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:
| begin: | 452km |
| end: | 559km |
| cumulative avg: | 19.1km/hr |
| route: | Knooppunten: 04,05,06,07,08,38,57,49,48,46,47,45,63,64,50,03, LF 2, 40, shortcut to 46, 47,50,37,96,68,67,70,71,72,73,09,10,11,12,13,16,18,46,45, LF7. (note that the bike route network reuses intersection numbers — start near Spike city and follow the logical progression to get my route.) |
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 :)