Day 3 - Middelburg - Ossendrecht (Leiden -> Venlo trip)

Bicycle: 85 km

Riding time: 4:45 h
Total ascent: 186 m
Avg speed: 18 km/h
Route: Middelburg - Ossendrecht
Weather: Clouds and sun and a strong tailwind,  20 C

Finally tailwind! And sun! 

After two days struggling against a fierce onslaught of headwind, today was time to sail in front of a (slightly less strong) tailwind over land from Middelburg to a village in the South of Bergen op Zoom. 

My plan was to follow the coastal LF route down to Middelburg and then the LF 13 route to Venlo. And while in the first two days I hardly used the coastal route (wind would have been even worse and the ferry from Hoek van Holland was very infrequent) from today I started following LF 13. It is a well indicated route, although I followed my garmin. 

Clearly strong winds are often expected here as there were many streets protected by alleys: 

Not for the only time in this trip, I came by some remains or memorials of the 2nd World War: 

Although today was the longest ride in this 1 week ride from Leiden to Venlo (I am writing this post actually sitting already on Day 6 in Venlo in my B&B), it was also the fastest average speed. Surely this was helped by the strong tailwind which blew me over land and along the sea away from Middelburg and right into Ossendrecht. 

The route was following for a long while the coast on the outer side of the damm. 

But there were also two channels crossing what must have been a peninsula but were severed by these channels. 

I also came by some white poppy fields, poppy seeds for cakes??? 

And these sheeps who had to cohabitate with a lot of abandoned onions that were apparently dumped on their pasture. The sheep very clearly had not interest in eating the onions. 

And finally I arrived at my first convent-hotel of this trip. Although this was the longest day in the saddle, I would say it was not the day I was most fatigued. Probably it helped that the day before I essentially had a rest day and that the wind was a reliable tailwind for nearly the entire ride.