Netherlands

Self-supported bicycle trip in

The Netherlands - 2023

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Day 5 - Sunday

We bicycled 32.75 miles today from Dordrecht to Zaltbommel

Today's theme was castles and ferries.

We both slept a little later today, enjoying the peaceful quiet of a Sunday morning and the hotel's extended hours for breakfast (from 8:00 to noon). We had altered our planned route by eliminating most of the miles in the National Park (the Biesbosch). We did this partly because we think a 42-mile day was too much for us today and also because the weather forecast called for rain showers in the afternoon, particularly in the regions south of the Waal River. Instead, we stuck to a route that more or less follows the Merwede and Waal Rivers to Zaltbommel.

We left Dordrecht cycling along the Nieuwe Merwerde, and about five miles into the day's ride we caught a ferry across the river. The total fare (for both of us and our bicycles) was only 2 Euro. That seemed to be a lot less than what I had read on the website for the ferry company, but I didn't think much about it, figuring I had remembered incorrectly.

We were riding mostly along the top of the dike, with farm fields on either side of us. We have been seeing a lot of farm animals, and that was true today, too. Sheep, cattle, horses, and even some water buffalo were grazing in the fields along with lots of ducks, geese and swans. We were riding in the northern tip of the Biesbosch National Park, a wetlands area of this region. We had seen several cyclists on the ferry, but when we debarked on the east side of the Nieuwe Merwerde, most of them headed the opposite direction (to the south), and we rode north.

It was smooth riding. The trail surface was asphalt or, in places, paving stones, but all nicely maintained. The weather was sunny and warm - in fact, both of us had made wardrobe adjustments before we even got to the ferry because we were too warm. I shed my jacket, and Steve removed his long tights in favor of riding in bicycle shorts. Though the sky was dark to our south, it was a long time before we felt any raindrops.

The air is perfumed with the fragrance of spirea and chestnut trees right now since both are in bloom. Lilacs are blooming, too, but I haven't caught a whiff of them.

When we reached the town of Werkendam, the channel to our left changed names to the Bogen Merwede, and we continued to follow its course. We paused briefly at a bus stop so I could have an energy bar. My legs were feeling tired from the last couple of days' riding (mostly because I didn't get in all the miles of conditioning that I should have.)

When we reached Woudrichem, we planned to catch a small ferry across the Waalhaven, a sort of branch of the Waal River, but we first sought out a cafe for a beverage and restroom break. We found a neat little place, Brasserie Zus, on Arsensaal (a street named for the old arsenal in which the cafe is housed.) We ordered coffee, some water, and some toasts (small sandwiches - except they weren't that small), and the waitress threw in a couple sample pieces of pecan pie. It was already around 2 pm, so it was late for lunch but perfect timing for our energy levels.

After our break, we cycled through the village to the Voetfietsveer Boven t'Gat (the pedestrian and cyclist ferry at Boven t'Gat.) It was a small ferry that easily accommodated the two of us, our bicycles, the ferryman and a couple of young girls. It was really a simple motor boat (with a Yamaha outboard motor), but the crossing probably took only 2 minutes. While the sign at the boarding point said that it cost Euro 1.80 per adult, the ferryman changed us only one Euro for both of us. We asked about that, and his response was that it was a special rate. "Why is it special today?" Steve asked. "Ferry days!" the boatman replied, and then we looked at a poster on the boat which announced that the rates were less than half price on May 5, 6 & 7th.

From the ferry landing on the other side, we bicycled off toward Slot Loevenstein, a castle built in 1358 at the juncture of the Waal and Maas Rivers. We weren't much interested in touring the castle, but we took several photos of it and the surroundings. It is one of Holland's best known moated castles and served as a state prison during the 17th century.

On the trail just before we reached the castle, we had noticed a small sign explaining the history of a Royal Air Force crew who crash landed in the area in WWII while on a mission. They were captured and initially detained at Slot Loevenstein and then later sent to prison camps. Fortunately, all of them survived the war, and the sign was placed at that location with the support of their families and the local people.

From the castle, we had planned to catch another ferrry to cross the Waal and see Fort Vuren, but the ferry schedule meant we would have had to wait for another hour, and we were ready to move on. Instead, we figured out an alternate route from our current location to our end spot for the night in Zaltbommel, and off we went.

About the time we rolled into Brakel, another little town along the Waal, the raindrops had started falling and we paused briefly to put on rain jackets. We continued cycling along the top of a levee and passed a piece of art known as "De Dijker." It is a scale model of a bulldozer - made from concrete and granite. It was created in by Joris Baudoin and placed there in 1997 to acknowlege the workers who constructed the region's dike system to protect the lowlands against the rising water.

At Zaltbommel, we cycled through the town, found our hotel and checked in. We did a little laundry and then went downstairs for dinner. We had to be a little creative to find a way to string the clothesline in our room, so I hope that if we have to get up during the night neither of us forgets about the obstacle course we have to navigate to reach the bathroom.

The hotel's restaurant proved to have some tasty choices - Steve ordered the "senior portion" of a pork schnitzel, and I had roasted guinea fowl. Both came with some roasted vegetables - mine also had one bitterballen - an bite-sized piece of deep-fried breaded risotto with bits of truffle.

Tomorrow's route takes us from Zaltbommel to Nijmegen, a planned route of about 35 miles.