Going South - Day 2

Route: Veghel - Eindhoven 

Distance: 89 km

Elevation: 84m

Duration: 4:37

Average speed: 19.3 km/h

Weather: 18 C, cloudy but dry, sun only getting out when already in train

As my original plan to sleep in Eindhoven and then ride South from there into Belgium and Ride through the trees didn’t succeed yesterday, I was free for new plans today. And plans I made! 4 different options. Option 1 & 2 involved riding to Maastricht (or stopping a bit earlier in Roermond). Options 3 & 4 I came up this morning and were more centered in nice (or at least potentially nice) landscape and less in distance and getting as much to the South possible. This landscape decision was definitely a good one. Very varied landscape. Some riding along canals, some through agriculture landscape, a lot through nature reserve with either forests or heathlands. 

And not a single polder!!!  It wasn’t all landscape either. There was a nice, small (and private) castle as well.

 

It wasn’t a fast ride as there was quite some gravel involved but a very scenic ride. And definitely something I am going to repeat with people from the meetup group. At the right moment in time a small Biergarten appeared in the middle of a forest:

And , hey, I went as much to the South (and actually a few meters more) as current Corona restrictions allow:

Going South - Day 1

Route: Leiden - Veghel

Distance: 131 km

Elevation: 152 m

Duration: 5:52h

Average speed: 22.4 km/h

Weather: 17C, cloudy but dry, nice tailwind 

During the week the weather was finally fit for summer. Now on the weekend it got grey again, but at least no rain and reasonable temperature for cycling. So nothing to complain. 

After trying out my Apidura cycling bag over Pentecost for the first time, I gave it a new go this weekend. Originally I aimed to do my first century ride (I.e., 100 miles = 160 km)… but I started quite late (around 10:00) and although I had mostly tailwind, the last stretch I had planned from Den Bosch to Eindhoven would have had sidewind and in Den Bosch I was only at about 105 km. So riding an other 55 winding through the landscape didn’t sound attractive. Luckily I hadn’t booked any accommodation for the night yet (I had checked yesterday and it seemed that there was more than enough available in Eindhoven, so no hurry). So I repainted my ride and headed to Veghel instead. A surprisingly ugly, mid sized town, with a lot of industry. 

But open restaurants! 

I think today was the first day that restaurants in The Netherlands were again allowed to open indoors. 

On my way here I did however come through three nice small villages/cities. 

Schoonhoven

… Nieuwpoort…

.. and Woudrichem.