Our first day

2 June 2011 Spokes and Lycra,

Our first day on the bike, and what a stunning day it was!! In Holland it was a public holiday (Ascension day) and most people were out and about. The brother we had been staying with left with his family for a long weekend camping holiday and we took the opportunity to start our cycle trip to Budapest. The gods were with us as the sun shone the whole day, with a light breeze mainly behind us, it was a most pleasant day for cycling. We left at 8am and after the compulsory departure photo's we were on our way. Within 45 min at Hem pond our first ferry crossing for the day, that had us near Amsterdam and with Graeme's brilliant sense of direction and the help of his GPS we managed to pass Amsterdam without getting lost. Past Amsterdam time for morning coffee and after that onwards towards Zeist. We cycled along fields with grazing cows, along the river the Vecht and de Loosdrechtse plassen (large lake) which was great as due to the beautiful weather there were boats of all shapes, sizes and colours floating on the water, it was a fantastic sight! We also cycled through some Forrest (very small but still very nice), saw windmills and wildflowers growing along side the roads, heard birds, smelled farms and just had a joyous days filling all our senses with sounds, sights and smells! After doing approx 80 km we arrived in Zeist and found without any difficulties our guest house. We have become a member of the organisation called: 'Friends of cyclists' and for a small contribution you receive a bed and breakfast. So, here we are in a beautiful home with a most hospitable and friendly hosts sitting in a comfortable and spacious room. We are about to find our way to a restaurant for dinner and will most likely crash early tonight! Breakfast will be served by 7.30am after which we ride to a place before Nijmegen. It is likely to be a shorter distance tomorrow, which is good as we need to ease into this cycling business. In summary a fabulous riding day, leaving us with sunburnt faces, arms and legs and a bit of a sore bum (hopefully that part will settle in soon I hope)! We cycled 85km today.