jefnvk

I finally finished the story of my first tour from Brussels to Amsterdam! Here you go, in its entirety. I tried to balance it between the actual biking and the vacation aspects, as it is going out to a lot of people of different backgrounds, but if you have any questions on anything I mentioned, I am more than happy to elaborate on them. Sorry for the poor quality of some of the photos, I realized when I got home I took far fewer pictures of the riding than I thought, so most photos with handlebars in the picture are GoPro frame grabs.

Included on the pages are links to the Strava route maps/analytics, don't pay attention to the starting timestamps on all of them, seems I had an issue when I uploaded some of them back in the US on Eastern Time with Strava stamping them wrong. Also included are our accommodations along the route.

There will also be a GoPro YouTube video at some point, when I have time to go through 12+ hours of riding footage and condense it!

Prep
Travel prep (airline and route selection): Jeff's Journal of Europeaness: Netherlands Trip Prep
Bike prep: Jeff's Journal of Europeaness: Selecting and Preparing the Bikes
Packing and traveling: Jeff's Journal of Europeaness: Departing Toronto and Arriving Brussels
Weekend in Brussels before biking commences: Jeff's Journal of Europeaness: Brussels and Leuven

Actual Riding
Day One: Jeff's Journal of Europeaness: Monday: Leuven to Malle
Day Two: Jeff's Journal of Europeaness: Tuesday: Malle to Oosterhout
Day Three: Jeff's Journal of Europeaness: Wednesday: Oosterhout to Rotterdam
Day Four: Jeff's Journal of Europeaness: Thursday: Rotterdam to Oegstgeest
Day Five: Jeff's Journal of Europeaness: Friday: Oegstgeest to Amsterdam

Post Ride
Playing Tourist, boxing the bikes, departing: Jeff's Journal of Europeaness: The Weekend, Packing, and Leaving

jefnvk

And just added, a quick writeup review on the addons: Jeff's Journal of Europeaness: Equipment Review

Cougrrcj

Thanks for the write-up, and Conga-rats on the engagement!!!



Glad your C&V bikes held up to the cobbles!

Yeah, mud and spray can be a hassle, so that's why my 'tourers' have fenders!!!

So anyway, glad you had a good time and when are your touring again**********

Cheers!

jefnvk

Thanks!

Fenders were a back and forth thing to me, but up until about a day before the trip, the weather was reading sunny and warm for the destination, so I made the decision we could get away without fenders to ease packing the bikes. Of course, whenever you plan on one thing...

Right now, I'm looking at what I can do with a couple free weekends I have coming up, to try out adding and swapping out a bit of equipment and actually camping, looking to find some 2.5 day, 2 night 100ish mile loops. Plus, I'm told Michigan is quite a beautiful state for cycling anyhow, that I don't have to fly across the world for great riding! Past that, pending vacation requests we are looking at doing the DALMAC over Labor day timeframe. Probably would consider it more of a ride than a tour, since they cart all your gear around for you, but it'll also be a step up in mileage for us over the same five day duration so it seems like a logical next step at this point in our abilities.

fietsbob

Personally liked using AMS airport, never flown into Brussels..

Bike path route from Shiphol to Zandvoort on the coast easy to follow, my 1st overnight/ jetlag sleep cure, camp ground, is there.