After riding 2 months through Japan in autumn of 2017, I am now back in Europe, working... but still riding on my brompton whenever possible. Currently this is mainly in the Netherlands, close to home. But hopefully other countries will join the list.

Saturday, 26 May 2018

End May, but summerly hot - ride around Leiden to Braassemermeer

Bicycle: 40 km 
Ferry: 100 m (?)
Riding time: 2:32 h
Total ascent: 48 m
Avg speed: 15.8 km/h
Max speed: 33.1 km/h
Route: Leiden - Kagerplassen - Braassemermeer and back to Leiden
Weather: Sunny and quite warm, 25 C

Today the weather was really sunny and summerly warm. As always I got a quite late start from home. I actually got up quite early in the morning (before 9:00) as the cleaning lady was coming... but until I finally made it out of the house it was nearly 16:00 in the afternoon. I am really not good at getting started... once I am started however I really enjoy riding. So a big advantage of just being on a tour is that hotel rooms have a check out time... so at some moment I just NEED to leave... but being at home, there are so many other things, that in retrospect aren't really so interesting / urgent / necessary that just keep me there in my inertia. 

However this Saturday I added to my list of excuses the heat. Actually when I finally left home, it was still quite warm, too warm for me to to make a long ride. So I first rode out just in the general direction of Kagerplasen, where I had seen in mid-May a nice area to have a picnic. And that's what I did, with my picnic  blanket brought along together with some nice cherries I had bought on Leiden market earlier in the day, and also my Japanese book 1Q84. I had bought that book about 2 years ago, in my attempts to get reading Japanese. And while I remember reading the first chapter and understanding it quite well, I remember reading the second (about Tengo, the second main character) and not understanding anything. So I directly skipped the 2nd chapter and went to the third (again being of Aomame, the character of the 1st chapter) and again it was quite comprehensible. Well I only managed to read 4 pages... as I am very slow reading Japanese, but still. So it seems I understand better female assassins than male would-be-writer. What does this tell about myself, I wonder.

But most time on my blanket I spent surfing the internet, simply because I cannot concentrate long enough on reading a Japanese novel. 

This was the view from my blanket in the grass while reading facing North... 



and facing South: 


Once it got cooler I finally set off to my cycling. And cycled following the knooppunt to the Braassemermeer. This is actually a very nice cycling way, with small cycling roads, all quite well asphalted and through the country side. Definitely something to repeat or extend on. 
In Rijpwetering, a small village along the road I came by for the second time the De Vergulde Vos a restaurant that seems to be very inviting with its garden... but I did not stop there. That will need to wait for a future occasion but continued on knooppunt to knooppunt to the Braassermermeer. 

I didn't really take any pictures, but it was actually quite a nice ride, and I think I will be repeating at least parts of it some day. Hopefully then also stopping at the Golden Fox. 
Only a very small part of this ride is along a major (well, semi-major) road. Most parts are really through the countryside. 


Oh yes, and I actually had a small ferry ride. I actually took the wrong street to get to my initial destination, ending up in an area, where there was no more any bridge to cross the water, but there was a very convenient ferry for cyclists. 




No comments:

Post a Comment