The journey south has begun after 4 days of re-fueling in Groningen. Doortje escorted us on her bike the first few kilometers to Zuidlaren, very stoer Door!
Cycling through Holland can be very frustrating with the 'knooppunten', a very good system of cycle routes where you cycle from number to number, but it zigzags a lot and takes you through all the picturesque parts rather than the shortest route down. Which is fine if you're cycling around for fun but with such a long way to go we were happy to cross the Belgium border.
We had 4 beautiful days though, good weather and we felt quite fit. We camped on funny dutch campsites full of caravans with complete gardens, treelights, statues, microwaves and televisions. 
We also visited 'Kamp Westerbork', the WW2 concentration camp where the Germans transported hundreds of thousand of dutch jews to Poland/Germany. It's a place that makes you very quiet, the scale of the horror that happened there and the peacefullness of the current forest are so confliciting that it fills you with anger and sadness.
In Arnhem we cycled over the 'bridge too far' where the English had to surrender after holding it for 4 days waiting for reinforcements.
We're now relaxing at Hugo and Alisha's house in Zutendaal and getting ready for Germany tomorrow.
We're busy copying google maps for the route and should cross our first 1000km mark...only 9000km to go. Bums are sore already! No rude jokes from Terry please :o) (liked the song)
xx
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