On this day in 2018 we were riding our bikes through Denmark. I have been rereading our posts from the Denmark bike trip as, in a few days, we are heading to The Netherlands and Belgium with our bikes. Definitely NOT Have Carry On Will Travel.
Murray has always wanted to go to Bruges, Belgium and finally decided it was time to go. “Oh, let’s ride our bikes there!” We are flying into Amsterdam, putting our bikes back together and riding on a route from Amsterdam to Gouda to Antwerp to Brussels to Ghent to Bruges to The Hague and back to Amsterdam. There are stops in small towns along the way. Our longest ride is about 64 km, our shortest is about 35 km. The most number of days of riding in a row, so far, is four. We do have some slush days to move things around, so we have some leeway.
Our first big stop is in Antwerp where we are meeting our German friend I. We will spend two full days exploring Antwerp and catching up with her. We are also spending extra days in Brussels, Bruges and The Hague. Our list of sites to see includes many art museums, as we love the old masters and modern art.
I have used the packing lists from our Denmark trip to organize for this trip. We have 7 piles downstairs, all labelled – 4 for the panniers, 1 for Murray’s handlebar bag and two piles for bikes clothes we will be wearing. Oh, and another one for airplane stuff and bike tools that will stay in Amsterdam.
We have calculated how much weight both should be carrying and the split between front and back panniers. We test load up the panniers, weigh them, redistribute and then create a final packing list sorted by pannier. I will use this list to sort clothes and gear after we arrive in Amsterdam. It saves so much time and mental capacity. Once the list is made, we unpack everything and repack it into our suitcases, which will also carry the panniers and the bike racks.
We spend an afternoon tuning, cleaning and packing the bikes.
We have packed the suitcases and are basically ready to go. Next stop….Amsterdam.
