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We had a late lunch in Kinderdijk - weiner schnitzel splattered with some sort of sauce on the side. Yummy!		This was the result of another random selection from an unreadable Dutch dessert menu - score!		Almost 80kms after leaving Utrecht, we arrived in sunny Rotterdam! Rotter is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and home to almost 600,000.

The Pictures of the Week this week (20th April) are of strange buildings around the world, and about the tenth shot down is of this - the cubic houses in Rotterdam! Built in the 1970s, there are 38 small cubes and two 'super-cubes', all attached to each other and all inhabited. The houses contain three floors, and the walls and windows are angled at around 55 degrees. Pretty cool huh!

This was our accommodation for the night - a house boat, or hostel boat I guess!		And it really was like being on a (cramped) boat! The rooms were tiny, shower was dismal, and the lights flickered every 30 seconds or so, but it was something different :)

The Rotters love their Maccas apparently - they're bloody everywhere! Must be good when you have the munchies after a 'coffee' ;)		Hitler and his heavies invaded Rotterdam in 1940 and all but completely bombed it to oblivion. The statue above is called 'City without a heart', and was erected in remembrance of that event. From the 1950s through to the 1970s the city was rebuilt, with much construction still occurring today, and hence the very modern look of the city centre.

We wandered around but apart from a fountain and the occasional club, Rotterdam was pretty quiet, much like Utrecht when we left it that morning!				While I was taking photos, Dav made friends with this very drunk football fan. His English was about as good as our Dutch, and he was stumbling about town and singing at the top of his lungs about his team (or at least we think he was).

I stuck another Euro on the tram tracks to amuse myself hehe. You should try it, it's fun ;)

80kms deserved more beers, and my random selection from the menu turned out to be a flaming chorizo sausage which cooked itself right in front of us hehe. Not very Dutch, but pretty cool nonetheless!				Reefer - good name for a, umm, coffee shop ;)

Easter Monday, 30kms to get back to Hoek van Holland, head-wind, ferry check-in at 1pm, and we were running late! I still managed to take a few shots regardless though :) That's a nice car!
		It was a hard slog, but we made it right on 1 o'clock, and then discovered we actually had until 1:30 to check in. Better to be 30 minutes early than late.

We'd done 265kms all up. I was knackered...		...and Dav was, I dunno, high on drugs or something.		This was our route, starting and finishing in Hoek van Holland on the left, and going clockwise around the loop. The straight line between Amsterdam and Utrech was our train ride, and the section west of Utrecht was us going to/from Haarzuilens. The above can be viewed and zoomed etc. through good old Google Maps here.

As we were nearing Hoek van Holland on the bikes this mist started rolling in and hung about all the way back to England.		Lunch on board consisted of chips, schnitzel, chips, salad, more chips, and very few vegetables; typical English diet minus the schnitzel - they were all ordering hamburgers and meatballs (and chips) the fat bastards.		That's England over there somewhere.

The trains back to London were all cancelled for whatever reason so we were all put on a coach. After another 10km burn back to my flat I had totalled 275kms for the weekend (short of the 300kms we'd aimed for due to the train between Amsterdam and Utrecht). Despite only seeing the northwest of the country, I think we saw most of what there is to see of the whole country as all the towns and villages started to look the same after a while. This was the first real cycling trip I'd ever done which is pretty disgraceful, so I'd like to start planning some more while I'm still here! Belgium is a likely candidate as it is also as flat as a pancake, full of cycle paths, and bloody nice. Dav and I were also discussing Sardinia earlier in the year, so we'll see what happens. Incidentally, if anyone is interested (and I'm sure no one is ;) my odometer clocked 5,200kms while we were there which puts me on par with the total amount I did while living in Brisbane (except it has taken me almost five months longer to achieve it), so hooray for me :)

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