We reached the end!

One of the things we have most enjoyed during this long ride has been watching the traffic on the river and canals. Here is a small sailboat with mast "unstepped" coming through a lock on a canal.
Now we are on the Oude Rijn, where we no longer see the huge barges moving on the main branch of the river, straining upstream against the current or racing downstream with the flow.

Sometimes the locks are automated but this one actually had a lock-keeper.   He spoke good English and chatted with us about our trip. The surrounding gardens are usually bright and well kept.

We are fortunate to be staying with our good friends, Wendy and Jan, who live in Woubrugge near the Rhine. They are spoiling us rotten after the rigors of our previous few weeks! 

We set out on the final leg of our ride room their house, heading into very strong winds but determined to reach our goal. 

Very soon we came to a windmill next to the path. We so often see them in the distance, it was a delight to see this one so close to us.  

Here is the river from a bicycle bridge on our way to Katwijk where this part of the river ends at the North Sea. We are almost there.

We saw the river get smaller and become more like a canal.

Here is more river activity, four boats were passing! It looked like an accident waiting to happen but was completely uneventful.

We were enjoying our almost daily coffee break with appelgebak, so we had time to watch the boats waiting for the bascule bridge to lift. This causes cars and cyclists in both directions to stop and wait, but no one gets impatient here.

Away they go...

The Oude Rijn ends in a dam as it's below sea level at this point, and water is pumped out into the sea. In Roman times, this was the main branch of the Rhine. We had elected to ride along the Oude Rijn because it allowed us to visit our friends and to bypass the industrial areas of Rotterdam, the current main branch of the Rhine River. 

With great excitement, we took our first look at the sea from the top of the dam.

We made it! We've ridden 901 miles, from Andermatt in Switzerland to Katwijk aan Zee in the Netherlands.

We had brought our picnic lunch along to relax and consider our achievement.

 We sat there for a long time, enjoying the view and the sunny windy day.

Sal walked down to the beach and almost got blown away while she collected a few treasured shells and pebbles from the sand.

 And here it is!  We have enjoyed the journey so much.
                               
                             The End
                                                       Fin
                                                                  Good bye