Sprimont to Valkenburg, Holland

Saturday October 13, 2018, 46 miles (73 km) - Total so far: 6,838 miles

(11,005 km)

(We are going to be in Holland briefly twice, hence combining the account with that for Belgium!)

Today felt tougher than it should have!! Brutal climbs out of Sprimont and over to the river valley. Beautiful though. Then dead flat with a tailwind along the river....but it felt like a long way, and we spent FOREVER trying to organise a shopping trip to Decathlon, buying lunch and finding a toilet in Liege. It was all fine in the end of course ;) but I guess we then got going again pretty late which somehow always makes me feel like I've ridden further than I have!

The ride into Liege was pretty nice, but riding out things became a lot more industrial. We were glad to turn away from the river and into Holland! We've been excited about sampling the cycling 'mecca'. It was cool to see sooooo many people on bikes, and to use so many cycle paths. But we found the numbering of the nodes and routes a little less clear than Belgium. We probably just need practice!! It IS really cool to have such extensive cycling infrastructure and routes all laid out for you. And it was very pretty, AND we saw two windmills. We're definitely here ;)

By the way, we used the 'fietsroute.org' website to plan the route today. It gives you a list of the numbered nodes to follow, and can also write a gpx file of the route. Ed navigated by nodes only today, and it worked really well. The site and system cover both Belgium and Holland - brilliant!!

We knew there were a couple of hills over to Valkenburg, but they nearly finished me off. I am sure they are nothing really! We were pretty happy to finally arrive at Camping Cauberg, on the Cauberg itself which is (apparently) a famous (not very long!) climb. We couldn't be bothered to go back down the hill to the supermarket, so bought beer from the campsite and are eating our emergency rations :)