Three weeks of solo bike touring and camping, across 600+ miles of The Netherlands and Belgium. Riding over massive man-made dikes, on paved bike paths cutting through dark forests and rural farm fields (where I might not see another person for hours), to Trappist breweries and old towns, along canals, on muddy back roads and unsigned border crossings, and to a bonfire with a band playing under a rusted crane. ...
Biking through former industrial yards (now shipping container artists’ studios, I think?) across the water from central Amsterdam
Detoured to an industrial peninsula on the map (still has bike paths, so should be allowed)
Biked across one of the civil engineering wonders of the 20th century, the Delta Project (many kilometers of barriers that can be moved up and down to allow normal tides or block rising ocean levels from flooding the countryside)
Along the North Sea (varied terrain
Bike path between two canals (near Sluis), very pleasant.
Biking to De Haan on the North Sea, with FD
Realized yesterday I was only 40 miles from Bierbrouwerij Koningshoeven (the only Trappist beer brewing abbey not in Belgium, a.k.a. “La Trappe”)– sounded worth a route change.
Cluster of windmill icons on the map? I should go there!
Ring bell for tiny €0.75 ferry boat. Cute! (somewhere in Brabant)