Europe 2018 - July 24 - Bruges, Belgium to Domburg, Netherlands

Once again "real" life interfered with finishing this blog. It was called COVID-19, the global pandemic. It is now January, 2021. You would think that there was plenty of time to do it during the "locked down" period but we found that immersing ourselves in the blog and then re-entering reality was just too jarring so we took a break. Then summer came and we were outside a lot. We did do plenty of day trips on our bikes as our local area is full of treasures to see on 2 wheels. And we are dreaming of being able to travel by bike this next summer.

Tuesday - July 24
It took us a little while to get out of town since the closest bike bridge was being replaced so we needed to take a detour. There was also a high temperature warning issued this morning so probably good we are close to the coast. Seeing windmills......

.... and observing how bike-friendly it is here made this part of Belgium feel a lot more Dutch than Belgian.

The houses are starting to look Dutch too.

It was a very pleasant morning.

And there were lots of people out enjoying it along with us.

We were telling Lori how this people-powered ferry worked when these cyclists used it and gave a real life demonstration.

Once more there was no border sign so this city sign was how we knew we had crossed into The Netherlands.

We checked out the local bike shop but it did not have any bike maps.

The Breskens-Vlissingen ferry

It only carries walkers, bikers and scooters.

It was a very smooth crossing.

Time to get ready to disembark.

Negotiating all those bikes and bike racks while fully loaded was a little tricky!

There was an electronic load sign as we made our way off the ferry. It said that there were 118 people, 65 bicycles and 7 scooters on this trip. 

That is Vlissingen in the distance.

It is quite the resort town and the heat has sent all the locals to the beach. It was the start of a frustrating first day in country #4 as this also meant that all the campgrounds in the vicinity were full and the hotels were very expensive.

So we headed north to another campground but it was full too. They did let us use their wifi so we could do some searching. We found one room available in Domburg, about 10 miles away, with 2 twin beds. The website said they could add a bed. However, when we arrived (at 4:30) the clerk would not add a bed nor let us put one person on the floor in a sleeping bag. We tried to find another room in town but there were none available.

So we headed to the Roompot Campground on the edge of town. The office sign said they were full but the clerk totally understood our dilemma and found this one place in the trailer section that had room for our 2 tents and was close to the bathroom. She got an Angel of the Road card!! This campground had over 600 sites. We canceled our reservation on Booking.com. Then hotel called us twice and both times we told them that we definitely were NOT coming back. Sure glad this so very rarely happens!

Our camping neighbor, Ruud, brought us a hammer to pound our tent stakes. Then later he heard us talking about our troubles finding a place for tomorrow. He had a wealth of local knowledge, recommended we avoid the coast for now and told us about farmer campgrounds. Then he called one that he knew and made a reservation for us. He got an Angel of the Road card too! Sure made up for the earlier frustrations.