will be another two days of pissing rain
tired of this fucking winter in northern europe
I think I've arrived at my host
see you tomorrow
you