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. 

Day 2 - Ouddorp to Middelburg (Leiden -> Venlo trip)

Bicycle: 16 km

Bus: 42 km

Riding time: 1:20 h
Total ascent: 50 m
Avg speed: 13.0 km/h
Route: Ouddorp - Port Zelande - Middelburg
Weather: Very windy and then rain (ZW6), 16 C

The cycling photo of today is this one:

I have spent more time today sitting in my warm and cozy B&B in Middelburg watching 2017 Tour de France rides than actually on my own bicycle. But there is a (good) reason for this. 

After the strong wind yesterday, for today the wind forecast was just a slightly bit less fierce, but it also had some rain forecast to start around 13:00. Well, rain did start earlier, around 10:00 (about 40 minutes into the ride) and the wind was still extremely strong and - unfortunately - blowing in the "wrong" direction. 

My original plan was to follow the LF route along the coast, which for sure is very scenic, but I had given up on that plan already yesterday evening and instead went for the shortest route between Ouddorp and Middelburg, which would have been anyway 53 km, but after about 10 km, while struggling against the wind on top of yet an other dam, rain started. The wind was so fierce that it was even hard to get the rain gear on, the helmet toppled away and I managed to catch it only with a good sprint. 

This picture I took about halfway into the dam. It started raining right when I was at the height of that square building that one can just see on the horizon. And that was a lucky coincidence. Not because that building actually allowed for some cover, but because it is part of Port Zelande, a holiday park, which has a bus stop! 

Actually shortly after I had managed to get my rain gear on and found the bus stop (which looked like a good place to hide... until I saw that it actually didn't have any side walls (who builds such a stupidity?) the rain had stopped again, and even the sun came out peaking.

But at that moment I was cold, wet and well, the wind was still there and further treats of rain. So I waited for the bus, got on ... 

... and road all the way to Middleburg. An apparently nice old, fortified city... which I didn't give any chance to shine... as I only wanted to have a quick, hot lunch, and get out of the cold and wet weather as quickly as possible to my B&B. 

Truth be told, it didn't rain again on me while riding from Middelburg to the B&B (nor while I was in the bus). But it did rain, when I was already safely here, and in a much better form of water: