Day 20. The invisible enemy

High off of yesterdays fast speeds and triumph over the rain, our sights were now set on the finish line.   The forecast looked good, but we failed to take into consideration that the river now turns from North to primarily West.  Almost immediately our enthusiasm faded in the face of a nasty headwind.  The panniers strapped to our bike catch all the wind which slows our pace significantly.   Greta did her best to draft off of me but I struggled myself.  With our heads down, we didn't even see a sign or realize when we crossed the border into The Netherlands.  The only reason I could tell was because dutch place names are really long.  For example, tonight I'm at Landgoed de Horst Driebergen.  (It helps to say these words using the voice of the chef from the Muppets.)   Arriving in Arnhem, site of one of the biggest battles of WW2, something very different was noticed.  Here they celebrated the war and the Allied forces, a noticable change from Germany.  Any hopes to be tourist s today were awash in our ability to just eat and keep from collapsing.  At each rest stop, we sat slouched against each other seconds away from a nap.  Yet we pushed on.  In the evening we got a slight break in the wind and the best biking lanes we've seen all trip which helped our motivation to reach the end.  It was a tough day, probably our hardest.   We were in the saddle for over 9 hours.  Iv'e done century rides that were easier than today so I give much props and praise to Greta for not giving up.    We are both exhausted now and yet so excited close to the finish.  Tommorow we push for Rotterdam.

Trust me, I'm plenty of me already, maybe too much

Compared to the old style, these new ones really blow