Pink skies and smiling faces.

It just started raining out of nowhere and somehow I've barely flinched. Maybe I've become used to the outdoors in the past week and know that it is all so fleeting. We realized today that we've been outside for almost 6 days straight. It's strange when you find yourself longing for a chair ! It has been wonderful though, sitting by the river, cooking, swimming, chatting with other campers. Campsites in general are a much better way to see a country and meet the people from it (since they rarely stay at touristy hotels).
In other news, we are now in the Netherlands! We started to sense it for about 5 km before we reached the border... People passing by were all of a sudden a new breed of friendly, and they said 'morgen' a little funny. There was no sign though when we actually 'crossed the border'... A bit anti-climactic. We met a dutchmen the night before at our campgound and he was returning from holiday in Germany... He put us to shame with the 160 km ride he just completed... But also gave us some great advice on where to ride in the Netherlands. After this first friendly encounter, we've only been greeted by friendly Dutch people curious about what we're doing, where we are heading, and who we are. People stop to offer help when we are just looking at a map..at our campsite the owner and guests were all gathered around the bar last night asking us questions and while Nate played piano until it closed, the owner asked him to come play again in the morning he liked him so! Our camping neighbors were having a bbq and offered us a steak (the american in us said oh no thanks politely). And to top it all off... There was a beautiful pink sunset right over the lake along with a full orange moon and fireworks in the distance. Seriously Netherlands!?
which is very exciting indeed.
Needless to say, the past 24 hours have been the best yet.
L