hot weather | Taking Our Time

July 2 – Well, we managed to get some sleep in our very warm room, and enjoyed a nice breakfast with some very crabby Germans who obviously did not sleep well either. Today’s temperature is expected to be 98 F for the second day in a row.

This is a planned zero mile rest day in the city of Venlo. We are happy not to be hiking, but wondered how to spend the day without cooking our brains. We ventured into the city to see what there was to see before the temperature got too hot.

Jim wanted to meet with his online group today, but our hotel has no Wi-Fi, so we looked for a place that might accommodate a Zoom call.

We went first to the bibliotek (a library should be a good resource no matter where you are), but they had neither Wi-Fi nor air con.

Most area restaurants had Wi-Fi but no air con, and did not appear to be places that would allow us to sit for an hour holding a meeting. We finally came upon the Museum of Modern Art, which had a little cafe where we could sit as long as we kept buying lemonades. Here are some things we saw in the city:

We stopped in the St Martinus Basilica, where it was dark and cool. This bishop must have been very famous, as his gloves and shoes have been preserved

Pretty carvings at the steps of the pulpit

The Museum of Modern Art. Light on your feet? Twinkle toes? Name this piece of art!

The museum featured the works of Giselle Kuster. She started out painting realistically…

I like an elevator with a sense of humor

When we left the museum at 4:30, the sky was turning dark and the streets were almost empty due to threat of the impending storm. It was 99 degrees F. We hustled back across town, and reached Villa Anna just as the sky opened and the rain poured down.

July 1 – We have been watching the weather all week, as the temperatures continue to rise way beyond what is usual in the Netherlands. We chuckled when a heat emergency was declared at 80 F, but today will get up to 95 F, and we are not chuckling now.

We asked for the earliest breakfast time, to take advantage of the coolness of the morning, but it’s looking like we’ll be taking a miserable walk.

We reviewed today’s route, and saw that we are scheduled to walk by an Albert Hjein (Netherlands best grocery store!) at about mile 5 of our 12 mile day. This gives us a place where we can direct an Uber, if Uber exists out here where there is no city.

It took a minute, but yes! Uber is available, and Rajik will come for us in 14 minutes! O happy day! A 7 mile day is doable in any heat.