Finished!

Good tours come to an end and so does mine. The route home would be 135 k and with a start at 9 am I should be home by teatime.

Not only tours come an end, so does bright cycling weather which I enjoyed so much the last 10 days! Unreal! Sunny, at the edge of a heatwave and dry, Mediterranean wheather! Now it changed overnight with thunderstorms, to continue with drizzle in the morning. I dressed up for it, did not really care any more this last day, counting my blessings.

You probably don’t know the story on the Rhine ferry near Xanten: it doesn’t operate Tuesday’s.

As it happened to be Tuesday today, I was not amused. It meant a 15 kilometer detour – in rain – to the nearest bridge.

The bridge turned out to be a turning point, rain ceased and even the sheep seemed to be happy with it. Not a bad detour 😊

Venlo was the point of entry in the Netherlands.

Next Roermond, passing the Rur (Roer) river was symbolic. I passed the spring of the Rur my first day of cycling in the Ardennes,

now I met it again, grown up. Like a circle that closes, on this day!

The rest of the ride was familiar to me, as I cycle the area regularly to keep in shape. Crossed the narrowest point in the Netherlands, less than 5 kilometer, with Germany in the east and Belgium in the West.

For me burgundic Limburg starts here!

Home in an hour, 150 k today, the hills with the stiff climbs were still there, but I arrived as I left: undamaged.

1650 kilometers to go around the Benelux, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxemburg, it was a superb tour.

An enormous variety in landscapes, though I was never further away from home than 400 kilometers. I struggled to climb some hills in the Ardennes, enjoyed the rides down and was happily coasting along the Belgian and Dutch coast,

The islands, the flat northern provinces and the wood filled areas along the border of Central Netherlands. Never realized how few people really live in Dutch countryside, leave alone the emptiness of the northern provinces which was was striking.

Did not see any deterioration of nature, whether CO2 poisoned or not. On the contrary, nature (or what experts call nature) only expands. Lauwersmeer in the north is a fine example (with a cultural heritage award) and I found dedicated conservationists creating ‘kwelders’, wetlands, all for the sake of nature. In a vast agricultural area…

The state of the country and its nature is not any different from what I saw on my bike trips through Europe, like France, Spain, Italy, England, Scotland, Germany, Poland, the Baltic states, Finland. I would not worry too much.

Better ask desk-politicians and desk-conservationists to do a little more biking to see by themselves what they are talking and deciding about.