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Neither M1 or M2 would claim to know the Netherlands. We've been here before, to Amsterdam and to Maastricht, We've driven through the country to Germany and passed through by train. But Amsterdam is not the Netherlands and a motorway is no way to see a country. If you really want to see a country, do it by bike!
And so, we're seeing the country and we like what we're seeing. The Netherlands is lovely. There's a lot more forest than we ever expected, full of singing birds. There are of course white storks. But they're not the only birdies.
There's been no sign of urban sprawl so far. When a town or city ends, it ends and you're in the countryside. There's a lot of water; canals, irrigation channels and ponds. It's a gentle, green landscape.
There are even hills! We hadn't expected that and there was a bit of moaning in the leg department for a while. The hills aren't exactly huge but they exist and when they team up with the famous Dutch headwind, you notice them.
We stopped in a town called Amerongen and had lunch in a really nice and apparently popular cafe. M1 had a humble cheese sandwich but the bread was amazing.
We followed the detour we'd plotted from our original route and 25 km later, we were in Utrecht. We bought groceries and cycled to the house we've booked on Airbnb.
It was 15:30 and check in time was 16:00. But it was a self check-in arrangement with the key in a lock box, so we thought there'd be no harm in letting ourselves in early. M1 retrieved the key, unlocked the door and..... Found himself face to face with the airbnb host, whose home this apparently was! So many Airbnb properties are second properties or are owned by companies, it's easy to forget the original intent. We said hello after the initial shock had worn off and the Ms agreed to come back in half an hour when the host expected to have finished cleaning.
We're in now, and looking forward to two days of rest and tourism in Utrecht.
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