Day 9 - A bit lost in the Lowlands

After our little holiday by the sea we were fored up and ready to go again but when we clambered out of the tent we soon noticed it had suddenly become absolutely freezing! Good job we were fired up...
On our way out of town we quickly realised we were going the wrong way - I think the 3 camels (!!!) we saw by the side of the canal were trying to alert us to the fact that in this direction we were  heading to Timbuktu!
The signs we're  following are brilliant and combined with the map should be fool proof but there are a few things that can wrong when using this system.
1) Blinking, as in blink and you'll miss it (the sign tha is) and before you know it you're meandering down some track to nowhere or timbukto or some Dutch town whose name you can't pronounce and don't wish to visit. Luckily, between us we have two pairs of eyes so sometimes the other one will catch the sign even if you haven't....'STOP!!!! It's left, left, left,' screeeeeeetch and on with the brakes! But, like this morning, we sometimes blink at the same time.
2) Misinterpretation of the arrow on the sign. 'Hmmm, I think it's saying to go on a bit and then turn right.' 'Are you sure?, I think it's saying turn right here.' Either way, its 50:50. If you choose the wrong way at this point it's usually not long before you realise and have to turn back to re-look at the sign and realise its little arrow makes perfect sense at the same time as being mocked by your sister for not being able to understand simple arrows.
3) The map lies. As some of you will know I firmly beleive that at times all maps lie. Why do they lie? And it's definately not me, it's the map. Today (I was 'map reading') we cycled through countless villages that weren't on the map! We were following the signs at this point so we must've been on the right path but were any of these funny little places on the map? NO!
Also, as the day went on I managed, somehow, to take us on a few canny shortcuts on what woudl have otherwise been a very ziz zaggy (they don't do wiggly roads in Holland) route. I'm still not entirely sure how we didn't get utterly lost with me at the helm...I've begun to recognise the signs from behind as well now so when we're a bit lost I'm not only looking for the signs that are facing us but also those in the opposite direction. They say cycling in Holland is easy but actually I think there's quite a knack to it!

Despite my maverick captaincy we made really good time today and the ride was really pretty. At a few points we were inland a bit so we cycled through loads of villages and past tons of huge farms all of which seemed to specialise in potatoes - as far as the eye could see. The houses in this part of Holland as beautiful - paticularly the old farms which have HUGE barns with ENOURMOUS roofs which reach almost to the gorund. Then there's usually a modest house at one end - or maybe the house just look modest compared to the size of the mega barns? Anyway, whatever the size of the house you can pretty much guarantee the door is magnificent! They do seem to opt for the most wonderful doors here! And, it was just as I was admiring a door (a classic 50's black and white glass panelled number) as we whizzed through yet another tiny village that I also spotted a display of hand-knitted socks 'Te koop' (for sale) in the window of the house with the fab door! 'Stop, Hana, homemade socks, look!'. We hopped off our bikes and looked in amazement at the array of of rainbow coloured socks displayed in the huge shop-like window. These were too good to miss and especailly today as it was so cold. We rang the bell and a little old lady appeared, quite stunned by our excitement at her wares. She couldn't speak English and we still can't speak Dutch but we managed to make her laugh by squeeling lots and buying two pairs of her super socks. She showed us a good trick too; if you wrap a pair of socks round your wrist and the heel and toe meet then  they'll fit you! How good it that? So, thank you lovely talented knitting lady - you'll be helping to keep our toes warm all the way to Stockholm.
We seemed to cycle a long way today and we were pleaseantly surprised by our campsite in Lauwersoog next to a huge sluice. We had a lovely view over the water and manged to catch the sunset and orange new moon and went to sleep very cosy in our new socks.
57 miles today.