Day 20 - Rossum

We've returned to the water. This time the "riverlands," the confluence of three major rivers -- the Rhine, Waal, and Maas -- that pass through the Netherlands and empty into the sea near Rotterdam and Zeeland. We cross the Rhine via a bridge just outside of Rhenen. South of Tiel, an unhappy and disheveled city where we stop at for morning coffee, we cross the Waal by bicycle ferry. We share the boat with a friendly Dutch couple who are out on a four-day bicycle tour. The woman is wearing a colourful cap with "New Zealand" written across the front and she loves hearing that we're from Australia; she has a friend in New Zealand who gave her the hat. Later we learn that she was born in Maasland, Johan's boyhood village where his sister and brother still live. She thinks she knows the Korpershoeks, Henny's husband's family.

We park ourselves on a bench for lunch after disembarking the ferry and watch it make its haphazard journey back and forth, skillfully dodging the duw bouten, long, low barges steered from the back used for carrying cargo up and down the river. The fietspad winds back up onto the dike, with beautiful views of the river for the short ride into Rossum.

We stop at the locks just before Rossum. A man-made canal connects the Waal to the lower Maas at this juncture where the rivers are closest. The formidable wall of the lock slowly ascends like a great entrance to a medieval castle. Once inside, the barge rises with the inflow of water from the higher river, then exits the lock for another barge waiting to be lowered to the Maas. It's a mesmerizing work in slow motion and we spend three quarters of an hour watching.

De Goude Molen, our hotel for the night comes into view as we round the corner into Rossum. A quaint and picturesque hotel astride the dike with a terrace restaurant and views of the river. The couple with roots in Maasland that we'd met on the ferry are on the terrace when we head there for a late afternoon beer. We share a lively, friendly exchange that ends in multiple hand waves as they take off on their bikes to their hotel in Zaltbommel. It's good to have some social time again with someone besides each other (much as we enjoy each other's company!)

Staying in a hotel is nice. Less personal than a B&B but more autonomous. Our room is on the first floor, high enough to see over the dike, with a view of the river and the train of long barges doing their slow crawl up the river, deep into the night.