Having only just caught the train to Harwich from Liverpool St (due to delays on the service from Bristol), with only 7 mins to spare, we duly caught the night sailing to Hook of Holland. No entertainment, but I did lose €20 at the casino.
We'd set ourselves a rather ambitious target for Day 1: to get beyond Eindhoven. We actually did this (despite 'issues' navigating Rotterdam) and duly arrived in the small town of Someren just after sundown. A nice little place with a good atmosphere. The local pub gave us our first beers on The House, paid for by the hotelier as recompense for the fact that he wasn't there to receive us.
First problem. The Rhine doesn't just empty into the sea (like the The Thames does). The river from Germany splits all over the place to form a delta almost immediately after entering the Netherlands. There are many branches. The main branch, so I was told, is apparently called the Waal which flows from Nijmegen to meet the river Meuse; after which it is called Merwede. Executive decision: find any stream flowing vaguely north and/or west and simply follow that until we meet something wide enough to be a candidate tributary of the Great River.
We found such a small stream and set off in an easterly direction. It was only 4' wide: I was able to jump it! (with a run up).
By Rotterdam (so called because it stands where the river Rotte was dammed in 1270) the flow had become quite substantial. We were definitely homing in on the Rhine.
The great port came and went in a blur. It's a great place, with some interesting old buildings as well as some quirky modern architecture (plus the odd 'container'). We set a cracking pace. Today we'd hoped to put 100 miles between us and the North Sea. In reality we clocked 115mls.
We tracked the flow to and past Eindhoven: the home of the Phillips sponsored PSV footy club.
Along the way we kept meeting up with three Brit cyclists who were on the same boat as us coming over. Their lead rider, John, had a big crash into a substantial plant box whilst looking back over his shoulder to admire a windmill.
Tomorrow, we hope to make good progress East. And, hopefully find the main flow.