Cycling theYorkshire Dales

On Friday we loaded up the bikes and headed to the village of Reeth in Yorkshire for some cycling with the P66 club.  We checked into our B&B, had a nice dinner and got some sleep in preparation for Saturday's ride.

 Sitting in the parlor, checking out the menu

Crazy cushions

This year's Tour de France starts in England.  Two of the three days are within a couple hours of our house.  They pass by this shop on the 2nd day

Loading up on porridge

P66 club (I'm the ONLY female!)

We climbed through the fog, crossed the snow line and ended up at the highest inn in England

I'm not sure what the temperature was, probably in the low 40's when we started, less at the top.  I had 5 layers on top and was dripping with sweat

The scenery was stunning!

We stopped for lunch after 40 miles and as we headed out of town, came to this sign

A "hill" with a 25% grade!!!  It was THEE steepest, longest, most difficult hill we have EVER experienced!!!!  It just kept going on and on and on!!  And, of course, it was a 25% downhill!!

Note to self:  NEVER do this on a tandem and NEVER after 40 miles!!

In total we rode 58.30 miles and gained 5,597 feet in elevation

Mr Fix-it

Larry got the fountain working!!  He's brilliant!  Now we just need some warm weather so we can bring out the patio furniture.

Larry's City Walking Tour

I'm not sure exactly how many miles we walked over the course of our stay, but I'm going to guess 100!  Okay maybe not a 100, but it sure seemed like it.

Dam Square was right across the street from our hotel.  When we came out, we noticed a huge crowd, lots of police and helicopters.

                                            Found out the President of China was visiting

Begijnhof

Flower market

The Rijksmuseum

Break time at the charming Cafe 't Smalle

 House boat

Leaning house (there are a lot of them!)

Lovely dinner at De Luwte

Belgian beer and chocolate

 On Friday, we took the train to Bruges, Belgium in search of Belgian beer and mussels for Larry

And Belgian chocolate for me

Success!

 The bell tower in Market Square

Dinner cruise

Wednesday night we attended a dinner hosted by the conference organizers

 We were taken on a canal cruise

 A tour of the Maritime Museum 

 And then dinner in the belly of this ship

Just in case anyone misbehaved

Wooden shoes, cheese and windmills

Last Tuesday, Larry and I flew to Amsterdam as he had a conference to attend on Wednesday and Thursday.  Since I had spent time there back when Tyler was in high school, I had to think of something I hadn't already seen.  I found a countryside tour and off I went…

The first stop was in the village of Marken at a wooden shoemaker.  

Shoe tree

Next we took a boat ride over to Volendam

where we watched a cheese making demonstration

The third stop was at Zaanse Schans to tour windmills

This is a spice mill

This mill produces peanut oil