I’ll start with a picture left from Wednesday
We’ve really been going at it in order to get home but, as planned, we didn’t cycle on Thursday. Graham stayed at the campsite and passed another course (!), so he is -at least in my eyes- becoming a real wizz in data stuff. While he was engaging in all these worthy studying activities, I bummed off to Utrecht to meet my friend from college to spend a leisurely afternoon together, looking around town, eating, drinking and doing a bit of (mostly window) shopping.
Utrecht is one of many places in Holland I did not know. In many respects it felt like Amsterdam, but everything on a smaller scale.
In the evening Graham joined me in meeting another college friend for dinner, which was also very enjoyable.
But on Friday it was back to business, westward bound.
It was all confusing. We followed the Rhine path next to the river Linge, then the Maas path next to the Waal. The Rhine was called the Lek anyway and the Maas the Merwede. I remember learning all those things in primary school but those hours were well wasted. Never mind. Being amongst all the water, with all the beautiful banks and massive barges and lovely little towns was what mattered. So we happily got lost a number of times and took some detours as if we were not on our way home.
Then came the final day. We packed up early and that meant that we could give ourselves the treat of cycling an extra 20km in order to take the scenic route. This involved, originally unbeknownst to us, a famous tourist area. We slowly became aware of this when we saw more and more people who spoke in American accents. Fortunately it was still early, so we avoided most of the crowds.
Then the harbour of Rotterdam:
And the final stretch, arriving at Hook of Holland ferry with 6 hours to spare.
It must be said that for me the final stretch of cycling, here in London from Liverpool street station to home, was the most uncomfortable part (on a par with Bratislava) of all the 2000 or so km, even though it was Sunday. London can learn a lot from other countries about cycle safety.
The last word is for Tekel, who so faithfully manage to get us along all those rivers, on all those paths and through all those towns.
