Day 71 Rotterdam to Reeuwijk

Day 71. Rotterdam to Reeuwijk. 55.61 kms cycled. 3.42 hours cycling. 28.2 km/h max speed. 15.02 km/h average speed. Weather – overcast but warm mid 20s.

With just 50 or so kms to go tomorrow to Utrecht I will have finished my solo cycling adventure from the south of Portugal to The Netherlands.
And what an adventure it has been!! It has been without doubt the most physically challenging thing I have ever done, but also one of the most enjoyable.
I always knew I had chosen a tough route through Portugal and over the Pyrenees, but Portugal in particular turned out to be much tougher than I had ever envisaged.
But it was also my favourite country and is a place I will definitely return to in the future to explore more closely.
Actually the route I took over the much feared Pyrenees was relatively straight forward compared to the never ending hill climbs in combination with ferocious headwinds and freezing temperatures that I encountered in Portugal. It was, without doubt, a real test both physically and mentally. All I can say in hindsight is thank goodness I trained so hard in the lead-up to the trip as without such a good preparation there is no way I would have got through the first 10 days let alone the entire trip.
Overall the experience has been wonderful and I must say I am pretty pleased to have completed the entire trip (with still 50 or so kms to go) without any injuries or illness.
But more importantly I am delighted to have just finished in one piece and having survived France’s horrific traffic/roads. I have always mistakenly believed that France was a bike friendly country, I guess mainly because of the fame of the Tour de France. But nothing could be further from the truth, with French drivers in general by far the worst I encountered and their roads nothing short of deadly for cyclists.
Cyclists seem to be fair game, with drivers seemingly intent on seeing how close they can go without actually hitting you. And as for the roads, they are a disgrace. There is no such thing as cycle paths or even a verge on the side of the road and finding traffic free roads is near on impossible. The result is that you have to take your luck out in the middle of the amateur Grand Prix with as I found out almost deadly consequences.
But enough of all that. In the scheme of the overall trip that was just one small negative, in fact probably the only negative of the entire trip.
Travelling by a bicycle is the best way to explore a country, although you have to be content with seeing what you can from the road you have chosen. Often I would have loved to have deviated off my chosen route, but physically and time wise it is just not possible most of the time.
Another memorable aspect of the trip has been the large number of friendly and supportive people I have met along the way. I lost count of the number of people who helped with me with directions – most of the time without prompting from me – and those that just wanted to stop and have a chat. Often that chat was in two different languages, but was enjoyable nonetheless.
I also must say that I have enjoyed writing this blog immensely. It gave me a focus at the end of each day, even on the days that I was totally exhausted. Getting the feedback from everyone back at home was also fantastic and made me feel like I was not quite so alone at times.
The Netherlands has been the big revelation of the trip. It is a beautiful country and I am glad I have had the time to see a fair chunk of it. Where Portugal was wild and untamed beautiful, Holland is manicured beautiful. There is not one square kilometre of land that isn’t used in some way and everything is kept in such a groomed and perfect way.
Today’s riding was through Gouda, the home of the famous cheese and like every other medium size town I have visited here was just picture-perfect.
Anyway, it is off to Utrecht tomorrow and the next leg of this amazing holiday