Across Country to Amsterdam.

A good night in the tent but it got very warm very early and I was dripping by the time that the tent was stowed and we were ready to head out and explore more of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

I entered "current location" and "Mercure Amsterdam City Hotel" into https://cycle.travel on my phone, generated a route away from the coast to our Amsterdam hotel, downloaded the gpx file, opened the file in my Wahoo Elemnt app and passed it to my handlebar cycle computer (a Wahoo Elemnt Bolt). It sounds complicated but in a few minutes the route was in my cycle computer, ready to guide us through our day.




To pre-empt any complaints that fellow cyclists sometimes direct at those who 'depend' upon electronics to navigate, let me state that I have used old-school paper maps for navigation for the last half century or so. It is, no doubt, a handy skill to have. But modern technology does have many advantages: it tells me where I am currently located and where to turn next, allowing me the freedom to gaze around and take in the surroundings, whether they be countryside or town. And the countryside was very pleasant to look at. Backstreet detours through towns en route would have been very difficult to find, let alone to navigate through, requiring 110% concentration on a paper map and then still likely to result in error and backtracking. True, I didn't generally know the name of the settlement we were passing through and that would have been readily available on a paper map - but I would not have remembered the name anyway!

After a couple of kilometers, we came to the StayOkay youth hostel, where Bev arranged a couple of sandwiches each and coffee for me. It was very pleasant sitting outside, eating a leisurely breakfast in the shade, trying not to think too much about the hot day cycling ahead.

But the day ahead, hot though it certainly felt, was very pleasant. The Netherlands certainly looks after their cyclists; our route was about 85% on cycle routes separated from the roads that the cars and trucks used. Most of the remaining 15% was along cycle lanes, separated only from the courteous traffic by a painted line.


The countryside was fairly densely populated but with fields of flowers and grain. Canals and drainage ditches were everywhere, with much of our route alongside these waterways. There were the usual complaints from me (sore knees, sore bum) and it was hot but we enjoyed it still. Not a long day but we were happy to check into our air-conditioned hotel for a few days in Amsterdam.






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