Utrecht

Another easy day on the bike paths - especially after I persuaded google maps that ferries were a viable option thus cutting 15km off the journey.  After my usual coffee I packed up, said goodbye to my new friends (it really was a lovely site) and set off to the big smoke. 

Much as the Netherlands is fully set up for cycling, it can be confusing. I think it's probably most like driving abroad, because there is so much infrastructure and so many bikes, you need to know precisely what you're doing. And as I'm following a sat nav, and left/right are confusing, I often don't. I'm also driving a heavy bike with a massive turning circle so try to proceed with caution. 

All this is to say, the shorter cycle to Utrecht was uneventful. I stopped in a pretty town just after the ferry and had a very good breakfast. Then it was a lot of orchards - cherry and pear - then some horses and maize, then some moorhens and goats, then some woods, then a camp site. 

I was here that early (luckily I'd booked once I noticed it was the weekend) that I set up, had a banana and then headed off into the city centre. 

I did some shopping in including visiting a yarn shop, a bead shop (neither had what I was looking for) and an English bookshop. (Deleted rant about lack of variety in bookshops). I eventually managed to find something suitably dark and went on my way.

I rounded off my day with Nachos, a (virgin - bike) cocktail and my new book in a bar overlooking the square.