Bicycling The Netherlands, Day 3: Zierikzee to Brielle (October 3, 2023) Wet and Windy

In June of 2020, we were all set to do a bicycle tour of the Loire Valley to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary. Unfortunately, COVID hit and we had to cancel and reschedule for September of 2021 but COVID had made a strong resurgence and we rescheduled for September of 2022. I broke my collarbone at the beginning of August and we could not bicycle but did enjoy the Alsace and Burgundy regions of France (videos: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhykU7rY16iGJ1RtJRoOx8vuNIz5HniJs&si=QclXyJTJakpMJ8Mj ). We decided to skip the Loire Valley and try a ride in the bicycling mecca of the Netherlands. Since we had a sizable credit with Discover France we booked our trip through them and their partner Tulip Cycling.

Over five days of riding we went from Bruges Belgium to Leiden Netherlands enjoying the wonderful bicycling infrastructure and scenery of the Netherlands. So many canals, windmills, beautiful towns and countryside. Our third day of riding was our longest day of riding which included rain and wind. We rode over some more sea walls (our last of the ride) and wove our way through beautiful countryside and small cities/towns until we arrived at Brielle. We really enjoyed our stay at the Poorter Hotel (best of the ride) and an amazing dinner at the De Smaeck Van Brielle.

Ride with GPS:
https://ridewithgps.com/trips/136383384

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Music
Uplifting Harmony by 2TECH-AUDIO | https://2tech-audio.bandcamp.com
Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com
Creative Commons / Attribution 3.0 Unported License (CC BY 3.0)
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US
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Video/Photo Equipment
Osmo Action (with Windslayer wind noise reduction case)
Lumix FZ80
Pixel 3a

Video editing with DaVinci Resolve 18.6 on Windows 10 https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve

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Rich and Julie
http://www.themnmoores.net

Well good morning we’re here in xer Z in the Netherlands we’re going to ride from here to BR relet is it R BR uh about 35 miles you can tell we got the rain gear on it’s misting a bit it’s supp to mist

On and off all day nice uh 20 to 30 mph winds so we uh hopefully we’ll make it yeah will uh so Julie what do you think of the trip so far oh it’s been beautiful we had two nice days unseasonably warm but with a nice breeze

Pretty easy bike trails and lots of fun so today will be the test of tests because there’s some wind with 40 mph gusts and uh Mist so but we have got every piece of rain gear on we’ve ever owned so we’re good we’re Off Well now we’re on the outskirts of xer z a nice little town we didn’t get really to explore much of it but just really quaint on the river and with the boats had a fabulous winter there nice Sunset you probably saw that in the video I put

Up yes last time so we’re on our way we’re obviously out in the countryside here and we’re going to get get some wind you must throw like a wildf flower and there’s some sunflowers in there Holly Hawks you say some other stuff that might be wild who knows now that’s what we’re smelling

They’re fertilizing the fields with a Manure yeah looks like we’re going to get some rain here just probably a p another passing shower that’s prob was supposed to be all Today Well I don’t want to sound too cocky but uh it looks like we might have just missed a kind of a major Squad there we’re going this way for a bit and then we’re going to head across there on the seaw walls but I’m hoping time we get there that’s all

Done we’re off the seaw wall there a little less wind not a ton but uh I thought from the looks I was getting we weren’t supposed to be up there but it is a cycle route according to the sign but the looks told me otherwise anyway

Now we’re down on the street for a while I’m not even sure if you’re going to hear me but uh we got quite a wind coming at us about 2 and 1 half miles and we’ll get to the seaw wall and then we’ll riding it looking back at the Ride with

GPS data for this ride we were only averaging about 5 to 6 mph riding through this flat area because of the headwinds we Had Yeah I’ve never been so happy to see the woods get out of the wind for a Bit nice part is we don’t even have to pedal or very little pedaling so nice break you know somebody’s always happy with the Weather well looks like we made it across our first seaw wall there boy it was fun for a bit but then we headed back into the wind it kind of brutal there with the rain got little lunch break here in the tunnel get out of the rain and the wind

We got about we’re about halfway so 17 1/2 miles another 17 and 1/2 to Go my God it’s the sun maybe it will clear and I see some clearing in the sky right There Well we got off course but at least we got to see the Amazon horses well we’re back on course and we got another round of rain coming so such fun you know it’s not too bad it’s in the 60s about 63 64° Fahrenheit so I bet you you’re wondering about the rain gear we’re wearing here I’ve got these uh helmet covers that we’ve had for many years we like them got them off Amazon best thing ever we’re both wearing every bad rain jackets I like mine Julie doesn’t like

Hers we got these uh fancy uh gloves from the uh Home Improvement store for ard’s waterproof working great um we’ve been riding with sandals for a long time this time we’ve gone with um lightweight neopreme diving socks and those are working really really well we have socks underneath them so sandals

Are nice so they don’t get soaked they dry off real quick I’m not wearing rain pants I got my Edie BAU Adventure series they do a good job Julie does have some G old Gander Mountain grain pants that we’ve used for years they work great too

So that’s the rain gear we’re using and it’s working real well has for years Well chocolate keeps the wheels rolling on a day like today that little that all sorts of good candy stuff over there man that’s wonderful I’d like to say we’re done with the rain but I’m looking behind me and I’m seeing seeing some more coming but sun feels Good Well this is lovely got a little wind at my back a little Sun we’re on a bike path away from traffic this is uh this is pretty much heaven for biking I guess could be a little warmer but I’ll take it Well I just looked behind us and boy it looks nice and clear back there so we’re kind of hoping that’s it a couple more miles will’ll be on the seaw wall but they’ll probably be windy but not raining at least which is always nice right Julie

Right this is the last seaw wall that we would cross during our Writing O Noticing these swans that are right there I right off the bike trail here in the little ditch nice I mean they give you an idea how close they are here’s the bike Trail well brille I think we’re right across the way there according to uh what I think we’ll find out when we turned around we saw The Honky Tonk Bar and we decided to have a beer and enjoy the beautiful view and relax after a wild day of riding so

After a nice beer we’re off to the Hotel We would return here for a wonderful dinner that Evening well here we are at our hotel been kind of a wild day 30 40 m our winds a little bit of rain all sorts of things wind at our face wind at our back great ride 38 miles a little bit further than that and a nice beer at the

End here it’s the beautiful town again just a string of beautiful towns so thanks for coming along with us and we’ll see you in next adventure we returned to the little square there and fooled around a bit and then had a wonderful dinner at the smok Von bre

This B&B was our favorite of the trip we had a really nice room and they were really friendly really enjoyed our time there O oh thank you for watching our video like it if you liked it please comment below and subscribe so you can stay current with our adventures