No hills/no gravel - Day 3

Route: Wolfheze - Schoonhoven - Leiden 
Distance: 135 km
Elevation: 215 m
Duration: 6:18 h
Weather: sunny and slowly getting warmer, 9 C

After two days in the “hilly” region around Utrecht and Arnhem today I cycled all the way back home. I had taken the day off, as I need to use up my PTO days before relocating to Japan (likely early May) and weather forecast was fine. Sunny and even a slight tail wind. 

This was the only hill I saw (and didn’t climb) for the entire day:

Apart from that it was a quite ride through the vast river delta of the Netherlands  seeing some old town, but mostly on the distance:

I had a few stops along the way and 2 (!) soups to combat hunger and a bit of cold. But, yeah, pretty ride, but also pretty uneventful.

TdE - Day 46 Hoogstraaten - Leiden

Route: Hoogstraaten - Breda - Dordrecht - Rotte - Leiden
Distance: 123 km
Elevation: 215 m
Duration: 5:57 h
Weather: Sun and clouds, tailwind, getting a bit colder, 17 C

Overall Route: Leiden - Vennbahn - Trier - Mosel til Koblenz - Rhine til Mainz - Main - Tauber - Altmuehl - Donau - Black Forrest - Alsace - Canal Rhine - Rhone - Saar - Luxembourg - Ardennes - Flanders cycling classics - UCI World Championship - Leiden
Distance: 3,091 km
Elevation: 15,749 m
Duration: 46 days, including a rest week at my parents
Weather: Phenomenal! Mainly sunny, a few days with some clouds. More days that is was actually slightly too hot for me to ride than days that it rained (I  think proper rain only on 2 days, and a bit of drizzle maybe on another 2). 

In total over these past 6,5 weeks, I have ridden a bit over 3,000 km (3,091 km to be precise) and racked up a total elevation of over 15,000 m (15,749 m to be precise again). 

I haven't made the calculations, but that is probably more elevation than in the entire rest of the year. Poor flat Netherlands... (picture from quite close to home... just to illustrate the flaty flatness of the NETHERlands):

On my last day of this tour around Europe I put in another long day, with over 120 km... but I was massively helped by a nice and steady tailwind. Plus the weather got better again, no rain, just some decorative clouds. However clearly autumn is coming... the temperatures are dropping. The first day that I did not ride in my T-shirt but instead in the Castelli ROS jacket... albeit mostly with the arms zipped out. 

Probably the nicest part of today's ride was at the beginning, still in Belgium (!) where I had a nice winding river with a bicycle path alongside ...

.... that also continued beyond the border. 

Further on I followed simply what Komoot had planned as a direct route, which, as we are now in the Netherlands was all on either very good, or at least good cycling paths, although mostly along highways, so not really nice areas of the country. But the purpose of the straight line from Tienen to Leiden wasn't to see specially nice parts, but to get back to Leiden by Tuesday evening, in just 2 days for over 200 km. 

And this goal was achieved and something even waited for me back home:

Oh yeah... the first washing machine in over a month!

TdE - Day 42 Gent - Elewijt

Route: Gent - Schelde - Dendermonde - Mechelen - Elewijt 
Distance: 88 km
Elevation: 136 m
Duration: 4:43 h
Weather: Sun and clouds, and a bit windy, 20 C 

Frankly speaking, today was a rather unremarkable day, probably also because I missed the planned highlight of the day, as I started WAY too late. Bad planning…

So the planned highlight was to try to see the U23 men road race world championships somewhere between Antwerpen and Leuven, probably around Bonheiden or Keerbergen, which are both after Mechelen… only that Mechelen was at nearly 80 km from Gent, and I didn’t stay in Gent before 10ish… which was definitely too late for me to make it all the way. 

Apart from this, the Ride was quite similar to riding in the Netherlands: rivers, canals, dikes and wind. 

Only in Dendermonde I took a probably wrong decision to already cross the Schelde in order to avoid a ferry crossing where or seemed that the ferry would travel only once an hour… But the Schelde on the Dendermonde side doesn’t really have a cycling way. So for some time I was stuck in heavy traffic (on a cycling path which was just about acceptable but not nice not good). 

Only later I made it on a cycling path along a train line which was only for cyclists… but it had to cross the train line a bit too frequently, so that one couldn’t really just ride on. 

Today I also found the second bucket of utilitarian cyclists in Belgium: in Mechelen! I only crossed the city on a canal, but wow was there bicycle traffic! I mean, just normal amount from a Dutch perspective, but not sure I crossed any other city on my trip with that many cyclists around and about.

The night today I am spending in a congress hotel, somewhere not too far from Mechelen, the highway and the airport. 

When I checked in, the receptionist informed me that there is also a fitness area… but I think that 88 km of cycling is sufficient fitness for a day… so instead I switched on the television and watched the last 30ish kilometer of the bike race, while washing my kit (with the hotel’s rubber duck).

TdE - Day 41 Kortrijk - Gent

Route: Kortrijk - Oude Kwaremont - Paterberg - Koppenberg - Oudenaarde - Gent
Distance: 79 km 
Elevation: 296 m
Duration: 4:19 h
Weather: sunny and some clouds, more in the afternoon, 20 C

Well, so I have to admit that sometimes I am in delay with my “homework” and this is one of these posts. So instead of writing it actually on the evening after climbing the Oude Kwaremont, the Paterberg and the Koppenberg, I am writing this while sitting on the pavement close to the Saint Antoinusberg in Leuven, waiting for the men’s World Championship to pass for the second time. 

But back to this ride, which took me over some pretty iconic climbs in Flandern, all three of them cobbled climbs. 

The first, Oude Kwaremont was actually reusable for me (and my luggage), this one being at an average of 4% and a maximum of 11,6 % (on cobbles!). The other two where much steeper with an rebate of 11% or 12 % and a maximum gradient of over 20% both of them. Who invented such hills? And then paves them with cobbles???

But then I was also able to ride over the pictures of Fabio Cancellara, Tom Boonen and Johan Museeuw on the top of the Paterberg. 

I wasn’t always a cycling aficionado, when living in Spain I was definitely following football and not cycling, but since rediscovering my love for cycling (myself, not necessarily watching others doing it), I got more into cycling and since last year watched my fair share of cycling races (on TV). So it was special to ride up (or push up) MY bike on a climb I had seen several times in television already, seeing the curve at the top of Paterberg … or the other day, seeing the chapel on top of the Muur. Something like being able to play football in a proper stadium. Maybe not like playing football in the Camp Nou, that would probably bring riding up the Stelvio , but still…

The day however started in the flat along a canal out from Kortrijk to the Schelde river. 

And if I hadn’t actively chosen to see/ride those three iconic bergs, the ride from Kortrijk to Gent would have been pretty flat, just along canals and rivers. 

I also came through Oudenaarde, an other city with cycling races named after it. 

And the night I spent together with Roubaix in a apartment hotel in the center of Gent …

… and tried an other version of Kwaremont.

TdE - Day 37 La Roche en Ardennes - Dinant

Route: La Roche en Ardennes - Marche en Famenne - Ciney - Leffe - Dinant
Distance: 78 km
Elevation: 830 m
Duration: 4:48 h
Weather: sun and clouds, 21 C 

On through the Ardennes! The day started with a downhill through the valley which was surprisingly wide, compared to the tight part at La Roche. 

But already at Hutton did I leave that valley and went for most of the day through an undulating plateau, with small villages and a lot of cows. 

Cows really accompany my ride since Luxembourg. While in Germany I hardly saw any cows outside on their pastures, in Luxembourg and Belgium (and obviously the Netherlands), that’s what cows do. What is surprising though is that some breeds are extremly muscular. Why? All I ever see them doing is to stand around on their grass and eat grass, or to lie in the grass and to ruminate. How can that produce so much muscles? Cows are worse than a couch potato! 

I even saw some bills that positively looked like pumped up bodybuilders, and what were they doing to get that body? Standing around and eating grass! 

On this undulating terrain a cycling race was going to happen but a bit too late for me. I just know, because I found a surprising number of people sitting in camping chairs at the side of the road all waiting for the race to arrive (in about 1hour).

My last major stop of the day was in Ciney in a “biker” bistro on the main square. What was surprising here, was that apparently it was totally okay to bring food from somewhere else. People around me at the tables had sushi or French Fries, all bought somewhere else. Strange habits! 

After all this high, undulating plain, I was surprised how much it went downward to get to Leffe, and then finally to Dinant. This last valley of the day was again very narrow, quite steep, and dark, but then emerges at Dinant, which isn’t by itself a wide valley, but the Maas (or Meuse as it is known in French) is already a mighty river. Even with some boats on it. More boats in 5 minutes in the Maas than in a week cycling along the Danube! 

My hotel was in a steep bank of the river in an ex-convent, now transformed into a museum (and hotel) of Leffe, the beer.

TdE - Day 36 Martelange - La Roche en Ardennes

Route: Martelange - Bastogne - La Roche en Ardennes 
Distance: 72 km
Elevation: 537 m
Duration: 4:19 h
Weather: sunny but not too hot, 19 C

Today right into the Ardennes, and well, I have to admit they are very nice indeed!

Actually much nicer than the picture above. I wasn’t very capable of converting the nice landscape also in nice pictures. Probably the nicest valley was the one just leasing into La Roche en Ardennes. 

My hotel tonight was on the top of a very steep hill, and even after breakfast the clouds were still hanging low in the fields. 

So the day started with a steep descent back into the valley where I would rejoin EuroVelo 5 route. In contract to Luxembourg here in Belgium the route is very well indicated. 

Nevertheless the first 15 or so km were a bit hard, not because of any incline/descent but because of the road surface. (I actually didn’t take a picture of the worst parts of the path, were it was covers in huge rocks and I had to push the bike)

When I finally hit asphalt again, it was the smoothest tarmac ever! Such a beauty:

And actually for Belgium this was so far the best tarmac, as a lot of the smaller streets are a bit deteriorated. But more about that in a future post. 

I had planned my first stop of the day in Bastogne, at about 25 km. I am always planning ahead where are bakeries or restaurants so not to run out of calories (and rest stops). Bastogne was at a great distance as a first stop. What I didn’t know that the would be a cycling race (probably of under 19s) starting in the center of Bastogne shortly after I arrived. When I first came into the city on an other one of these rather uncompacted gravel roads, I noticed a lot of cyclists in team gear. I thought that maybe some teams are training there, but actually it was the last few minutes before their race. So I witnessed the “depart fictif” …

Within minutes of the depart everyone, all the team cars had left and I went to a local bakery which had been my objective for even going into town and got myself a tartlet and a huge baguette. It turns out that in Belgium baguettes (ie sandwiches) are prepared at the moment instead of already lying around since hours waiting for someone who wasn’t exactly this kind of sandwich. The one I had prepared was with salmon and really good (and enormous, although I had taken the smaller one). 

On through the rolling terrain and small villages where many people were busy mowing their lawn or cutting too precision their hedges, both seem to be a Belgian obsession. 

My accommodation for tonight was in La Roche en Ardennes, a small town I had never heard of before, but which seems to be THE center of an outdoor activities in the Ardennes. Coming to my hotel I did cross some incredibly dirty MTB riders (all male I think), and down at the river, there were lots of kayaks waiting for the next day. 

However for being a Saturday with really nice weather there weren’t a lot of cyclists on my route today. I am on an official EuroVelo route, but nevertheless I meet maybe 1 or 2 other long distance riders per day. So different from the Danube or the Altmühl where it was sometimes even too much to greet all of them. Not only cyclotourists were missing, even just plain normal cyclists weren’t around either. Until hitting La Roche, where all the MTB guys were rolling around.

I was lucky that I still got a room at La Roche, as it seemed to be very popular. Most of my bookings I do though Booking.com, but they had nothing available for this town, so I searched on Google maps and mailed a few of the hotels and only one answered with some availability. But it was nice enough. An old, big hotel overlooking the valley. 

In the late afternoon/evening I went down into the village, which is spotted with tanks from the offensive of the Ardennes. (One of them actually right in front of my hotel.) 

But the village itself is quite nice. 

TdE - Day 33 Saarbrücken - Kitzing (DE->FR)

Route: Saarbrücken - Saar - Kitzing
Distance: 70 km
Elevation: 386 m
Duration: 3:55 h
Weather: Rainy, sometimes dry, not cold, 18 C 

After the nice (and long) ride along the canals yesterday, today a shorter ride through the most depressing parts of Europe I have visited in this Tour d’ Europe. The Saar: 

The cycle path follows the Saar river, but so does the train, the highway and all the heavy industry. 

It didn’t help that today was one of the few rainy days, although it wasn’t actually that bad. Only about 15 minutes already at less than 15 km from my B&B did it rain a bit more. 

As I had planned a relatively short ride today, because of the long ride yesterday, the weather and the incline, I started late. Nevertheless I was in Saarlouis which on the map looked like a potentially interesting city for early lunch. 

And well, it might have been an interesting city when it was built as it was a fortified city build by Vauban, the same architect as Neuf Brisach that I visited only a few days ago in Elsass, but during too many wars Saarlouis got destroyed too many times. And the fact that someone thinks that using the central place of the city as a huge parking lot is a good idea also tells a lot about the current situation of this town. It seems, like other parts of the Saarland I passed, stuck in the 1970s at best. 

Anyway, I had something to eat and bought also two bagels for tonight, because when I booked my accommodation for tonight I only checked where it is located and the rating on booking.com, but forgot to check if there was a place to eat close by, and there isn’t. Kitzing is in a rather god forlorn part of France. 

But at least it is in the countryside… and close to a castle:

But tomorrow into a new country and a big city: Luxemburg!

TdE - Day 30 Saint Hippolyte - Breuschwickersheim

Route: Saint Hippolyte - vineyards & old villages - Breuschwickersheim 
Distance: 69 km
Elevation: 464 m
Duration: 4:42 h
Weather: again very sunny and warm, although the air wasn’t THAT warm, 19 - 27 C 

Today I had quite a late start after a home made breakfast in my accommodation in Saint Hippolyte, which was in a house where probably nothing has been changed in the last 50 years and which was full of decorations and fauteuils, even in my bathroom there were 2! 

Then I went a little bit downhill until joining the EV5 cycle path which runs through the vineyards at the feet of the Vosges. 

Today again was a continuity of small (and not so small) villages with very colorful half timbered houses. Similar to these type of houses in Germany, but much more colorful. 

The villages also lie very pictorially in the landscape and as the bicycle path uses mainly viticultural paths, one often gets a nice view on the village before entering it. It feels a little bit like in the medieval ages when wine merchants were visiting the villages for their trade. I am just imagining that the speed of travel of a horse drawn cart and a bicycle (at least when I am riding) is probably quite similar…

Again all these small villages did flow one into another, similar houses, similar gates, some quite overrun by visitors (e.g. Obernai), some very quiet. 

The highlight today was probably the lunch place. The food was okay, but it was the location in Itterswiller that was outstanding, with the view over the entire Elsass. 

And a bit above the restaurant there is a Belvedere with a 360 degree view of the Elsass, the Vosges and the vineyards. And probably also the Alps, weather permitting.

The last few kilometers today were not in the vineyards but instead on a canal that was built specifically for transporting heavy stones to Strasbourg for constructing a fortress:

Tomorrow I have planned a specially short day. Late breakfast at 9:00 and then only 44 km to Lutzelbourg. 

The day concluded in a good restaurant in Breuschwickersheim with a “café au liégeois” celebrating the achievement to book a hotel close to Leuven (I.e. Liege) for the weekend of the UCI world championships. 

TdE - Day 27 Hausen im Tal - Donaueschingen

Route: Hausen im Tal - Beuron - Donau - temporary end of Donau - Donau source - Donaueschingen 
Distance: 80 km
Elevation: 408 m
Duration: 4:26 h
Weather:  Sun, clouds and sometimes a bit of drizzle, 20 C 

The highlight today was the disappearance of the Danube. And no, I am not referring to a place beyond its source, but somewhere midway through. 

But for a more logical explanation let’s start with the “source” of the Danube, which was my goal today. 

I put source in quotation marks, because neither of the two sources (!) I saw today is actually the source of the Danube. There are at least another two places that have a more logical claim to bring the source. And one of them is about 300 km away from here in the Engadin in Switzerland… normally called the source of the Inn. But where the Inn flows into the Danube it is actually bigger than the Danube. 

An other source is not so far away, only 35 km, and is called the source of the Breg. 

But the two sources I saw today are the more official ones:

#1 is the confluence of Breg and Brigach, which is an exceptionally ugly location:

#2 is the source of the Danube as defined by the local aristocrat who conveniently has it right besides his castle and decorated it lavishly:

The statue is of “mother” Baar (yet another affluent of the Danube) who explains her “daughter” Danube where to flow…

… only it seems the daughter didn’t listen too well, because after about 30 km the Danube disappears underground and only surfaces again a few kilometers to the South in the source of the Aach, which then flows into the Rhine! Or at least for most of the year that is what happens. The Danube gets completely dry, syphoning off all its water away to the Aach. Only in winter and spring the Danube has so much water that it can’t loose all of it and actually makes it to the Black Sea. 

In order to see the dry Danube, I hiked a bit into the valley. It is really surprising how quickly a relatively large river disappears. At some point one can even hear how it is going underground. 

But the day started in the narrow part of the Danube valley. After some kilometers I passed these sleepy cows. They were still lying all huddled together and the only sound came from their ears and tails flapping around. 

I also stopped at the abbey in Beuron. It seems to be very famous, but I have to say that I expected something a bit more impressive. Maybe it is important for a religious and not so much artistic reason. Although one has to admit that there is of the stained glass for the Ray of light was very effective.