Route: Leiden - Gouda - Nieuwpoort - Gorinchem - Tilburg
Distance: 123 km
Elevation: 149 m
Duration: 6:58
Average speed: 17.7 km/h
Weather: sunny, 25 C
Yesterday was my last working day, and already today my six week Tour d’Europe (TdE) started. Although in the morning I needed to try to send some parcels with all my office equipment back to my company, which DHL had not picked up yesterday. So the tour started with some delay, and the parcels are still at home because the DHL point at Hema could not take these parcels in.
I had posted the ride on the Den Haag Meetup page, just in case someone wanted to tag along. And yes, an outdoor guide (Trekking and rafting in the Himalaya!) , Mukesh, wanted to come along. So we met up with a bit of delay at Leiden station and started the ride which should bring me about 2600 km through Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France and Luxemburg, if all goes per plan. Today it started with the first 120 km.
From Leiden to Boskop, a route that I cycle frequently, but this time through some Boskop gardens. Then on into Gouda and after that we had our first stop at a bakery in Haastrecht. After that continued along a nice, winding small river, through a part of south Holland which is relatively remote, because it is not well served by trains.
After crossing the Lek by Schoonhoven, we had lunch in the small, old and very relaxing village of Nieuwpoort.
We continued to Gorinchem and it became little by little hotter and hotter and my water supplies were running short so we needed to make a small (5km?) detour into Gorinchem where there is a public water fountain, before continuing through the landscape and for the first time in this trip leaving known roads!
Still quite hot I wanted a break and a cool drink and we found a brewery in Almkerk. I got a big apple juice and Mukesh a locally brewed beer. Sitting in a nice garden in the shades of some trees was very relaxing and when we restarted also the actual temperature had come down sufficiently to be comfortable again.
Continuing on we came to an other ferry, this time crossing the Bergsche Maas. Luckily it was open. I hadn’t realized in the planning stage that there was a ferry.
We slowed down. Not sure if Mukesh was tired or if he thought I was tired. Anyway we cruised through the landscape and hit finally the Wilhelminakanal shortly before Tilburg. I knew that part from a previous ride I had done from Leiden to Tilburg (back then passing through Dordrecht) but what was really nice was the Kanal after Tilburg.
A few km before our hotel we had to turn inland and around 20:30 we arrived. Didn’t have time for a shower before dinner but that allowed us to have a nice dinner in a surprisingly nice village.
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