Day 8 Kleve to Oosterwijk 118km

Well, there you go. The longest ride of the trip so far, almost all on dedicated bike paths moving from Germany to the Netherlands. An enjoyable day on the bike: the first real one. There were still lots of long, straight flat sections,but there was enough to look at going through all the little towns and villages to make it different to yesterday's ride. And those long sections in between towns finally gave me a chance to think and also to reflect on last week. I’m trying to reframe it in my mind: to move away from thinking of it as a disaster that’s cost me a lot of money, to a challenge that had to be overcome.

I was helped in this task by the receptionist at the hotel as I checked in tonight she was asking about my journey and I mentioned that I’d been in southern Germany last week and she said "Oof, in all those floods!". I also heard from a friend from club yesterday that the floods in Germany made it onto the news in England. That makes me feel slightly better about it and lets people know I wasn’t exaggerating when I talked about how much water there was.

I am not the first and I will not be the last person who planned an a trip, a journey or challenge and then found that events conspired against them and the whole thing was a washout (pun intended). It's painful to have planned everything, paid a lot of money and then got very little out of it. But in the grand scheme of things, it's not exactly life or death is it? 'First world problems' as the Millennials would say.

Anyway back to today’s ride. One thing I’m definitely going to miss when I get back to the UK is all of the cycling infrastructure that I’ve experienced across Austria, Germany, and the Netherlands. Also the fact that car drivers treat you with respect and with safety in mind. There’s obviously multiple reasons for this, but I am sure that the presumed liability insurance laws play a part as well as cultural acceptance of cyclists having a right to be on the road. It definitely helps that so many people complete short journeys by bike for everything from a school to work trips to shoppinng. Another cultural observation I could share is how weird it is seeing German cyclists sitting waiting at red lights when there is no traffic coming from anywhere. Last night I googled why do German cyclists pay so much attention the traffic laws. Okay, it’s partly cultural, but it’s also the fact that jumping red lights even when there’s no one around is illegal.

While my thoughts are on cultural differences, I would also add it has been amazing to see so many other cyclist on the road on the path particularly so many older cyclists throughout Austria and Germany the bike path were packed with older riders on electric bikes with full panniers. I haven’t looked it up but I bet there’s a cultural study about the effect that electric bikes has had on the mobility and on the lives of older Europeans. I suspect that for many of them electric bikes have opened up or made it possible for them once again to do long distance touring . I must confess more than a little envy watching all these people zoom past me in full weather gear without care in the world.

So apart from the long straight sections next to roads, the other cycling highlights of the day were three trips on little ferries to cross the Rhine river. I was warned I should check the timetables, but of course I didn't. In any case, I never waited more than three minutes for any of the ferries to turn up.

My route took me very quickly out of Germany and I had my first stop after 35km in Arnhem. I think I rode on every possible type of cycling path today and as mentioned before, the paths often avoid town centres so you need to leave them to find cafes and supermarkets. After a while you get a sense of which ones will be safe to leave your bike outside while you go in. or at least that’s what I told myself. I stopped today at a tiny town with one supermarket that was open to restock food for lunch and then sat in a field outside of town watching the world go by.

The final 16km today went through some amazing tiny roads with beautiful houses set back from the river. I could’ve filmed later of them but then my end of journey video would’ve looked more like a property show. I finished today just outside Leerdam, the famous cheese. I had to walk 20 minutes back to town to find an open restaurant but it was worth it in the evening sunshine.

Tomorrow I head to Rotterdam and the ferry home. I am still in as to whether I will write on the UK side. I guess I will see how my legs feel for a roll up the ferry at 6:30 in the morning on Wednesday.