All you need for the summer in the flat lands

To the Netherlands, for - initially - a day of leave, followed by some work. The day of leave involved an engaging 55km cycle between Tilburg and den Bosch ('s-Hertogenbosch) via Heusden on the Maas where this photo was taken. So - what you need for a lovely day out in August are the following items: a good friend, an excellent travelling companion, a book of bike path maps, beer, bikes, and good weather. Not quite all those items are evident here, but nearly all of them are. Whilst in Heusden we saw your actually working historic windmill. Quite impressive it was, too.

On the way to Heusden we also visited the quite weird Loonse and Drunense Duinen, a sort of desert of sand dunes caused by historic overfarming removing the fertile top soil revealing the sand beneath, which has then been blown into dunes.

Today's link concerns one of the many inspiring stories I've read in the last few days about paralympic competitors.