The heat wave is even worse today with record highs continuing.
We planned and executed a short morning ride perfectly, then spent the afternoon in an air conditioned hotel. It was around 45 km to Roosendaal, and we did another 5 km around the town and to the hotel after our arrival.

It was not too unpleasant when we left at around 8 am – and the temperatures were under 30 while we were riding. They peaked up to 38 (or more?) in the afternoon. We rode through the Antwerp industrial area on our exit, passing over a few canals. We passed up on the opportunity to take a longer, more interesting route along the river and canals to the north. We chose the most direct route from to Roosendaal – a lot of it alongside the F14 bicycle highway.

The biggest town we passed by was Essen (the main destination for the F14). Most of our trip was on bike paths, quite a few of them in the shade. Every now and then the paths veered off onto suburban streets. The houses are incredibly neat and well kept. Box hedges are very popular in the gardens.

We crossed the border to Netherlands, about 6 km from our destination.

An elderly man on a bike led us to the town after we asked him for directions.

We arrived at around 11 am, and spent some time eating ice lollies from the supermarket, having a quick look at the centre of town, and then doing a supermarket shop for our dinner. The hotel allowed us to check in early at around 1 pm – it has amazing air conditioning so we just hung out in our hotel eating and drinking. I went out for a few minutes after 3 pm – the heat was unbearable.