An amazing breakfast, delivered to our table and more than we needed given we thought we were not riding.

Beautiful food, and I gazed out across the canal watching the geese with their young ones. The Dutch geese are plentiful, and many with young families currently.

We thought we were meeting Theo at 10am. He rocked up at the said time, on his bike.

So we quickly changed whilst Theo enjoyed a coffee here in the breakfast room.

We jumped on our bikes and headed off, armed with rain jackets.

The forecast was for about 8mm of rain today, with a moderate thunderstorm warning.

The neighbours have this carving. The bear looks sad.

So where did we go? We followed Theo! We had no idea and just watched our route grow on our bike computers.

The green dot was our start and finish point. 51 km was ridden in and around Delft and The Hague.

It had been raining and the paths were wet. In places, there were some quite big puddles.

Without our rear luggage on, water flicks up from the rear wheel onto our bums.

We passed many hot houses today. Theo tells us that many have been closed, or moved on, to provide for new housing.

The hot houses are mainly flowers but we pass one that grew capsicums too.

We ride through a large park, Landgoed Ockenburgh. The park is part of a country estate villa built in 1630 in The Hague.

A large lake, sun starting to shine.

We stop at a quaint cafe not far from the coast. It is frequented by Theo and welcomes cyclists, having a bar that you can hang your bike on (we prefer those to the racks you jam your wheels into).

There are a few other, seeming regulars, in attendance. One man sits on a pokie like machine inside, a few others enjoying a beer.

Theo orders coffee for each of us and asks if she has apple pie. This is the same as Jeroen in the north. I’ve deduced apple pie is a ‘thing’ here in the Netherlands for cyclists.

Cream is known as ‘slag’ here….far different meaning to home.

Theo is a friend from Zwift. We connected when he was recovering from open heart surgery, a few months after mine.

He has more recently had spinal surgery and has bolts and screws added to his collection. He rides well.

Zwift was a wonderful rehabilitation tool for both of us, and obviously with strong social connections as we have been fortunate to meet many zwifters on our trips now.

We sit for maybe 90 minutes at the cafe chatting away.

The skies start to darken and boom, down it came. 10 mm fell in The Hague yesterday and I would hazard a guess that much of that was just after 1 pm.

The cafe lady had a mop with a large head on it, pushing up the canopy over her entrance. Incredible volumes of water were caught weighing it down.

Maybe 20 minutes later, it eased up and off we went.

At the town of Schipluiden we said our farewells. Theo would head south to Vlaardingen, and us to the north east to Delft.

Theo’s jacket has lots of mud and very wet.

Thanks Theo for being part of our journey and trip memories. ❣️

Riding back towards Delft, further rain threatens.

We skirted around Delft, as Hoeve Buyten Hout is closer to the village of Delfgauw.

For dinner we walked about 500 metres to a delightful French cafe restaurant.

A lovely setting, we sit indoors as it rains on and off. We ordered a main course each and had eyes on the dessert menu, but neither had room!

We have so enjoyed our time in The Netherlands. Tomorrow is our last full day riding here and we will make the most of it.

We head south tomorrow to Middelburg, on the southern Dutch islands before Belgium.

Thanks for reading ❣️🚴😁