Steady Pedals

Today started with crossing another bridge, this time across the IJssel, heading south towards Nijmegen. It was a beautiful sunny day, still cold first thing, but not too windy, although what there was still wasn’t behind me. Tomorrow looks like only the third day when I’ll have a tailwind !

The ride was mainly on paths built on top of dykes. Yet again I was confronted with mammoths !

I didn’t get far before I came across another WW2 memorial, you literally see them everywhere. This one to the first British aerial reconnaissance pilot to be shot down in the war. His plane crashed nearby, although he bailed out, he was hit by the wing, knocked unconscious and was never able to open his parachute. To their credit, the Germans buried him with full military honours.

It had been a while, so it was inevitable that a ferry crossing was due ! This one was a bit expensive at €2 and the boat was rather more unstable than I would have liked.

I was now following the river Waal, the route is part of EV15 which follows the Rhine from its source at Andermatt to the sea, but I opted to take them”Waalvariant” rather than the main route. I amused myself by racing a cruise ship down river, there was no competition and I easily got ahead of him. perhaps he wasn’t racing !

It wasn’t long before Nijmegen appeared in the distance, from there I would be following the river westwards towards the North Sea

A few more km of beautiful scenery and I arrived in Nijmegen. What should I see moored at the quayside, that ship. The sneaky Germania must have taken a shortcut ! Or maybe it was a sister ship ?

The afternoon continued, mainly on top of the dykes, running alongside or close to the river. Having spent most of the last two weeks cycling pretty much on my own, now there was a steady stream of cyclists, from families with children, racers young and old and OAPs (like me, well almost !) One thing that has struck me here is how popular electric bikes are, I’d say the majority of bikes I’ve seen are electric. I was chatting to one guy on a racing bike and even he had an electric bike for everyday use, it may be flat, but the wind is a killer. Further north I saw lots of people shopping on bikes with aero bars, even old grannies, it was quite funny.

Tonight’s B&B is right by the cycle path, so a quick detour to a supermarket to buy some supplies and settling in for a quiet night. Short day tomorrow, so I’ll try and do some sightseeing. Then it’s the final leg to the ferry.