I noticed that there was also a Hooge Zwaluwe nearby – so I deduce they are “Lower” and “Upper” Zwaluwe. A less ferocious tailwind (boo!) but drier and sunnier (hurray!) than yesterday. The first part of the day was along the river on a high path dodging gangs of nonchalant sheep. Then through Oosterhout (great roundabout) and Dongen to the Wilhelminakanaal, which enabled us to skirt Tilburg without needing to navigate. It also gave us a very different impression of Dutch cycling: no longer gentle pootling but – now that e-bikes are so common and so various – more like a speedway circuit. The cycle paths are being upgraded; I was tempted to compare it to dualling the A1 or adding an extra lane to the M25.

I never know, when cycling in the Netherlands, if the next town or village will be modern or old. Whether there will be a shopping centre that suggests the high point of the 1960s still live or if there will be shapely gables and shutters just as if Vermeer painted them. Sometimes the two co-exist, as in Oosterhout.

My photographs give a misleading impression: there was as much rain as sunshine and as much greenery as petro-chemical plants. In avoiding ferries to cross waterways, we sampled a variety of Dutch civil engineering: three bridges and two tunnels. Our second breakfast was in Hoogvliet: a small Milton Keynes where the shopping centre replaced the church/market place/town hall trinity. Nice to be back in the Netherlands – and with a tailwind.