Herkingen

5 May 2015:  A memorable day!  We hiked from Stellendam to Herkingen (ca. 17 km).  The day started partly cloudy and mild.  Most of the GR5 trail for this étape (stage) runs along the top of grass dikes, which we joined after walking through Stellendam (with a stop to shop at a supermarket).

At the end of the morning, a big storm swept in from the North Sea: very heavy rain, wind, thunder & lightning – the works!  We descended from the dike to a road and put on rain gear, but were quickly drenched.  There was a golf course next to the road.  We walked onto the course and found shelter in a little shed.  (Mary, the golfer, was hoping to visit the clubhouse, but it was too far away.)  Mary had been suffering from a sharp pain in her back, but felt better after the lunch break in the shed.  We decided to walk over to nearby Melissant to consider our options over a cup of coffee in the bar there.  We enjoyed a chat with the friendly proprietor as we warmed up and dried off.  By then, the rain had stopped; it was sunny, but very, very windy.  We consided that walking on the elevated, exposed dikes against that wind would be too difficult, so we decided to walk the rest of the way to Herkingen (7 km) on the road.  Even that was difficult enough!  The wind was intense!  Along the way, we discovered that my glasses had fallen out of an open pocket of my backpack.  (I was wearing my sunglasses during that walk.)  There was no realistic prospect of going back and finding them.  

So we arrived in Herkingen (where we had reserved a room at a B&B) a bit bedraggled and in low spirits.  Then we received a welcome at the B&B that transformed everything!  The host, Jeroen, presented our room, opened a bottle of wine and sat down with us for a chat.  It turned out that the only restaurant in this village is closed tonight, so he invited us to join him and his family for dinner.  It was a great evening!

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Stellendam:

Tulip fields (the tulip flowers are often an unwanted byproduct of producing tulip bulbs for sale, so the flowers are cut and left in the field):

Local rules:

Hiking on the grass dike:

Clouds developing over us:

Mary crosses a stile:

Walking on the dike, with resident sheep:

The bar in Melissant where we recovered after the storm:

Destination: Herkingen!

These tulips haven't yet been culled.  Note how they being pushed over by the wind.

You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows!

Dinner at our B&B: