Hi ya Ramblers!
The flight here was a long one, but it gave us a chance to nearly succeed in the challenge of eating our airfare worth of free snacks.
It's cold here. We have seen the mercury reach 10 degrees just once while we have been here. At first we wondered if perhaps we looked foreign since so many people were looking at us, but then we figured it must be because we are rolling round in about 6 layers, winter gloves, beanies, possum socks and booties... but... at least as the weather gets warmer, we will get thinner.
On Tuesday we went to this far away kingdom, it was a magical land. The Dutch call it a "Flower Show". Ashleigh took nearly 200 photos, that's how amazing it was. We got laughed at for being so amazed, Ashleigh reckons it was a similar feeling to the drugs they give you when you break your collarbone. They also gave us some herring with onions to try... ewwwww!! Our reactions to that drew even more laughter at our expense; at least Ashleigh doesn't know they are laughing since everyone is so high up.
Training here has been windy and cold. We are both under the illusion that when it gets warm the wind will go away. But the number of windmills reminds us that this is just a dream. We have been training with nice Dutch boys, they took us up the biggest climb they have in the North, a staggering 50m elevation... of sand. They also took us up "The other climb" but we didn't actually know it was the hill until we asked where it was and they said we had been over it already. Oh.
Today we had our first race, yay! We started behind the boys but were allowed to ride with them if they caught us, or we caught them. It was a pleasant 100km around a 4km circuit. Joy. It went well though and we came home with flowers and enough prize money to enjoy the luxury of a cafe next training ride. Cough Ashleigh won cough.
We are training hard all week, and enjoying the flowers as they begin to come up. We race again Wednesday and then again on the weekend.
Keep training hard B grade, are you missing us yet?
Het heir neit warm, maar de bloemen zijn mooi.
Bannana and Ashwee
