Where the Grass is Green and the Girls are Pretty...

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.” - Theodore Roosevelt

  Had a few days living the good life, spinning across Belgium and Holland. Had a day messing about in Calais trying to find the road to Dunkerque, ended up finding it and getting a whooping ten miles out of town before going down the sod this route and pitching the tent at 1 o clock in the afternoon. I blame a severe case of pie retention over the past 6 months for the fact that it has taken me nine days to get to where I am now, I originaly budgeted seven days. Ahhh well... as they say, you can't have your cake and eat it.

It took me one day to do Gravelines to Cadzand, straight along the north coast of Belgium and into the Netherlands, three countries in 1 day by bike. Not bad. The weather was shockingly unpredictable though, sometimes pleasant, sometimes a nightmare.

 I was not enjoying myself when this picture was taken.
Anyone who wants to do some bicycle touring but dosn't know where to start get yourself over to Belgium and Holland. Seriously. There are hundreds of miles of cycle track, friendly drivers, chatty locals(80% of whom will speak enough English)...the list goes on. Oh yeah and did I mention before, its ALL flat, I don't think I've ridden a hill since I left the UK, so easy on the legs aswell.

Sometime, not long after this picture, my flagpole fell off so I'm now the man without a country :(

I managed to get up early the next day, cycled to Breskens for the short ferry ride to Vlissingen. Its then possible to follow cycle tracks all the way up to a place called the Voorne. A very touristy area but eerily quiet at this time of year. This meant deserted cycle lanes and very few cars, plus a chance to take in the scenery. Nice.

Can you tell I used to be a model?
Check out all the wind turbines in the background, hundreds of them around here, and a few tidal energy maker things aswell.
The last two pictures were probably taken within 2 hours of each other and look at the difference in weather.

The Voorne is around 35km from Rotterdam, again I managed to drag my arse out of bed earlyish, get a shower and get on the road for 9. I got to Rotterdam about midday and was met with this.

 Prison break...
Only joking, it was the Rotterdam marathon, which meant that getting through the town was insanly difficult, everytime you had to cross a road that the race went down you had to be escorted across, the whole city was basically shut down.
After a few hours messing around in Rotterdam and paying through the nose for crap food out of snack vans (c'mon Europe you lazy shites, start opening shops on Sundays) I  found the road I was after and made a beeline for Amsterdam.

 I was here six weeks ago for my mates 21st b'day. Once you get past the space cookie munching Jack Sparrow lookalikes its not a bad place. The weather was ace (warmest day of the year so far) and everyone in the city was out enjoying it.
Not a nice place to cycle about in, especially on a fully loaded touring bike, you've really got to have your wits about you.

 Graffiti in Zeeburg.

 Where else?