Day 3 - Aalsmeer Holland

Well this was make or break - the day we`d either get the Avanti fixed or the day we`d need to apply for permanent residency and start to learn Dutch !

The day started with promise as we raced around to bike shop no.1 arriving 10 minutes after opening to find the door closed even though the owner could see we were waiting to get in

When he finally let us it was obvious he was not interested in our business and simply described the broken pedal in technical Dutch terms as `bike kaput`!

Feeling now pretty nervous we descended upon Bike shop no 2 and were relieved to find a professional looking repair shop and a courteous head mechanic who indicated he could fix the Avanti problems

Frustrated but relieved as I'd spent close on $400 preparing the bike for the trip to have things go pear shape straight off.

As luck would be it was another perfect day and all we could do was walk the main street , take in the scenery, shop for bits and pieces and watch TV

By late afternoon and having learnt all there is to know about WW2 (is one of our few English TV channels and is Remembrance week for the Dutch) we headed nervously back to the bike shop to find the bike fully repaired or so we thought !

Expressing our gratitude we loaded the bike and took it for a test ride only to find the grinding noise had gone from the front to the back wheel and that there was no braking power now on either wheel !

In an increasingly frustrating experience we would take the bike back to the shop , the mechanic would fiddle with it and test it on the shop floor and wed then take the bike back for a test ride and then back to the shop again !

After 3 attempts we this time instead grabbed the store head mechanic wed met this morning much to the anger of the other mechanic !

To cut a long story short the brake issue was addressed but their is still some contact rubbing on the back wheel under loading !

So ...finally we can get under way again - being a couple of days behind schedule its an early start tomorrow as we head towards the Belgium border fingers crossed !