Around Hardtwald - on Regionalpark Rhein-Main cycling lanes

Bicycle: 15 km 

Riding time: 1:05 h
Total ascent: 150 m
Avg speed: 13.8 km/h
Route: Around Hardtwald
Weather: Cloudy and cold, but no rain

Today after some last minute Xmas shopping I had exactly the time for a small loop around my parents house on my fathers bicycle. A very strange bicycle with 3 brakes! 2 hand brakes but also a coaster brake. Plus the seat post has a suspension which makes that one sits on the bicycle and then sags in... it takes some time getting used to it. But well, it is a bicycle. 

Today I took it up into the small forest and then to the right following (initially) a cycling path that circumnavigates once Bad Homburg. I had done nearly the entire loop in the summer this year, but failed to find the indications in Ober Erlenbach, so ended up in Seulberg and then from there back home. Today I started the otherway round and it was much better indicated and I found my way to Ober Erlenbach. Once there however, I didn't really want to ride into the village, but took this picture instead:

And then continued on through the fields around Seulberg and Friedrichsdorf. There is a cycling lane system, Regional Park Rhein-Main, which while it doesn't really say where the round trip goes to, it is very efficiently indicated with these white stripes on the road... 

... and sometimes also some indications.

Additionally throughout there are indications of directions, similar to the Netherlands. 

What isn't similar to the Netherlands is the gradient. 

Meet-up ride: Tilburg - s'Hertogenbosch - Nijmegen

Bicycle: 81 km 

Riding time: 4:22 h
Total ascent: 183 m
Avg speed: 17.3 km/h
Max speed: 36.0 km/h 
Route: Tilburg - s'Hertogenbosch - Nijmegen
Weather: Sunny, a few drops of rain and STRONG tailwind, 23 C

So, today I had planned "the Quintessential route of Holland" around Leiden. But... I hadn't counted on the "Quintessential Dutch" strong wind. 

While still waking up, one of the co-riders pinged me on Meetup asking if we'd still be going ahead. I had closed the window during the night and wasn't aware on just HOW windy it was outside. After checking a bit the forecast, it looked like there were going to be winds of strength 6 all day today around Leiden... So not ideal for a round trip. 

After a little bit of further exploration with the help of Buienradar, I came up with a completely new, and much longer route, from Tilburg to Nijmegen, that had incorporated a strong tailwind. 

I had never been in Tilburg, s'Hertogenbosch or anywhere in that region, but thanks to route planner of the Fietserbond I was able to plan a route while on the train using the knooppunten system, which normally (and also today) assures quite scenic rides. I did a few manual modifications to the basic planning routing it even through more countryside and it really paid off. We had very nice and - for Dutch standards - quite varied landscape. Forrest, fields, small farmer villages, and an old city in the form of s'Hertogenbosch. But for me the highlight of the day was a small landscape of heath in full bloom. I think I have never seen that. In my entire life! So that was quite an experience:

Riding on we needed to cross the Maas, and - not surprising to me, as I had seen it in the route planned - but surprising to my co-riders, we embarked on a small ferry, which did run on demand. On our demand. A private crossing of the river. 

Thanks for the very strong tailwind it felt sometimes as if the bicycle had gotten a motor. Very relaxing ride. However when we needed to turn (occassionally) and got headwind (only in very few cases) or sidewinds, the wind was STRONG. 

Actually back in Leiden on my way back from the station, I nearly got to a standstill on the middle of a street crossing due to a strong side-headwind. 

Here the map of our ride today: 

Meet-up Ride: Leiden - Gouda - Kinderdijk - Dordrecht

Bicycle: 66 km 

Riding time: 4:09 h
Total ascent: 75 m
Avg speed: 15.8 km/h
Max speed: 38.5 km/h 
Route: Leiden - Gouda - Kinderdijk - Dordrecht
Weather: Sunny and quite hot, 24 C

Some weeks ago I had done this nearly same ride already, and found specially the ride from Gouda to Kinderdijk (and the ice cream just before Kinderdijk) really enjoyable. Compared to the ride I had done alone, the only planned change was how to ride out of Leiden as I had discovered the other day a really nice "through the countryside" small path towards Boskoop.

Apart from that it was nearly copy-paste from that earlier ride, including the lunch stop just prior to Gouda, in a restaurant in the countryside. Only that this time we could sit outside. (Last time, I tried outside, but it started raining, so I took refuge inside and got 2 pannenkoeken... waiting out the rain. This time no rain... so one pannenkoeken only. Actually this time it wasn't only "no rain", it was actually quite hot. Too hot for me to ride with the helmet, but just about right without it.

After lunch we passed through the center of Gouda and then outside into the country side as well.

Unfortunately in the middle of nowhere and about 10 km from Gouda one of the ride participants punctured and no one had a repair kit with him/her. Probably should get one... although I have not the slightest idea how to repair a bicycle... but she seemed to know... only that we didn't have any tools at all. After discussing a bit the options (including riding on the back of one of the bicycles to the next station, she finally decided to hike back to Gouda. That probably took her 1.5-2 hours, as we were really in the middle of nowhere and Gouda was the closest train station of all.

The remaining 3 of us, among them Kasia one of the regulars at the Meetups (see several prior posts), road on.  Had our ice cream break just before Kinderdijk, then road through the tourist hordes (already much less than in plain daytime) and onwards towards Dordrecht. Kasia got a bit tired, and it was admittedly really, really hot, so we took a ferry quite early on into Dordrecht and cut the ride short by probably around 10 km. And had this very nice and very fast ferry ride:

Me trying to take a selfie... not ideal...

The ferry brought us right into the centre of Dordrecht, and I still think that getting into Dordrecht is the one and only correct way how to approach this city.

Meet-up ride: Haarlem to Den Haag

Bicycle: 71 km 

Riding time: 4:09 h
Total ascent: 241 m
Avg speed: 17.2 km/h
Max speed: 37.4 km/h 
Route: Haarlem - Noordwijk - Den Haag - Leiden
Weather: Cloudy and tailwind, 17 C

Today Hans from the Den Haag Meet-up group organized a ride from Den Haag to Haarlem... well, at least that was the initial intention. But seeing the wind forecast he very wisely inverted the direction to be Haarlem - Den Haag, which gave us a nice tail wind while riding over the dunes. 

We met up at Haarlem station, actually most participants arriving on the same train. Just when we came out of the station it started to drizzle lightly... grr... it also looked very grey. But well, there we were, nothing to be done than start riding. Which we did after Kasia and I clad ourselves in our protective clothing. 

We passed quickly through the main square of Haarlem and already there the drizzle stopped (so probably after 5 minutes or so). Hans then guided us expertly out of the city on on the dunes. Kasia and I after a while stripped out of our rain clothes again, never to wear them again for the rest if the ride. 

The ride then was over the dunes, which offer a surprisingly varied landscape. Open sandy zones, but also forested areas. 

Shortly before Noordwijk we were hold up by a half marathon (or at least some running event) with thousands of participants:

Shortly after, in Noordwijk we had our lunch stop at a nice beach restaurant, and although it was really windy, we got a good table right in a corner protected from the wind, so that when the sun came out, it got actually nicely warm there. Otherwise, although we at 14th of July... it was more like an autumn weather. But not too bad for riding a bicycle, specially as it never rained again. 

We had a relaxed lunch together and then a few of us - me included - went for a short walk along the beach and getting our feet wet. But the water was cold. There were nearly no swimmers in the water, only a few surfers, but well dressed surfers.

Then we continued on paths that I know better from my frequent evening cycling tours, always along the sea and to Den Haag. Somewhere along the ride, when we had anyway stopped to regroup, I "assaulted" some passing hikers, and we got a nice group picture taken:

As always with these Meet-ups it is nice to ride a bicycle, but it is even nicer to just chat with the other people on the ride while being on your bicycles and more or less leisurely riding along. In 7 one can easily chat with everyone for some time, get to know new people. So really a great invention! 

Arriving in Den Haag Hans guided us to the very centre where we had a last drink all together, before slowly splitting up. I had decided to cycle back to Leiden and Kasia did come along as well, with a half idea to maybe cycle the entire way back to Amsterdam... but then we had the wind against us. It wasn't super hard, but definitely a noticeable difference. 

Tomorrow more, but then only around Leiden (around Kagerplassen).

Actually today was my first ride in like 10 days, as the weather this week wasn't very good, yesterday I was too lazy and last weekend we went with other friends from an other Meet-up to do canoeing in Utrecht, which was a lot of fun and surprisingly wasn't so hard as I thought... 

Meet-up Ride - Den Haag - Hoek van Holland - Maasvlakte - Brielle - Schiedam

Bicycle: 76 km 
Riding time: 4:38 h
Total ascent: 235 m
Avg speed:  16.4 km/h
Max speed:  33.8 km/h

Route: Den Haag - Hoek van Holland - Maasvlakte - Brielle - Schiedam

Weather: Sunny but not too hot, 23 C

Today was the time for my first self-organized Meet-up. We did the ride that I had planned a few weeks ago for a ride from Den Haag, that we had to cancel due to very strong winds and rain that day (instead I did though that day with an other person from Meetup a ride from Eindhoven to Nijmegen, which was the only part of the Netherlands without severe weather that day - and back wind). 

With Meetup you get people signing up, then signing out, then other people signing in, so until the last moment one cannot really be sure how many people will turn up. However as I enjoy cycling also alone, that's not really a problem and today 2 more turned up, then was planned for, which made us a nice group of 6. 

Only Garmin didn't want to collaborate at all. In Den Haag station, when we were just about to set off it didn't turn on correctly and then it didn't turn off at all. Luckily from Den Haag to Hoek van Holland it is a straightforward ride, which we found easy enough with the help of some street signs an one co-rider who had been riding there before. 

Along the way we stopped at the beach and even held our feet into the - relatively - cold water. 

We were a mixed group, with a German 50% majority (is that a majority?), a Spanish, a Dutch and a Chinese. And also from the bicycle perspective we were very mixed from a Swapsfiets (without gears and front break!) to a mountain bike, some racing bikes and touring bikes. Nicely mixed group, all riding together to one common goal.

After this stop at the beach we continued on to Hoek van Holland and had lunch there in a chiringuito on the beach.

This first part I recorded directly on Strava as Garmin wasn't collaborating at all. During lunch I managed then to restart the device, so intended the record the rest directly on Garmin, but somehow the piece between Maasvlakte and Brielle didn't get stored... grr... (but it was still a nice ride). Isn't it strange how not having an electronic copy of a nice experience feels bad. Why?

While the ride in this first part is over the dune (and with some side winds today), the second part is through the biggest port of Europe (at least initially), with a lot of industry, which make for quite some change. But even out of that industrial area relatively quickly one is again in the countryside and on we went to Brielle, our second (well, third, if you count the beach) stop of the day with a nice ice cream. From Hoek van Holland we took a ferry over. The Swapfiets rider found out that riding on a little bit more on the ferry would bring her closer to Brielle so a subgroup (4 of us) left the ferry in the harbour, while the other two continued a bit mot on the ferry, bringing them closer to Brielle and we met up there. They were faster, notwithstanding the Swapfiets. 

In Brielle we did a small touristic ride of the city and its fortifications and then followed in the "wheel-steps" of a ride Schiedam - Brielle - Rotterdam that I did last year with this same Meet-up group organized by Hans. I remembered that first part from Schiedam to Brielle as specially scenic and varied, and it didn't delude. 

When we came to the hand driven ferry one of the co-riders recognized that this place was actually quite close to Delft, where he and his 2 friends are living, so after (important!) crossing over with that mini ferry, they left towards the left while I ferried (on bicycles) the other two to Schiedam along the route. 

Here the third part of the ride from Brielle to Schiedam:

While the middle part got unrecorded, as somehow Garmin wasn't up to it today.

More Meet-up rides to come :-) 

Meet-up ride around Den Haag

Bicycle: 84 km 

Riding time:  4:40 h
Total ascent: 129 m
Avg speed:  17.8 km/h
Max speed:  33.8 km/h 
Route: A round around Den Haag and from/to Leiden
Weather: Sunny and clouds, 18 C


On this long weekend this was my second day in the saddle... this time on my big idworxs bike... which I haven't really yet started to like... and hell is my "carriage" sore. Such a hard saddle. Tomorrow back to the brompton, narrow saddle but more padding. 

Today I signed up to a Meet-up in Den Haag organized by a guy with whom I rode already twice last year, including a very nice ride out to Brielle. The topic today was a ride just once around Den Haag, and was per description about 37 km... So how did it get into a 84 km adventure? Well, Leiden isn't Den Haag, and I had decided yesterday that 37 km are a bit too lazy, meeting time was late enough (11:00) so that I'd ride out directly from home and ride on the big bike, that's so uncomfortable brining on the train (because so heavy). 

So there I went. I had plotted out yesterday with this web site:
https://en.routeplanner.fietsersbond.nl/ (okay, I know, already over a year riding in the NL, and just found about this page yesterday while on the train to Eindhoven...) a route directly from home to the meeting point, helped by the very small gridded postal codes in the NL, and a setting on the app to go along knooppunten. One can then download the entire route as GPX data and drop into the NEW FILES folder on the garmin. All done! (well, except the ride though). The first part of the ride, I knew very well, just along the train lines on a reserved cycling path far away for many kilometres from any cars, my "don't think about anything, "racing" path". Then into Den Haag, where I actually got semi-lost because of one turn on a parallel (or so it seemed) path from the real one... but it turned out the two where diverging quite rapidly. But well, I found the group and we set off.

This time we were a group of 6, no one with a racing bicycle, like last time (very intimidating to see those guys... but finally also riding with them was actually quite fun ... at least for me... maybe not for them ;-). 3 I already knew, the organizer, an other Dutch guy and a then obviously the same Polish lady with whom I rode yesterday. Plus 2 new guys, a Spaniard and a Briton.

It is amazing how quickly one (well me, today, at least) looses orientation, when just following someone else. I am not someone to loose orientation easily, but if you know that you just need to follow the leader, sense of orientation... bye-bye. At some point we stopped for a short break and I was honestly thinking we were oriented in direction on Rotterdam, and that we'd be pretty close to the sea. Well, I could not have been more wrong. A bit later on we sat down in a nice Italian restaurant with a terras outside, in a nice small old city and were sitting there quite some time, just beside a sluice. I liked the place and someone told me that along that canal one could ride all the way to Amsterdam and that Leiden was in that direction (obviously) as well. Only when we were leaving and I was saying, well "Leidschendam can't be very far from here", the organizer looked at me in mild bewilderment saying "this IS Leidschendam", not knowing how often I had already ridden from Leiden along that very canal to Leidschendam, had come to that very same sluice, crossed it, had a looked at the church, and then turned back.

Here proof of some of my previous excursions to Leidschendam, including one in winter where the canal was slightly frozen (and I had come by bus):

So does this mean my sense of orientation goes South when I follow someone else? Or that all Dutch villages just look alike (at least to me)?

Well, we had nice lunch and then headed back to the centre of Den Haag where we bid our farewells and I continued on my ride back to Leiden.

The meet-up ride was about 42 km, and starts in the below Strava at km 21 until km 63. But for me it was obviously longer and unfortunately at about km 75 saddle soreness kicked in. However if it wouldn't be for that I had a feeling that I could have ridden on, at my pace, to about 100 km without problems. Just need to get a saddle with more cushion. Not sure why this female saddle, specially measured for my buttocks is so uncomfortable on them. I vaguely remember that the bike fitter mentioned that one should sit on the bones... I do have my doubts. And my bones have no doubt at all, they are opposed to this idea with all their stubBONEss. 

An afternoon in Duivenvoord

Bicycle: 26 km 
Riding time:  1:33 h
Total ascent: 63 m
Avg speed:  16.6 km/h
Route: Leiden - Kastel Duivenvoorde - Leiden
Weather: Actually quite windy, cloudy, sometimes sunny, 19 C

After coming back from Japan, we had a full weekend in Leiden. Today I managed to convince my bicycle-adverse husband to come on a ride to Kastel Duivenvoorde, not too far from Leiden. 

With the knooppunten we planned the ride out there. He was riding the big bicycle, which I just bought last summer, but haven't really started to like yet... I think I only used it 2 or 3 times so far and then bought a new brompton (green brompton), as I had decided to leave my black one back in Japan under my office desk there. But per my husband, the big bicycle actually rides very nicely... I guess I need to give it a try again. Here the two of them, big brother and tiny brother: 

For the way out of the city I decided on the nice ride along the river and lake. However wind was against us. Not too bad... but still. 

After an error in the ride at about 15 km we arrived at the castle. And were lucky that the next guided tour was in only about 45 minutes, which allowed for a visit to the nice park before heading to the castle, which is only accessible with a guided tour (not that I knew that before). 

The guided tour was in Dutch only, however there was a written summary both in German and Italian available of the tour... but actually the Dutch version was perfectly understandable. The guides were all local volunteers who did a great job in explaining this castle. 

After the tour, we had a rest in the restaurant on the premises and then rode back the more direct way along the train tracks back to Leiden, with the wind in our backs. In Leiden when we came up to a Mosque on Haagweg, my husband mentioned that his old apartment from over 20 years ago was really close by, so we took a short detour to find it again. Sweet and far back memories!

One week of cycling

Bicycle:  213 km 
Riding time: 12:14 h
Total ascent: 503 m
Routes: Cycling paths around Leiden
Weather: Clouds some sun, windy to very windy, but always timed to the "no rain" window, about 7 C

I think this week was the first time since finishing my 2 months trip through Japan that I cycled every day. And weather actually wasn't that good. It rained every day, but thanks to an app called Buienradar, I was able to select a rain free moment each day. What I had no influence on was the wind, and yes, it was windy. Probably the worst day was Saturday.

Only the Sunday ride was a planned ride with a Garmin route and all. The other days during the week, I just set off in some direction out of the city, where I more or less remembered from last year, where to go. Not always did I actually remember where to go... but well, it's about cycling, not getting somewhere. I have the feeling that after last year's spring, I already have been everywhere around Leiden, and well, Dutch landscape only has a limited amount of permutation.

Monday
The Monday ride is already described here:
https://cycling-through-europe.blogspot.com/2019/03/time-between-2-meetings.html

Tuesday
On Tuesday I "needed" to go at lunch, because the rain forecast for the afternoon was definitely not promising. So I took a longer lunch break and a somewhat shorter ride.

A windy return to Leiden.

Wednesday
Although the wind wasn't as fierce as it was on some other days, it still blew quite steadily and specially along the channel towards Leidschendamm I noticed the effect dramatically. Outwards, I had to pedal strongly to get to maybe about 13 km/h, returning, 25 and more km/h were easy.

Thursday
After Wednesday where I already explored a similar region, I had decided for Thursday to ride towards Zoetermeer and do the big oval around the polder... but I started a bit too late and the sunset was coming upon me, so I cut the circle a little bit short and returned to Leiden. And yes, there was wind again.

Here a dramatic view of Den Haag in the sunset:

Friday
Already earlier in the week I did part of this ride out to Oud Ade, but on Friday I had more time prior to sunset, so I did the entire round around the Kaagerplassen.

As all week long, wind did accompany me, at least OUT of Leiden, back Westwards it was definitely against the wind, but then turning for Sassenheim, it got better again.

It is the time of the year where these trees get all, or nearly all cut. It looks a bit barbaric, to cut those poor trees down to their stem each year... but apparently they don't mind and in a few weeks they will be all green and have grown new branches. 

Saturday
So, I wanted to go to Wassenaar and make a round close to the airport and then come back. Similar to this one: https://cycling-through-europe.blogspot.com/2018/06/dune-ride.html But... I got lost already in Leiden...

There was a deviation due to some road works (which in the Netherlands gets an indicated alternative route also for the cyclists... but I didn't understand well where it ended... and so just thought that well, now this direction approximately should be right to get me onto Wassenaar. Well, as you can see, it did NOT get me close to Wassenaar. But well, I hadn't really anything special to do in Wassenaar, so once I found out where I actually was, I was already at the entrance to the cycling road alongside the rail track from Leiden to Den Haag. So I road a little bit there in direction of Den Haag. The wind was fierce, so fierce that at some point I needed to stop because I had the impression that I would get blown from the bicycle. But then I continued.

The speed difference between riding against the wind and with the wind was really huge. Against the wind I struggled to ride at a bit over 10 km/h, once turning, I was easily able to ride at about 23 km/h, and even peaks at over 30 km/h were not specially strenuous. Actually riding back at probably 25 km/h as an average was way more relaxing and easy on my legs than the 10 km/h it took me in direction of Den Haag. Does this now mean that the wind was blowing at 15 km/h? Or even more? Mysteries of mathematics.

On Saturday I didn't have that much time for a lunger ride, as at 15:00 I was signed up for a Japanese speaking meet-up in Leiden. Which was nice and of very high level, surprisingly. Only really one participant with whom I spoke couldn't really speak Japanese, the others were either Japanese, or very advanced learners of Japanese. One even lived in Japan 7 years, had studied Japanese in Leiden and was now preparing to become a translator.

Sunday

I finished the week with the longest ride, 65 km, from Leiden through Alphen to Gouda, and then back through Boskoop. The way out of Leiden I had the wind in the back which is always deceiving, because it seems like "oh, today it finally isn't very windy"... but actually if you are riding effortlessly at 25 km/h and don't feel the wind... this only means that it is actually very windy. I had planned out the route on Garmin a few days ago, and really followed it. As we are in the Netherlands, obviously everything was on bicycle paths, not all of them very nice though. I had probably left too much to Garmin, and it selects often not the nice cycling lanes across the countryside but rather the "cycling highways" along major roads. But I also discovered a new (to me) cycling road from outside of Leiden back in the city.

In Gouda I only stopped briefly to take a picture:

Time between 2 meetings

Bicycle: 21 km 
Riding time:  1:05 h
Total ascent: 38 m
Avg speed:  19.2 km/h
Max speed:  39.2 km/h
Route: Cycling paths around Leiden
Weather: Clouds some sun, windy, but no rain, 4 C

I had 1.5 hours between two afternoon meetings, and as yesterday (Sunday) the weather was only ideal for staying at home, I needed to move. So I changed quickly into my cycling clothes and hopped on the new brompton and just rode into a direction, where I knew I would be out of the city quite quickly and could just cycle around. Which, if you look at the map below, is exactly what I did. Cycling around without a clear goal. Well, actually the goal was to be home again before the 19:00 meeting. So at 18:10 I turned at Sassenheim (after surpassing an electrified cyclist!) and rode back... but the way back was too fast, also because the way to Sassenheim that I took was everything but straight, so on the way back I did the same, everything but straight. That's how this strange form came into being. And yeah, I was home again 20 min before the meeting, had even enough time for a quick shower, and could connect perfectly to my next TC. 

Shortly behind Sassenheim this field of daffodils... spring is coming!

I don't have a statistic, but it feels like one of my fastest rides, at least it must have been the fastest this year, I think. I had obviously some back wind, but also for a short stretch when going NW some headwind. 

WIND and more wind

Bicycle: 45 km 
Riding time:  2:57 h
Total ascent: 128 m
Avg speed:  15.1 km/h
Max speed:  29.5 km/h
Route: Leiden - Boskop - Alphen - Leiden
Weather: Very, very windy, and some rain at the very end, 8 C

After a long time not riding, today finally back on the bicycle. Riding out of Leiden was very nice, everything was so easy, just riding along... My initial plan was to ride to Alphen and catch there one of the LF routes and just follow that for a bit. However I hadn't realized why it was so nice and easy to ride out of Leiden: the WIND!

I realized this the moment I left the way from Leiden to Alphen and turned South, what a wind. Although it was mainly sideways, it was still extremely strong. So I decided to go to LF route #4 which seemed to run more in a West - East direction, i.e. with the wind. And I did make it to LF4 (close to Boskoop), but then looked at my weather app and saw that the rain was going to come. So I needed a return plan. Thus I turned back to Alphen with the idea to catch there the train. When I arrived at the train station the train to Leiden was just about to leave the next going to come in 30 min. Between that wait, and anyway, I was out there to ride my bicycle, not a train, I decided to ride back. 

Riding through Alphen city was okay, but once outside and along the Rhine, the wind hit strong and now straight on. Sometimes it was so strong that I needed to switch to the lowest gear and it was still feeling like climbing a mountain (well, a small mountain but still). At one point a sideway gust even nearly made me fall of the bicycle. I was just in time to get my feet down on the ground. But well, on I went. The wind was so strong that the Rhine had real waves on it, like the sea. 

Arriving in Leiden also rain started. Not for very long, but I got my raingear on (at least the jacket). 

At home the hot shower was extremly welcome, and my legs definitely know what they have done today. Although it was "only" 45 km, at least half of them need to count at least twice with all the effort that went into them. 

Cycling in the Delta del'Ebre

Bicycle: 15 km 
Riding time:  1:27 h
Total ascent: 16 m
Avg speed:  10.4 km/h
Max speed:  23.8 km/h
Route: Ride around a lagoon in Delta del'Ebre
Weather: Sunny, around 15 C

My last few 2018 vacation days are being spent for a week in Spain. I arrived yesterday to Barcelona airport, my husband, who was already in Spain for work picked me up, and we went straight to Tortosa. Today we then went to the Delta of the Ebro. We were here already quite exactly one year ago and liked the area. Back then I had also seen that it is a region recommended for cycling, so today we took that opportunity and rented some (quite bad) bicycles in a small place close to the largest lagoon of the delta.

The lagoon is a sanctuary for flamingos:

We cycled once around and even my husband mentioned that it was really nice. And it was. The cycle path is away from the streets, the weather was excellent and there are enough places to stop and watch birds along the route.

There are also more cycling paths through the delta, and at least where we were they were well indicated.

More can be found here: http://parcsnaturals.gencat.cat/es/delta-ebre/visiteu-nos/equipaments_i_itineraris/itineraris_2/