The morning was kind of overcast but not really cold. We went for a nice walk down the Holstheide climb that we’re parked near for the race, but veered onto a nice looking forest path partway down.

At the bottom it opened up into several nice farms with horses, chickens, geese, sheep and cows. Colin has mentioned to me before that people didn’t used to have guard dogs, but rather geese – there’s no way to pass a goose-pen without them making a huge racket.

As we passed one place back on the road there was a fierce barking – a german shepard was going nuts trying to get at us through a hedge and fence. Another dog shortly joined him and they were both in a frenzy. The farmer was in his yard and said something to the dogs, which was very fortunate since the double gates were actually wide open and there was nothing stopping the dogs from running out and getting at us. But they didn’t – they simply ran past the open gates to the hedge and fence on the other side and barked up a storm. They ran back and forth past the open gates a couple of times but never once stepped a foot outside – it was one of the funniest things, but I was very grateful they listened to whatever command the farmer had given them.

After a light lunch we saw the helis overhead and on a nearby road could see the blue lights of the motos – the race was going by on a nearby road, but wouldn’t be back for the climb to where we were for a couple of hours.

In the meantime we went for another walk in the other direction down a quiet side road through a field, then downhill a bit to the outskirts of Huldenberg.

We noticed that there is a greater variety of house building materials – still lots of brick, but also some plaster, all with neat, tidy yards and gardens of course.

There was one dog that really wanted to get over the fence at us – his fur flew around him almost like feathers as he jumped against the gate.

We walked down and around the corner so we’d be on the actual race hill and waited – after the first pass we changed to the other side of the road. There was a young couple with a little blond girl – daddy had her at times on his shoulder and she was blowing a plastic horn – she was just so cute.

In the hour and a half we were there to see the multiple passes of the racers she never whined or complained once – if all kids were like that I wouldn’t mind most of them so much!

We watched the end of the race on tv – young van der Poel won again, beating Alaphillipe in a sprint to the finish. As soon as it was over we hit the road for the Netherlands to get near the next race – Sunday’s Amstel Gold.

Despite the mis-direction once again of miss GPS we found a really nice campground – the office was already closed but the fellow in the bar/restaurant showed us which sites were available. We picked one and parked for the night, then went down for a drink. It was a lovely evening, complete with a full moon.

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