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 1 Leiden - Hilvarenbeek

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. 

Tour d’Europe (TdE) Test rides (D-12)

Route: around Leiden

Distance: 40 km + 39 km + 45 km

Elevation: 71 m + 95 m + 43 m

Duration: 1:58 + 1:49 + 2:19

Average speed: 20.6 km/h + 21.5 km/h + 19.7 km/h 

Weather: dry, cloudy, around 19C

Before departing next weekend for a maybe six weeks tour through Belgium, Germany, France and the Netherlands, I had some test rides close to home already with the fully loaded bicycle.

I am saying fully loaded, but actually there’s not that many stuff that I will bring around. Only one bag behind the seat post of 17 L. Plus a small triangular bag (not shown in this picture) for food.

I just recently went to Tubeless wheels, so I wanted to try out how it rides, and how it rides with the fully loaded bag already strapped to the bike.

And I rides to reasonably well. 

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. 

Day 2 - Ouddorp to Middelburg (Leiden -> Venlo trip)

Bicycle: 16 km

Bus: 42 km

Riding time: 1:20 h
Total ascent: 50 m
Avg speed: 13.0 km/h
Route: Ouddorp - Port Zelande - Middelburg
Weather: Very windy and then rain (ZW6), 16 C

The cycling photo of today is this one:

I have spent more time today sitting in my warm and cozy B&B in Middelburg watching 2017 Tour de France rides than actually on my own bicycle. But there is a (good) reason for this. 

After the strong wind yesterday, for today the wind forecast was just a slightly bit less fierce, but it also had some rain forecast to start around 13:00. Well, rain did start earlier, around 10:00 (about 40 minutes into the ride) and the wind was still extremely strong and - unfortunately - blowing in the "wrong" direction. 

My original plan was to follow the LF route along the coast, which for sure is very scenic, but I had given up on that plan already yesterday evening and instead went for the shortest route between Ouddorp and Middelburg, which would have been anyway 53 km, but after about 10 km, while struggling against the wind on top of yet an other dam, rain started. The wind was so fierce that it was even hard to get the rain gear on, the helmet toppled away and I managed to catch it only with a good sprint. 

This picture I took about halfway into the dam. It started raining right when I was at the height of that square building that one can just see on the horizon. And that was a lucky coincidence. Not because that building actually allowed for some cover, but because it is part of Port Zelande, a holiday park, which has a bus stop! 

Actually shortly after I had managed to get my rain gear on and found the bus stop (which looked like a good place to hide... until I saw that it actually didn't have any side walls (who builds such a stupidity?) the rain had stopped again, and even the sun came out peaking.

But at that moment I was cold, wet and well, the wind was still there and further treats of rain. So I waited for the bus, got on ... 

... and road all the way to Middleburg. An apparently nice old, fortified city... which I didn't give any chance to shine... as I only wanted to have a quick, hot lunch, and get out of the cold and wet weather as quickly as possible to my B&B. 

Truth be told, it didn't rain again on me while riding from Middelburg to the B&B (nor while I was in the bus). But it did rain, when I was already safely here, and in a much better form of water:

Day 1 - Leiden to Ouddorp (Leiden -> Venlo trip)

Bicycle: 80 km

Riding time: 6:06 h
Total ascent: 271 m
Avg speed: 13.1 km/h
Route: Leiden - Delft - Brielle - Ouddorp
Weather: Cloudy, sometimes sunny, and very, but very windy (ZW6), 17C

Today was Day 1 in my 1 week trip through the Netherlands. The plan is to ride from Leiden down to the Southern tip of the Netherlands (Middelburg) and then inland to Venlo on the German border, then jump over the border briefly to a closeby supermarket and buy sweet mustard. Everyone needs a goal in life, right?

Let's see if this plan will succeed. Today was Day 1, a ride from Leiden to Ouddorp, a small village on the North Sea and on an island in the South of the Netherlands that reaches into the sea like a finger. A 80 km ride, which was made into much more of a challenge by the wind blowing at ZW5 and later ZW6 right against me.

It seemed already quite strong from Leiden to Brielle... but I had no idea what would be in store for me after Brielle and especially over the dam between Voorne-Putten (the island where Brielle is) and Goeree-Overflakkee (the island where Ouddorp is). 

But I am getting ahead of myself. Originally actually the plan was to ride on the LF route along the sea to Hoek van Holland and take a ferry from there. However, the ferry is currently only riding with a much reduced frequency and I didn't want to risk to either have to wait really long (several hours!) in Hoek van Holland or to just miss one. So I went instead along the Vliet to Delft and then onwards to Maasluis where there is a ferry departing every 20 min (an in my specific case a few minutes after my arrival at the ferry port). 

From there over Vooren-Putten, which is half nice nature ...

... and half industrial due to Rotterdam port. 

... and onto a very small boat over to Brielle.

I visited Brielle already twice by bicycle, but actually never really had the time to explore it. Also not today. Although it is a nice small, fortified town and definitely warrants an entire visit of its own.

Somewhere in the fields I also came across these impressive looking cows:

As said, behind Brielle the wind got worse and worse and finally making it over the dam (Haringvlietdam - part of the protection against flooding of the Netherlands) between Voorne-Putten  and Goeree-Overflakkee this wind reach new strengths, always blowing right into my face. The dam logically is the highest thing around, so the wind could batter it full speed ahead and no place to hide for me. So there was nothing else than to fight over it, one pedal stroke a time and nearly always in the lowest gear on my poor brompton, as if it were a mountain. But I made it. 

Over on the island, the wind continued to batter hard, but on some streets I had a little bit of protection through some trees or houses. But when I finally arrived at by B&B of tonight (around 19:00), the last 20 km had taken me at least 2 hours and I was exhausted. But also welcomed by the B&B hosts - who looked at my poor, little bike in disbelieve - with a hot, self-made zucchini soup. Jummy!

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 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.