Overnight camping on the ramparts. That is the fancy way of desribing the car park we slept in after a late night arrival in the land of Orange, bikes, questionable cakes & windmills. We could also see a windmill though, so it was a nice place.
Morning excersise: Eddie +1 cycle a lap of the old town, Sammy + 1 investigate the town and see if there is coffee. Adam on team Sammy found a beautiful, but almost un-nervingly sleepy town for 10am… nothing seemed to be alive yet.
This did change after the magic hour of 10:30 when Eddie’s cycle support team swapped, Cat found a cafe, Eddie took Adam on a magical mystery tour confidently repeating the phrase “I went this way with Mummy” – he had not…. But we didn’t get too lost, and actually, the small boy managed a solid 3-4km cycle just with Adam whilst sticking to this line. A well earned hot milk and Latte awaited us in Cat’s Cafe.
Based on the reviews of the place by the Fully Charged show, we decided to roughly aim at Utrect as a halt point as we crossed the Netherlands. Thinking roughly of doing some cycling, we soon learned that this is the home of the Dutch National Railway Museum! Too good an oppoutunity to miss!
And some really quite interactive rides based on trains. Shame they all involved some simulated near crash experience which frightened Eddie!
Once the staff were trying to close the place, we left to go find ourselves some dinner on the canal. Riverside fondue, watching the various craft pass by. Legitimate boats, Kayaks, Water bicycles and a very homemade raft + rattan garden furniture + outboard contraption were all out enjoying the end of a 30 degC day. Can’t blame them.
Cycling back to the van, we took the long road. Cat & Eddie on their bikes, Adam & Sammy on a street hire e-bike, which was so nippy it woke Sammy up from his backpack sleep! Briefly….
In other news, Sammy has started weaning! This did actually begin in Brighton but there was never a photo we so never bothered writing about it. Anyone who has met a Henry or a Hulse before will be unsurprised to discover that Sammy likes food. These days it turns out that not only is cucumber life, so is watermelon, weetabix, celery, red pepper, corn cakes, oatcakes, pasta and banana. And probably everything else we haven’t tried yet too.
After a very exciting breakfast of weetabix and banana while watching trains camped in a convenient train station car park, we moved on to the Hoge Veluwe National park to explore with their famous white bikes. Free bike hire to help explore the 5000 hectare site, with toddler and baby seats attached, so with the flat ground, soft bikes and smooth as silk cycle paths, we gave Sammy a try out in the front row seat, and he loved it!
The destination after our 5km ride was an awesome playpark, and another 5km back! Handily the route was through a forest, so well shaded from the heat of the day. After a picnic lunch and with some worn out boys, it was time to move on to the next country!
Parenting Responsibly 