We are now in Rotterdam, The Netherlands second city. We have had a couple of interesting days getting here. On Thursday we headed for Schoonhoven along quiet roads ontop of the dykes. We were on the right bank and had view to our right down onto some very fertile and rich farms and a busy river on our left. This branch of the delta is calledvthe Lek and is much slower than the main Rhine. We crossed the Amsterdam Canal almost as we left and then then the Lek Canal. This latter canal was very busy and joins up with Amsterdam Canal. There is a huge amount of work going on reinforcing the dykes and expanding the canals. Navigation was a little difficult.
We met an older couple in our hotel (probably 10 years on us) who have been riding the Rhine Route, they have struggled with their route finding uptil now, we feel they would have struggled today. But it give Gilly and me hope that we could be still active in 10 years.
At the start of our journey we walked up to the soyrce of the Rhine at 2345m above sea level - tonight in Schoonhoven we will be sleeping at -2m. We have passed huge sluices controling the water level.
Schoonhoven was a great place, small canals and cobbled streets and we stayed in a fantastic B&B. We prefer the anominity of a hotels but this one has a room divorced from the main house and was great. The town was small enough to walk around. Possibly the best town/village we have stayed in.
Schoonhoven Distance 49.71 Odo 1374.6km
Today was interesting. We crossed by ferry to the left bank and followed the river on the dyke for 20 km. It is being restored and there was some heavy machinery working. We arrived at Kinderdyke and the windmills late morning. We have been there a couple of times before - the windmills were built to drain the land, they are now redundant as there is a new modern pumping station. We crossed a small branch of the delta by ferry and then caught a fast catermaran into Rotterdam. This was a 30 minute ride and was interesting sailing into the centre og Rotterdam.
Rotterdam Distance 23.77 Odo 1398.4km
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