Amsterdam, departure
Our flight home went smoothly, with a brief stop in Montreal. Our bikes and gear arrived intact. Once again we had a great bike trip! Although we didn’t get to Luxembourg, we did see a lot more of France along the Meuse and Moselle Rivers which is a lovely area to bike in. From waking up in the morn...
Amsterdam, day 2
We took the train to downtown Amsterdam, about 20 minutes to get to Central Station. We walked over to the meeting spot where our walking tour guide was to meet us at 2 pm. Our tour guide, Robert, was very good. He gave us an overview of the history of Amsterdam, some architectural explanations and...
Leiden to Amsterdam
We had heavy rain and winds all night. Thank goodness we had brought a tarp to throw over our tent to give us an added layer of protection. We chatted with the other campers in the shelter over breakfast. All the campers we had met were moving on today, like us. Their company and conversation met ou...
Leiden, day 2
All was dry this morning!! We had a good sleep in and then, had our breakfast in the little shelter. We walked into Leiden, with our first stop at the tourist information center. We had a self guided tour on my phone and some tips from the tourist info person as we set out to explore this city. The...
Kinderdijk to Leiden
We decided to go to Leiden, which we were told was a beautiful city. First, however, we went south to Dordrecht, the oldest city in Holland, to check it out and have coffee. We rode past the windmills once again and went south along the Noord River. We took a waterbus over to Dordercht, looked aroun...
Kinderdijk, day 2
It rained last night but we woke up to cool temperatures and partly sunny skies with no rain in the forecast. So, we knew that everything would dry out once again. We had a big breakfast and left to visit the UNESCO World Heritage site of Kinderdijk, about 6 km down the road. Our ticket gave us entr...
Evening ride to see the windmills lit up
What a beautiful scene!! We look forward to visiting the site and touring the open windmills tomorrow.
Beusichem to Kinderdijk
We were pretty wet after the night of rain. We packed everything up and rode about 15 km to our breakfast stop in the small town of Zijderveld. There was a town fair going on so a lot of people out. We found a place that sold coffee and homemade Dutch apple tart. It was delicious! The riding today w...
Elst to Beusichem
We started our day of riding about 9 am in a nice cool temperature. We quickly got through Elst and were back in the beautiful countryside. We had a tailwind for most of the way along flat paved bike paths and roads as well as the raised dykes on the De lek River. We reached Beusichem about 1230 and...
Afferden to Elst
We had a nice leisurely breakfast. We left our cozy cottage about 9:30 am. The morning was overcast and a nice cool temperature for biking. We rode along open country bike paths and through some cute small towns. Our coffee break was in Gennep, a small village along the Meuse River. We arrived at th...
Herongen to Afferden
It rained off and on all night but it wasn't cool. it briefly stopped while we were having breakfast but as soon as we packed up and rode away, the rain started again. It was a nice ride despite the rain. We stopped in Arcen for coffee, a small town with a cute little centre with a couple of cafes a...
Langst-Kierst to Herongen
It was a beautiful sunrise over the Rhine River this morning. It was an overcast morning but a nice comfortable temperature. We had breakfast in a little kitchenette for the campers, a nice cozy spot. We left the Rhine River today and headed towards The Netherlands border. We followed the node syste...
Cologne to Langst-Kierst
We packed everything up and started the process of taking all our gear down the 4 flights of stairs. We managed to get everything down with no incidents. A nice sunny day for riding. We headed out of Cologne along the Rhine. it took close to 12 km, mostly along industrial areas, to get out into the...
Cologne, day 2
This is our 40th wedding anniversary!! We are as happy together as we were on September 1, 1984, with a wonderful family and many good friends. We had a nice and relaxing morning with a big breakfast (Mary had champagne for us!!) and catching up on laundry, etc. We left to visit the city about 11 am...
Remagen to Cologne
An overcast and cool morning. We left camp about 9 am. We had a nice bike path to ride on today. Lots of shade. Our first stop was to take pictures of the Rhienhotel Dressen which is where Hitler and British PM Chamberlain signed the Munich agreement in 1938, which promised, according to Chamberlain...
Koblenz to Remegan
We left camp early as we planned to visit Deutches Eck in Koblenz, the point at which the Moselle river meets the Rhine river. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out as we had planned because they were setting up for a concert and we couldn't get near the point. We continued on our route and stopped to t...
Bacarach to Koblenz (Guls)
We all loved the little town of Bacarach but it was time to leave. We got an early start today. Beautiful sunny skies riding along the Rhine with nice temperature to start. We stopped several times to take pictures of the spectacular scenery as we continued along the Rhine Gorge between the Hunsruck...
Bacarach, day 2
Judy got up early today to get some sunrise photos and go to the bakery, about a 10 minute walk away. Lovely cool temperature and clear skies. We managed to get a load of clothes cleaned in the campsite machine this morning before we left to explore the town. We walked into town to explore the beaut...
Mainz to Bacarach
Up early and said good bye to our friends that we had met from our Italy trip. We crossed the old bridge in Mainz and headed out of town. It took about 9 km to get out of Mainz and into the countryside. We rode along the dykes once again. We stopped for coffee in Heidenfarht and then lunch in a park...
Beibesheim am Rhine to Mainz
Very cool overnight. After looking at the map and other resources, we decided to go back to the ferry at Gernsheim to catch the ferry to the other side of the Rhine River, as it appeared to be much more interesting. A beautiful sunny morning with cool temperatures made our morning ride very comforta...
Altrip to Beibesheim am Rhine
We had rain overnight, which cooled the air, and provided a much more comfortable ride than yesterday afternoon. Initially we rode through some nice shaded areas. Then, we were back out in the open country again. We rode past BASF, the largest chemical plant in the world, which covers 10 sqkm along...
Rulzheim to Altrip
Another sunny day with a cool morning breeze. We rode through a large forest this morning so lots of shade. Then, we rode beside the Rhine River for a short while. There was more water traffic today with a Viking cruise ship moored at Germersheim. Then, we rode around a huge Mercedes-Benz plant. We...
Roeschwoog to Rulzheim
As we were playing a s few rounds of the card game, 99's, a few young ladies pulled in beside us late last night and set up their site. We chatted with them for awhile and then, turned in. We got away by 9:30 this morning. Another lovely day of sunshine and nice temperature. We rode along the countr...
Strasbourg to Roeschwoog
We left the beautiful city of Strasbourg about 9:30 under blue skies, and cycled along a lovely shaded wooded area and then, through a few small towns. The half timbered houses continued to appear in every town. So quaint!! We arrived at our campsite about 1 pm and couldn't get in until 2 pm so we s...
Strasbourg, day 3
We took the tram back into Strasbourg early this morning. We had planned to see the inside of the Cathedral first thing since many people had told us to get there early. We arrived at the Cathedral door about 9:50 and walked right in. No line ups. While we were inside a few groups from the Viking cr...
Strasbourg, day 2
Our first full day off the bike since we were in Ghent 16 days ago. It was a beautiful sunny day, not too hot, as we explored the beautiful city of Strasbourg. We took the tram down to Cathedral square, about a 20 min ride, and looked around until we met our walking tour guide at 11 am. There was ju...
Saint-Louis to Strasbourg
Cool, fresh, overcast morning. Today's ride was mostly along the Canal de la Marne au Rhin. It was flat with well maintained bike paths for the most part. We eventually had sunny skies. We entered the Alsace Region, the most north eastern region of France, known for its white wines. We arrived in St...
Parroy to Saint-Louis
It rained during the night but we had a brief period between 6 and 9 am where it stopped raining. So, we got up early, packed up and we left the campsite by 8 am, the earliest departure so far. It started to rain shortly after we left and continued until we stopped about 11 am at a boulangerie in Go...
Villey-le-Sec to Parroy
All quiet in the campground during the night. We picked up our croissants and bread as we left. Overcast and a nice comfortable temperature. We cycled beside the Moselle River and some small canals for most of the day. It was a beautiful flat ride with some fun series of descends beside many canal...
Saint-Mihiel to Villey-le-Sec
Very quiet all night. Cool morning. Once the sun rose over the hill, our fly and ground sheet dried up. We left the campsite about 9:15. We cycled on the road about 20 km, rolling hills. Pretty views at the top of every hill. Then we arrived at the River Meuse again and we were on a bike path beside...
Verdun to Saint -Mihiel
It didn’t rain overnight but a lot of our stuff was still wet. Sunny and cool this morning. We had coffee and a croissant in the camp restaurant before packing everything up. We got out of Verdun and into the countryside quite quickly as our campground was just outside the city. We were not on th...
Doulcon to Verdun
A thunder and lightning storm lit up the sky for a few hours early this morning. It seemed very close to us for awhile. As a result, it broke the heat and we woke to a much cooler morning. We pack up and left the campsite by 10 am. We started our ride today on a fairly busy road for about 20 km goin...
Mouzon to Doulcon
Surprisingly, we slept well. It was quiet and calm all night. Once again the forecast is hot and sunny today so we got up early again and we rode away from the campground at 8:15. The route took us on rolling hills (not too big!), beautiful countryside and small villages for most of the ride. We sto...
Charleville-Mezieres to Mouzon
It was a warm night. We got up early so that we could get an earlier start and finish earlier than usual. The forecast is hot and sunny. Our plans have changed for this part of the trip. We have decided not to go to Luxembourg after hearing from other bike tourers. Given the hilly terrain to get to...
Fumay to Charleville-Mezieres
it became quite cool this morning. There was a lot of dew in the tall grass where we had set up our tent. Plus, the sun did not rise over the hilltop until we were ready to leave. Thus, we packed up everything wet, again!! The fog that had settled in between us and the hilltop was beginning to lift...
Emines to Fumay
Vincent brought us some milk for our cereal in the morning. We packed up and left their place about 9:45 am to look for the Eurovelo 5 route, a short distance away. Once on the EV5 we had a beautiful shaded downhill path to ride all the way to Namur. We drove around the city on EV5 which took us al...
Waterloo to Emines
We chatted with Luke and Oscar over breakfast and then we left Benoit's place about 10 am. Our first stop was The Lion's Mound, erected between 1824 and 1826, commemorates the spot of the battle of Waterloo in 1815, only 2 km away from Benoit's place. The lion symbolizes the victory of the allied a...
Hekelgem to Waterloo
It had rained a little during the night so we had to pack up everything wet, again! The good news is we left all our panniers and other bags under the umbrella on the terrace, so all was dry. After breakfast we said good-bye to Peter and Tina and headed out into the countryside towards Brussels. We...
Ghent to Hekelgem
We left our cozy little apartment in Ghent about 10 am and rode through the busy morning traffic of the city. Once out of the city we rode along paved dykes for most of the way along the Schelde River. We took a detour which shaved off a few kilometers. Then, we continued along the Dender River. W...
Ghent, day 2
We are very comfortable in our 2 bedroom apartment in the heart of downtown Ghent. Our second day in Ghent was spent touring the city in the sunshine. This morning, we walked a short distance passing some lovely old buildings and canals on our way to the meeting point for a guided walking tour. We h...
Tielt to Ghent
Sure enough we had rain last night!! But, we stayed dry since we were under cover, in the shed!! We left Wim's place about 1030. A nice day, cloudy and a tailwind, and not too hot. Countryside riding through small villages. Then, we rode along canals as we got closer to Ghent. We arrived in Ghent ab...
Ieper(Ypres) to Tielt
We had a nice easy ride day. We stopped to visit the Canadian memorial in Passendale, a lovely and peaceful site overlooking the valley, lined with maple trees and red hedges surrounding the site. We stopped for lunch in Roselaire and then, arrived at our Welcome to my Garden hosts, Wim and his daug...
Violaines to Ieper (Ypres)
Our ride today started with nice flat roads until we got close to the Belgian border, when the terrain changed to be quite hilly. After climbing a few hills, we stopped in Dranouter for something to eat. There was a massive music festival going on and lots of teenagers on the streets. We arrived at...
Arras to Violaines
Another rainy night and morning. We left Vincent's place with rain gear on. We had a good breakfast in the main old square. Then, we met Mary in a small suburb outside of Arras and headed off towards Vimy Ridge, only 8 kms away. Once we arrived at Vimy Ridge we signed up for a guided tour of the tun...
Albert to Arras
Thunderstorms, heavy rain and wind during the night. We packed up everything wet with the hopes of some dry weather today and tonight. After a couple of hours of riding through the countryside with some moderate hills, farm lanes and grassy paths we arrived at the Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland cemeter...
Amiens to Albert
The light show on the cathedral last evening was excellent. This morning we packed up and left our little studio apartment in Amiens. About 4 trips down the elevator got everything down!! As we departed from Amiens, we rejoined the Somme River to take us on another quiet and peaceful morning ride. W...
Abbeville to Amiens
The nights are still quite cool, down to 13-14 C, which we did not expect for this time of the year. We will wait and see how this may change as we move inland but we may have to buy some extra layering for the nights. Many of the stores are either closed on Sundays or open only until noon, so we pa...
Le Crotoy to Abbevile
Heavy dew in the morning made everything wet again. We had our breakfast and left the campground about 10am once our fly had dried out a bit. Another easy day of riding along flat bike paths with a tailwind for most of the way. And, the sunshine made it even better!! We rode along the large boardwal...
L'Epy to Le Crotoy
It rained most of the night but we woke up to sunny skies, We let our tarp and tent fly dry up before we packed it up for the day. We had a pleasant day of bike riding, flat and mostly paved surfaces. The signage for Eurovelo 4 was good so we didn't have to stop and consult our phones too often. Lov...
Wimereux to L'Epy
We love it when we can get fresh bread, croissants and pastries delivered right to our campsite!! The croissants are very buttery, flaky and delicious! More hill climbing today but lovely countryside. We rode through Bologne-Sur-Mer, a bustling coastal city and the capital of the Opal Coast. We stop...
Calais to Wimereux
Today we followed the Eurovelo 4 route. This was the first time we have been challenged by hills. The route took us up and down hills and valleys, into quaint little villages and passed beautiful fields of wheat and other crops. We pushed the bikes up a couple of hills as they were 12 and 13% grade....
Dunkirk to Calais
We got on the bikes only at 1130 this morning. We are now following the Eurovelo 12 route so the different signage along the route took some getting used to. We travelled on various types of surfaces today including boardwalks, dirt paths and paved roads, passing by canals, beaches, farmland, cities...
Middlelkerke to Dunkirk
The on-site bakery was a bonus for our breakfast today! Today's ride was mostly along the beach front. This beach is very wide and long with white soft sand. The entire strip is hotels and condos, with many families out and about. Although it was sunny, the headwind made the ride a little challengin...
Bruge to Meddelkerke
We are happy that the weather seems to have turned, as we have another sunny and warm day!! We had a short ride today. The ride was mostly on a beautiful flat trail along a canal. We saw a lot of rowers as there was a rowing club just outside of Bruge. We had lunch in a park in the ocean side town o...
Bruge, day 2
Another sunny day!! We took the bus into Bruge in the morning and arrived in the town square about 1030. We looked around and admired the old buildings until we met our tour guide for a food tour of Bruge. We learned about the food culture and the history of fries (not French fries!), waffles, choco...
Ertvelde to Bruge
We got a late start today as we knew we didn't have very far to go. We stopped in a little town called Eeklo for coffee and then arrived at our campsite about 1:30pm. This campsite is about 1.5 km to Bruge so we plan to take the bus in to visit the city tomorrow. For the rest of the afternoon and ev...
Kessel to Ertvelde
Nice sunny day! We made our first stop in Lier, a small city just south of Antwerp. We sat in main square and had a coffee and croissant. A local resident stopped to talk as he was curious about our loaded bikes He gave us a few pointers about the city. Another young couple who are bike touring also...
Baarle-Hertog-Nassau to Kessel
Another sunny day but not too hot with temperature around 24 C. Today, we visited Baarle-Nassau (The Netherlands) and Baarle-Hertog (Belgium). The people in these two towns, and two countries, work together on all aspects of municipal life. There is constant cross-border consultation and management...
Balen to Baarle
We did not get the rain as expected overnight We woke up to a nice sunny morning. We said our goodbyes to Marja and left for Baarle-Hertog-Nassau. The bike riding was easy going, along a large canal. Then we diverted to a much smaller canal. Lots of old oak trees lining the canals and not many other...
Zonhoven to Balen
Another sunny day. Yahoo! Packed up early and left Johnny's place around 8:30. We rode to another unique cycling experience called Cycle Through Water. The cycling trail goes through the pond from one side to the other. So, when you are cycling down this trail the water is at eye level. We continued...
Veldhoven to Zonhoven
It was a chilly night-down to 9 degrees and heavy dew in the morning. But, sunshine today! We left camp about 9:30. We had a nice ride along canals, wooded paths and green countryside. We arrived at the treetop cycling which is a cycling experience where you cycle up to ten meters high between the t...
Den Dungen to Veldhoven
There was more rain in the forecast so we got up early and left before it started at around 7:30am. It rained off and on most of the day and was quite chilly. We decided to make it a short ride day and arrived at our destination just outside of Veldhoven around 12:30. Our campground used to be a dai...
Den Dungen, day 2
The rain started about 7:15 am and continued for most of the day. We sat in the kitchen shelter, and chatted with some of the other campers, drank coffee, surfed the internet, and played backgammon and scrabble. We were glad that we made the decision to stay put and have a rest day.
Utrecht to Den Dungen
Beautiful sunny day and first day with no rain. We decided to try to make it to a small village outside of s-Hertogenbosch, called Den Dungen, about 85 km away. Knowing how long we had to go so we got up around 6 am and we left the campsite by 8:30 am. We continue to use the Fietsknoop node system t...
Utrecht, day 2
Sunshine early this morning but small rain showers here and there. We visited Utrecht today through a walking tour. Our tour guide was fantastic. So knowledgeable and entertaining. What a pretty little city!! Utrecht's train station was the only building bombed during the war so the city is well pre...
Utrecht
After a nice breakfast at the hotel, we went to the Gouda Cheese Experience. This was an excellent interactive display of the history of gouda cheese and the cheese making process. We checked out of the hotel around 12 noon and headed towards Utrecht. The ride was beautiful with lots of farmland, ma...
Gouda
We took some time in the morning to dry out our tent, our tent fly and ground sheet. So, we didn't get started on the bikes until about 10 am. We rode into The Hague to check out the International Court of Justice which is a nice old building. Unfortunately, the entry was still closed so we couldn't...
The Hague
Holland won the soccer match last night. As a result the folks in the campground restaurant and all around us were cheering, car horns were honking and fireworks went off. This all happened just as we had settled into our beds and were trying to go to sleep. Needless to say it wasn't a great night's...
Haarlem
It rained quite hard overnight and continued to rain, off and on, all morning. So, we stayed put until it stopped around noon hour, and then we biked into downtown Haarlem to check out the market and the downtown area. We rode on bike paths all the way to the core of the downtown. Being a Saturday a...
Arrived in Amsterdam
John assembled our bikes at the oversized baggage area. Once our bikes were ready to go, we walked out of the airport to find the bike path to our campground. Needless to say, a few heads turned as we went through the crowded airport, with such loaded bicycles. Once out of the airport and a few mete...
Departure day
Finally, our departure day. Our bikes are packed in bike boxes and all our gear in 4 large panniers, 4 small ones and 2 handle bar bags. We are excited to set out, once again, for a bike tour in Europe.