Today was the final day on the bikes, and I think we're all ready for it. We woke up to pouring rain, but luckily we were in the hotel and it didn't bother us. We ate breakfast at the hotel and waited in the room for the rain to die down a little. It finally did, and so we took off from Leiden to Amsterdam.

The route Matt choose for the route was beautiful and fit well for the last day. We biked along canals, through the Dutch countryside, along lakes, and through small towns and villages. Almost the entire trip was down wind (accept for the last 10 km, queue "Oh my gosh, seriously?" from Nate), and we cruised the short distance to Schiphol.

At Schiphol, we rolled our bikes down to the baggage storage area, bought bike boxes (they were super expensive at 23 euros a pop) and packaged the bikes in the boxes. Luckily, these boxes were bigger than the boxes we had on the flight to Europe, so packing the bike was much easier. It still, however, took us a good 2 hours to get everything packed and in the boxes.

After that, we headed into Amsterdam. We were all pretty tired, so just took the train to Amsterdam Zuid, got some sandwiches to eat, and sat in the park. It was all very relaxing, and nice not to have to worry about the bikes.

We are staying again with the Schulte's relatives, thank you Maureen and Michiel! We got to their house in the afternoon, and talked with Michiel. He had just finished a bike trip himself in southern France, so we swapped stories about the places we'd been. We then took a little bit of a rest before dinner.

Before dinner Michiel and Maureen took us out to an Indonesian restaurant which was delicious. They then showed us around the city, (by car, which was great in the rain), and then we went to an Italian ice cream place for dessert. It was a great way to end the trip.

We headed back to their house, and immediately went to bed. We're all tired, and all looking forward to being back in the states. Tomorrow I'll try and post one last entry before we get on the plane.

Today we allowed strong winds to push us all the way from Domburg to Leiden. It was another windy day with the forecast calling 25 - 35 mph winds with gusts up to 50.

When you are biking with the wind at your back it's quite pleasant. We were flying at 30 - 40 km/hr no problem. Especially on the exposed dikes and dams. The only problem is when you were going sideways with the wind. We were sand blasted by the dunes and had to lean our bikes over just to stay upright. All the being said, it was much, much better than Saturday.

At this point, I would like to give a huge shout out to Dutch engineering, and also wonder if they are partially mad. The system of dikes and dams they have built to control the sea level is outstanding. For anyone interested, it's called the Delta Project and is worth a Google. Biking over the kilometer stretches of dams was very impressive. We could not believe the Dutch built all of that.

Unfortunately due to torrential downpour our pictures are not that great but we do have some.

Once we made it out of Zeeland (the southern islands of The Netherlands) we entered Holland and followed canal after canal to Leiden. They say that parts of The Netherlands are under sea level, but that was drilled into us when we biked up a hill to become level with a canal. We had been biking below it for 2 kms.

Everyone seems to have a sail boat too, but there are so many draw bridges on some of these canals I have no idea how they make it out to any place where they could actually sail. We biked along a canal on a road where each house was on the other side of the canal and so each driveway had their own draw bridge.

It was a lot of biking to make it to Leiden but we made it. Leiden is a University town that's just outside of Amsterdam. It's a really beautiful town. I liked it better than Amsterdam just because it's not as much as a tourist trap, but more what an actual Dutch city is like.

We decided to treat ourselves and so we are staying in the Best Western Hotel. Yes, not camping, but we wanted to do laundry, get packing supplies, and stay dry tonight! So we are living it up a little. We have fresh clothes, a nice shower, and are ready to re-enter civilization.

Tomorrow we'll bike to Schipol, box up our bikes, grab dinner in Amsterdam, and spend the night at Mark and Matt's relatives place (thank you Michiel and Maureen!) before heading back to the airport to fly home. We're looking forward to being back in the states.

Today we decided to stay in Domburg when we learned the hostel had an opening for all three of us. The hostel is in a castle so we couldn't turn that down. We had a lazy morning and left our mini-camping spot around 10, for a short bike to the hostel. We checked in their and then went our separate ways.

Mark and Matt went in to town to grab some pastries from the local bakery. They aren't sure what they got, but it was really really good.

Nate went in to town to find a computer to get some work done.

The beach was the next location. It was still a little windy but at least the sun was out for the time being. Mark and Matt debated about going swimming but chickened out due to how cold the water was. The air was really cold too. I can't believe people vacation here, but I guess it was the first beach holiday spot for the Dutch.

Lunch was grabbed at a cafe on the beach. Mark got some sort of sausage and Matt grabbed some sort of breaded beef. The waitress was extremely nice and explained everything in English to us, making ordering a little easier.

Around 3 we came back to the hostel and checked in. At this point it was raining again so we were glad to have a place where we could keep dry (though looking at the forecast that will only last a little while). We thought they would have a kitchen, but they didn't so we improvised.

Now we are getting ready to go bed in preparation for a long ride to Den Hague tomorrow.

Lastly, we learn that yesterday we biked through the largest wind storm since the Netherlands has kept modern records. So yea!

The wind today was unreal. It was consistently 25-35mph with gusts up to 50mph. Unfortunately, there's not protection from the wind here, so most of the day was spent battling through the wind (that was accompanied by pelting rain from time to time) north from Ghent to a town called Dombourg, on the North Sea.

The day probably started at 4am, as that's when the party goers got back to the campsite from Ghent. They weren't too loud, but played music and never really went to bed. We also had multiple thunderstorms roll through last night, that luckily for us really dampened (pun intended) the party mood in the campground.

We got up at our usual time around 8, and took down camp in the rain. There was some resistance from Nate, who suggested that we just burn our extra day in Ghent/staying in the tent, and wait out the storm. May not have been a bad idea looking back on it. But at the time, both Matt and Mark were up and ready to move, so we took down camp and headed north.

And it rained and the wind howled. The rain, from time to time would feel like hail on your face with the wind blowing so hard. And the wind could easily blow you off the road if you weren't careful. Through Belgium we booked north as fast as we could, not really stopping for anything.

We crossed into the Netherlands without so much as a passing glance (although all of a sudden the bike lanes did get much nicer) and biked 20km north of the boarder to a ferry. We were pretty sure the ferry would not be running, due to high winds, but we got tickets no problem, and hopped on the ferry. It was a huge catamaran (not a sail boat though) and had no problem in the waves. But the best thing about the ferry, it was enclosed and maybe even heated! The picture at the top of this post is a picture from the ferry to another ferry that was the same type of boat, but going somewhere else.

We got off the ferry, and battled another 20km north to Dombourg. Our original plan tonight had been to stay in a hostel that was a castle, but their website told us they didn't have room for us, so we instead biked to the city campground. Unfortunately, they were full too! Luckily, Dombourg is a major vacation city for the Netherlands and there is plenty of "mini-camping" in the area. Mini-camping is just camping, but they've basically turned their backyard into a campground.

After another full mini campground, we finally came to a campground that had room for us. The host was very nice, as we arrived wet on our bikes, and pointed out the most sheltered spot in the campground. We setup our tent there, and all took hot showers. I know we were complaining about the heat earlier, but it was fairly cold today and the hot showers felt fantastic.

By the time we were done with showers, the rain had mostly stopped, and it was beginning to brighten up. The wind was still howling, but we were pretty protected, and in good spirits. We cooked an early dinner, and we're in bed by 8.

Tomorrow we will stay in Dombourg. We'll try again to stay in the hostel tomorrow night, and then make our final journey back to Amsterdam. We're getting close!

Today we used the Knooppunt system to navigate from Antwerp to Ghent. You basically follow a graph of numbered nodes from one number to the next, stringing the numbers together for which ever path you want.

The trip started out great. Everything was well signed and the route took us through neighborhoods, towns, cities, and suburbs. It was a really nice way to see the country.

The only problem is that Belgium seems to really love their cobblestone and our bikes just do not absorb that much vibration. We probably did 5kms of cobblestone on total.

Trouble only occurred when the next number in the sequence was just unaccessible due to a bridge being out. After exploring we discovered a poorly marked detour but where never able to find the path after that and so instead followed a highway into Ghent.

After weaving our way through Ghent we arrived at our campsite, which was bumping with many young people getting ready for a night on the town. Ghent is having there yearly city celebration which is a 10 day long party. It's the third largest festival in Europe (Octoberfest being number one).

We arrived around 1 and then set out to see the city. Unfortunate we left our phones to charge and so no photos from today.

Ghent looks really awesome, with lots of cool spires and old cathedrals. They have a least 4 stages for the concerts and they all have really prime locations near some historic buildings. I really wish we had pictures.

After exploring and stopping for a beer in the city we set out to find a grocery store.

At this point, Matt would like to go on a side tangent. The store had all their price displays on e-ink displays (think Kindle screens)! This is technology Matt had worked with and an idea his professor was talking about just a couple months ago. Turns out already a thing.

Back in camp we cooked dinner and talked to an Australian who was also bike touring. He used to have the bikes we have but complained they were too heavy and switched to a lighter bike.

Tomorrow we head to Zeeland in the Netherlands to spend a day or two on the beach! We're looking forward to that (even if it maybe a little rainy and cold).