Friday, 6 June

Today we had to get out the house so that Geertje could clean it for Pappa. But no problem - we had planned to cycle to a forest area, south of Friesland. Our breaky took a while to start because we were so tired from yesterday. Jacqui took about 4 wake-ups to get going! For Dad Cunningham, we had uitsmijters - a Dutch traditional egg on ham on bread.

The day was sunny, the wind mild to moderate. It was fantastic. I don't know how many times she said, 'this is the life'. Jacqui often commented too that it would've been awesome for the kids to be with us on the ride. We saw so many ponies and horses too. Their bicycle tracks are perfect. They have indexed cycling maps at the main route intersections, which show routes and distances to your destination. We cycled about 20km at a leisurely pace to the forest through about 4 little towns.

The forest was just 1 in the area, and it held a fresh Spring pine aroma. We stopped for a good rest, eating chips and chocolate biscuits, and drinking yoghurt. There were a few mozzies that attacked us, but on the whole it was not too bad.

Then we traveled further South through the forest to the Ysselmeer. It is the largest lake in the world, I think. We came to a beach where various bodies (no, not dead ones) played in the water. We were so tired that we sat at the local restaurant for nearly an hour, and ate poffertjes, and croukette met frites en zous. Our return trip took a slightly different route, but we were getting majorly sore butts. When we arrived at Workum, we flopped into chairs in front of the icecream shop and silently fed off our yummy refreshment, while rush-hour passed by on the road.

Despite our fatigue, we did a bit of garden-cleaning, and then Jacqui cooked supper. Pappa also showed her some old photos, which I really enjoyed (at least the ones she let me see).

Wow! Another blessing of a day. Tomorrow we rest! Perhaps.