Hugo Jonker

I’m on a biking holiday — first time I’ve done such a thing. Here’s a short summary of what’s happened so far:

Day 9: Zaltbommel – Eindhoven

Bike counter settings:

I started off, and there were Ominous Dark Clouds in the sky. Aukje had checked though, and no rain nearby. So we set out (she and the kids accompanied me the first piece). It got darker and windier… oh boy! After I waved them off, I raced (well, counterwind, let’s say I did my best) to Den Bosch, hoping I’d find some shelter before the rain would find me. At restingplace De Lucht, I contemplated staying and waiting till it passed, but the clouds were a bit too far off. I’d had to wait an hour at least, I figured. So: on I went. After I crossed over the Maas, I felt relieved. The darkness was in Gelderland (a province) and it wasn’t setting foot in lovely Noord-Brabant! :)

Then happened what I expected the day before: I biked on rather relaxedly, and suddenly found myself almost at the place to be. With enough time to do some sightseeing/shopping — so that’s what I am about to do now :)

I’m on a biking holiday — first time I’ve done such a thing. Here’s a short summary of what’s happened so far:

Day 7: Spike City – Utrecht

Bike counter settings:

Today, I followed the bike route network here in NL. I figured it wouldn’t be that far, so this counted again as a day off (the fourth in succession: going to Breda didn’t count, the rest day surely didn’t count, going to Spike city also didn’t really count, and now it was again on the order of 80km — a relaxing day).

The thing about the bike route network is that it gives you gorgeous, relatively relaxed biking routes. Meaning that they are very definitely not the shortest route between two points.

Today I biked 107km. That ain’t a relax day in my book. That’s what I get for underplanning!

It was a bit a struggle to find some of the signs. Though generally speaking, the bike network is well signed, oftentimes there is but one sign signalling a change in direction. Miss it and you’re off the route.

While that was annoying at times (especially at T crossings, where the sign was all but unfindable, or actually absent), the routes do go through very nice areas. I biked through the outskirts of Rotterdam, and it was peaceful and quiet. Mind you, this is the second biggest city in NL. And it was peaceful. And quiet. That’s some route!

Gorgeous, and going through the green heart in the Netherlands. Very nice. Also: very much a place without places to sit down and have a drink. (unless you brought it with you, but you know what I mean: a terrace). I finally found a place to have lunch at about 4 o’clock… :s I wasn’t terribly hungry, but kind of annoyed with the lack of a place to sit down and be waited on. I guess I was getting a bit spoiled, so far :)

I’m on a biking holiday — first time I’ve done such a thing. Here’s a short summary of what’s happened so far:

Day 6: Breda – Spike City

Bike counter settings:

This day, I passed “my” monument (at the Moerdijk bridge) — it’s mine because it’s from my birthyear. It was also the first day where I followed the ANWB fietsroutenetwork (well, partially). There were loooong stretches of straight roads through peaceful, natural environments. Would’ve been even better with less headwind — I guess you can’t win ’em all. At one point, a heron crossed the cycle path, and even though I came from its right, it refused to give me right of way and just moved stately out of the way. Yeah, nature was all over me.

I was supposed to have dinner with my niece, uncle and aunt, but unfortunately, the latter two could not join. Had a very nice dinner with my nephew and niece instead, and long chats with my niece on life, the universe and everything.

While the first part of the trip was cool for the achievements (actually making it to NL, for example), by now I really started to enjoy the part where I got to spend some quality time with some very nice people. I don´t usually get this opportunity, and while I didn´t plan it for this purpose, it is a major upside.

I’m on a biking holiday — first time I’ve done such a thing. Here’s a short summary of what’s happened so far:

Day 3: Maastricht – Eindhoven

Bike counter settings:

Today was going to be fairly easy: mostly flat, about 80km (if I didn’t get too much lost :), and another nice day with nice weather. I crossed back into Belgium by going west out of Maastricht, and was very pleasantly surprised to find I had arrived in Flanders. People spoke Dutch!! Roads had bike lanes! Often even separated! After 2 days in Luxembourg and Walloon, it was a godsend. I left Maastricht in the morning at about 10:30, had a few breaks, and even a beer (I passed the Martens brewery at one point, and figured to celebrate it with a Martens pils. Conclusion: so not worth it — and thas was before I got back on the bike).

I arrived at about 17:00 in Eindhoven, and brought my bike immediately to the bike mechanic for its first revision. I had a nice evening at my parent’s place (yey, my new toner arrived!).

I’m on a biking holiday — first time I’ve done such a thing. Here’s a short summary of what’s happened so far:

Day 2: Bovigny – Maastricht

Bike counter settings:

The long day. This day, I was going to bike from (basically) the northern border of Luxembourg to the southern border of the Netherlands. Over the Ardennes. About 100km — which is quite a bit for me on flat terrain. I had been worried, especially after the headache of the previous evening. Luckily, it had vanished in the morning, and a healthy breakfast (and an early checkout time) put me on my way around 10am. It actually went quite well. The uphills were a struggle, of course, but the roads I had picked were not too heavy with traffic, and it was a pleasant day to be biking. Crossing the border under my own power was kind of magical: I had actually biked (at that point: close to) a hundred kms to enter NL! Again, in Maastricht, I missed the hotel in the beginning, and it took me a bit to find it.

The hotel was a sauna. Again, it had been a hot day. The hotel did not have any air conditioning, and the windows in the rooms could hardly be opened. Where outside, a gently breeze brought some relief and made it warm, yet bearably, inside, absent the breeze, oof…

Not a good night’s sleep, but the breakfast was good, and then I was ready to be on my way again!

I’m on a biking holiday — first time I’ve done such a thing. Here’s a short summary of what’s happened so far:

Day 1: Howald (Lux)- Courtil (B)

Bike counter settings:

The piece Howald-Ettelbruck was very nice (mind you, near Mersch, there’s a car sign “Mersch 3km” pointing left, and a bike sign directing you right. Go left, follow the road to its end, then go right, again right at the end, and then to the station and follow the “piste cyclable” signs again).

In Ettelbruck, you canNOT go on the N7 (or whatever the main road is) to Clervaux. Which sucks. I opted for the Piste Cyclable: PC16 and PC21 (or somesuch). It was A Big Mistake.
I got to Göbelsmühle, and then the PC did not continue. I was lost, but a mountainbiker appeared from the forest, so I asked him how to go on to the next place (Kautenbach). He indicated that you could go through the forest, though it was a bit narrow at points.

Turns out, “a bit narrow” doesn’t quite cover it. It was a small hiking trail on a slope. After 5 gruelling kilometers, I got my bike and my weary self to Kautenbach. Called Aga, and learned that it was another 60km of very hilly terrain to go on. I did not have the strength for so much more (having already done about 70km), so I took the train in Kautenbach to Troisvierges (about 30km). While it had been pushing 30 degrees all the way, and sunny, when I got to Troisvierges, it had rained there and was about 19 degrees. I biked another 20km (4 of which due to looking for the hotel), and had a runny nose and a headache by the time I got to my hotel. But: I made it! I biked out of Luxembourg, mostly under my own power! Hooray!

The weather has been lovely here in Luxembourg for the past few days. And I was recuperating. Also known as being terribly lazy :)
Well, I promised myself I’d do something to enjoy the nice weather. So, I decided to bike to Echternach and back. That isn’t exactly next door, so it’d take me a while.
On the way to, it was easy going. Sure, there were plenty of uphills, but even more downhills. A suspiciously large number of them… at one point I wondered if I wouldn’t end up at sea level like this. At any rate, thanks to all this downhilling, my average speed lifted from the paltry 17 it was before, to about 20.3. One other thing was the detour — I don’t know if it’s this or my slightly more remote location, but it was 49.79 km to get there. I kind of figured that that’d induce some ouch on the way back. Oh, top speed on a downhill was 52.6km, but the coolest part was breaking the law by speeding 20km — ok, in a 30km zone, but still :) most I’ve ever gone over the limit on a bike (though not the fastest by far).

That would be of later consequence, first to enjoy the city! So, I’m here, let’s do the enjoying part!!
Options were:
– sit on a terrace and have food / drink (no thank you)
– go to a shop and buy something I don’t need (no thank you).

Given my famously short attention span, I left within an hour of arriving. Probably shoud’ve given my legs a bit more rest, but what the hey.

I kind of was right about the more rest thing. In the beginning, my average was below 15. Thankfully, a downhill part notched it up a bit, and I managed to motivate myself into peddling somewhere around 16, 17 an hour. Geez! Had a few breaks, and my tush was kind enough to inform me that it had had quite enough of the saddle, thankyouverymuch.

With an emergency piece of pie from a cafe on the way (they had just closed the kitchen half an hour before I came, can you believe that??), I made it back to the University, where I had a more extended rehydration break and then went back home.

107 km in 5h20. Yeah, Tour de France beware and such :) But: at least I moved a bit.
(and, better: consdorf and berdorf are near there, meaning I can bike there to go on a hike!)