Day 3. Hilarides to Vierhuizen.
We learned also that the 'official' language of the area, that of the lords and ladies, was for a long time French in preference to either Dutch or Fries. Fries was only spoken by the common man and hence ignored by the aristocracy. We also noticed that the pews were painted to look like marble (rather like that topsy-turvey church in Kongsberg in Norway see day 17 of the 2006 travelogue). It was suggested that this had been an attempt to get out of paying a French imposed tax on wood, there being at the time no special taxes on stone.
We thanked the guide for his presentation and ambled out of the church, admiring the big cracks in the brickwork of the tower. This was another recurring theme in this part of the Netherlands. Churches and their towers often had a noticeable list, and in other places it was clear that the tower had been demolished or had been shorn up. If you like old listing churches then this is the cycle tour for you.
Soon we were back on the open road, and on seeing a chance to cycle on the outside of the sea dyke we took it. We hoped that we could cycle, as the day before, with a good tailwind looking over the sea on one side and the empty expanse of polder on the other. But within a kilometre we discovered this was not to be. We came up against a substantial fence and locked gate with a hasp and padlock that was rusted shut. One option was to lift the bikes over and carry on, but it was not clear from any of the maps we had if there were more of these fences and gates on the outside of the dyke.
So reluctantly we zig-zagged our way down the grass past unconcerned sheep and headed back to the road below the dyke. Then on past yet another church and something tall and thin that Paul found interesting, to the quaintly named village of Moddergat. Moddergat translates literally as 'Mud hole', and has always made me laugh since I first saw the name on a map. Maybe it was once a mud hole but now it is another quaint Friesian village nestling behind the huge sea dyke.
Speaking of which after Moddergat we were back to this and this sort of cycling, and was to remain so as we approached the province of Groningen. Emboldened by the tailwind of the day we thought we should try and push on to Kloosterburen where there was a campsite marked on our maps. With this in mind we bumped into a mobile chippie built on a grand scale. Not a tiny trailer with a box on it of a size two by three metres, nope this was something else all together.
Paul, Stan and Damae all ordered some chips and a cola, we figured as we were going to do another twenty kilometres or so we could do with the extra calories. After eating we got back underway, experiencing that slow heavy feeling after a stop late in the day. But we were going to Kloosterburen so we pushed on. We had of course forgotten the immutable law of cycling, by saying 'Oh it is only twenty kilometres we'll easily do that before supper'.