The heat wave continued today, we woke up early and left at 7 am, to travel in the cooler temperatures. In all, we did 50 km to Tilburg, and then another 5 km around the town and to our hotel. It was hot and muggy in the morning, worse than the previous day. There was also a bit of a warm head wind at times, making it feel as though the weather was changing.

The route was easy again on brilliant cycling infrastructure. For example every intersection has a dedicated bicycle traffic light and lane for bicycles to travel through.

We went past a few farms, and through some towns and villages – Rucphen, Sprundel, Lies, Breda, Dorst and Rijen. We rode past some absolutely beautiful homes and gardens on the road into Tilburg – some with perfect lawns and box hedge displays. Some of these people must spend all their time manicuring their gardens. Everything was very quiet – it feels as though everyone is staying indoors waiting for the heat wave to end.

We got to Tilburg before 11 am – too early to go to the hotel. We rode through the centre, which had a fun fair set up for the evening in the centre, making it very messy. There was also a lot of broken glass. We stopped at a supermarket to buy and eat some ice cream, then sat for a while in a cool spot in the city park.

The heat was really unpleasant at this stage, so we headed to our hotel. On the way there, we had a quick look at the Piushaven harbour (on a canal), which we thought was the most scenic part of the town. There was a man swimming in the harbour, a couple of kids in a dinghy and a handful of people sitting on benches.

We did a supermarket shop at Jumbo, just a few hundred meters from the hotel – buying salad, bread, cheese, meatballs and beer (Weissebier and IPA – our hotel room has a minibar fridge). The hotel allowed us to check in early just after 1 pm and we spent the rest of the day in air conditioned comfort. This room is even better than yesterday (they are both Bastion hotels), with a bigger room and bathroom. We have a corner room with windows on two sides and great views onto the streets.