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7th June; N51°19 E3°29; Oostburg, between Belgium and a windy place

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Ode to the west wind

Hit the road at 9:30AM, after having watched the flags outside the hotel with interest for some hours. After I made it to the first dyke (Brouwersdam), the wind turned out to be W and not SW, which made a difference. It was tough going as it was.

Made it eventually to Schouwen and onwards from there to Walcheren, the connection between the two islands is indeed a result of massive and impressive Dutch engineering.

Came to Middelburg in the middle of Walcheren (where else?) in time for lunch.

And made it to the ferry over to Zeeland from Vlissingen, and kept going in the general direction of Brugge.

Decided to stop in Oostburg, about 10 km from the border. Should make it to Brugge in about 1 * to 2 hours time tomorrow, as always a bit dependent upon the wind.

The bike is fine, the rider is fine. Average speed 16.9 km/h, total distance 73 km. With the wind turning north or at least not blowing force 6 from the wrong direction, it should be possible to push the average above 20.

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Type your comment here
--Name(bla at t dot com) from Country on 24.12.2005; 13:46:11 [permalink]

The road with the dangerous balls is actually the bike path over to Walcheren. It is also used for utility vehicles (for maintenance work), but closed for normal traffic.
--Inge S. Johanesson(ingesj at online dot no) from Norway on 8.6.2001; 16:02:31 [permalink]

Those balls along the side of the road (in the first picture) are pretty wild. I wonder what happens to the cars that hit those things... (Don't Dutch drivers fall asleep while driving? It looks like those things will knock out a wheel or two instead of just waking up the driver)
--James K. Lee(jamesklee at alum dot mit dot edu) from U.S.A. on 8.6.2001; 6:32:12 [permalink]

Yes indeed, the combination of the sea, a dyke and a strong wind makes bicycling a very though job!

Tomorrow no more sea or dyke but follow the canal between Sluis and Brugge. Don't forget to visit Damme! And look for the Grey Heron or the Great Crested Grebe.

Nice photographs you took.
--LuCaS(lucasvda at pandora dot be) from Belgium, Brugge on 7.6.2001; 21:59:03 [permalink]