Monday, 12 April 2010
Today we said our goodbyes to Jan and Katrien and thanked them for their tremendous hospitality. We managed to pack all our belongings on our bicycles including the backpack and soon we were wending our way once more through the polders direction Vlissingen. Another beautiful cool, breezy day. We knew our chosen route would take us to the wrong side of the harbour and we would still have to make quite a detour when we saw the ferry approaching.
Luckily one of the locals showed us a shortcut past the station and we were just in time to board the catamaran. I used to take this ferry 7 days a week when I went to the HTS during the week and then visited Ellie in the weekend but in those days it still carried cars. Now, with the tunnel under the Schelde the old one has been replaced with this smaller one which just carries cyclists and pedestrians.
We decided to stay below with the bicycles and through the portholes we had lovely views of the coast on both sides of the estuary.
In Breskens we explored the shops, learned that when you buy fruit you have to weigh and print the barcode yourself and basked in the sun on a bankie in the village square before heading off towards Biervliet via Hoofdplaat. We arrived at the “Hooghuis”, my brothers place, a little earlier than expected and they were still out shopping but this gave us some time to park our bikes in the barn and explore their lovely garden at leisure.
Biervliet
Today was a kind of restday, we are two kilometers away from the village so not much of an effort to get there and we went down memory lane visiting the places of my youth such as the pub in the background and the soccerfields. There was a junior game in progress which we watched for a while before exploring the village further. This didn’t take us very long as Biervliet is rather tiny.
Here is the obligatory picture of the village windmill
Later that evening we went to church to hear the choir sing. Religion is at a very low ebb in Holland and there is a great shortage of priests. The service was led by my brother’s wife, Marie-Louise, and she did a much better job then the congregation of 18 people deserved. Still, the choir sang beautifully.
Of Napoleon and things
Today we planned to visit my long-time email friend in IJzendijke and when my brother told us he was going to a lecture there about Napoleon and his visits to this region we gladly combined the two and we cycled together to the venue. Luckily we arrived well in time as there were a lot more people than expected. The presentation about the French emperor was most educational and very well presented, they even had live models there.
Just about lunchtime we arrived at Ria’s and Adri’s place and it was like we were visiting old friends chatting like we had known each other for years and time flew. It should have been strange to meet someone after emailing for so long but it all felt very familiar.
Ria and Adri
On the way back we felt strong so decided to make a 25km detour along the border between Holland and Belgium. It was a good excercise in gps navigation as we had no map along. On the way I saw a farmer by the side of the road and when I introduced myself he pretended to recognize me and we had a great old-timers chat about the days we were in the “jonge boere vereniging” (young farmers club) together.
Ellie at the border post, they sold Heineken there but I resisted the temptation.