Crossing into Belgium was uneventful, as Nic has said, the only signage being to advise of French speed limits. There was more notification on the England to Scotland border that we recently crossed.
In Belgium we spent 2 nights at Bruges allowing us a day to the explore the city. Our campsite neighbours (in a very flowery tent) just happened to be a young couple (pictured below), recently engaged who initially greeted us with Flemish and after drawing a very blank look switched to flawless English in which we proceeded to discuss things including the themes of Whale rider and Once were Warriors. Again our unilingualism was embarrassing.
Karin just happened to a Dutch junior doctor and her fiancee, Jerven, from Belgium was finishing a PhD (in history not engineering though) so we had a lot in common and had a great couple of nights chatting.
Belgium as a country confused us with its language line between the French and Flemish speaking parts and with the divisions these languages have caused within the country since WWI when officers were French speaking, soldiers were Flemish speaking, leading to major communication breakdowns. Having dinner with the history PhD was very useful in helping to understand this, although coming from a country whose borders are so clearly defined by oceans we still struggle to understand why the French part of Belgium doesn't just join France...... or Luxemburg.
Belgium was not the best country for cycling. Although pretty much flat, (we rode over the side of one of their famous mountains, Kemmelberg, on the first day - all 156m of it), the roads and cycle paths are made of concrete leading to a wonderful judder bar effect every 20m or so. Some of the cycle paths were not great but drivers objected if we tried to use the road so we didn't particularly enjoy it. Nic also did not much like navigating off the maps we bought having ditched our trusty France road map.
The cities of Belgium however were beautiful – particularly Ghent(left) and Bruges (below). Lots of canals and beautiful old stone buildings. We also being the cultured couple we are, loved the very reasonably priced Belgium beers. Considering the heat (30 degrees plus), we were experiencing in Belgium we found many an excuse for these! Our last night in Belgium had us in a campground that was a bit of a mission to find but pretty amazing. Situated in the old grounds of an abbey with the toilet block built against the old wal, (and a bar on site),l we had a very pleasant evening.
Moving into the Netherlands, we were less impressed with the campsites, encountering for the first time in over 40 nights of camping, pay as you go showers in 2 out of the 3 campgrounds we stayed in. Again adopted by a Dutch couple who introduced us to Stroopwaffels, (the best bike food ever – biscuits with gooey caramel in between), we managed to confuse them and ourselves trying to figure out a scenic route to Amsterdam. Eventually we were advised that if we wanted to see Holland then we had to see Kinderdyke – where the windmills are. 
We duly visited windmills and I was impressed by the level of engineering completed in 1750s. Now all replaced by one big electric pump. The fact that a large proportion of the Netherlands would be under water was brought home that night when our campsite ended up being on the about 3m below and near the edge of a lake – in the rain. Approaching this campsite I, then Nic, were overtaken by a pink bag carrying ~ eleven year old girl on a bike who was racing home from approaching rain. It says something about the size of our bags and this nation of cyclists as I like to think we aren't that slow after 2 months on the bikes! We got caught in this thunderstorm but got some shelter under a petrol station.
Above is an example of a house (one of many) with a real drawbridge!
While staying with our mothers at the gite in France we had been told by Gabriella one of the owners to get in touch with her son who lives in Amsterdam. Hesitant to take up a slightly secondhand offer of accommodation (although I guess I offer my parent's house up all the time), we were much reassured when her son, Guillaume, contacted us via the blog and repeated the offer. We were incredibly grateful to be heading for a roof considering how the weather had changed to what was considered to be more typical of the area and reminiscent of home, (rain on and off). Guillaume met us at his apartment that he shared with his girlfriend and introduced us to Dutch stairs (about as vertical as possible without requiring the use of all fours)– 5 flights of them.
Their apartment was right in the centre of Amsterdam, a couple of blocks from Anne Frank's house. I insisted on standing in the rain to visit Anne Frank's house and was surprised by the size of it. Very interesting display on human rights and how certain rights are causing conflict when they are denied for well intentioned reasons particularly the freedom of speech (eg. Denying the holocaust) or freedom of religious expression (banning of Muslim headscarves in French schools). We went onto visit the Rijk's museum which despite being partially closed had enough Rembrandt's and Vermeer's for us. In Amsterdam we were incredibly well fed with French food and look forward to repaying the hospitality shown someday when they get to NZ.
Leaving Amsterdam we had a relatively long cycle to the Hook of Holland to catch the overnight ferry to Suffolk. After ~95km ride along the canals then the first hills we found in the Netherlands – sand dunes on the North sea bike route(below), we got to the ferry building at 4pm and were glad to find out that we had got the last cabin available. Being us we hadn't 
bothered booking (had had no problems in April with this when we came over although it had crossed our minds July might be busier). Unfortunately for our wallets but much to my delight this last cabin was the premium cabin with much needed ensuite shower and an INCLUSIVE minibar. We had a very pleasant crossing.....
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