[Bike]
The Bike Touring Pages of
Chris X. Edwards

Chris X Edwards and Valeria Otero
Rotterdam, NL to Basel, CH
Summer 2001

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Home Hunting Trip

After spending some time at my dad's house in England, Valeria and I were ready to do some real bike touring. We couldn't ride in England because of one of their famous cattle diseases, so we took the ferry to Holland.

I've always wanted to see Holland and our trip there worked out great. This was Valeria's first bike touring experience and I suspected Holland would be a nice easy place for that. I was right. It was also nice to have Valeria with me to keep me from going too far too fast. It would have been easy to just zoom through Holland in a couple of days.

I didn't want to go too fast through Holland because rumors had suggested to me that it might be some place I would want to live. I was a bit disappointed that Belgium didn't live up to my preconcieved idea of a bicyclist's paradise, but Holland did. I loved Holland. Other Europeans seem to think Holland is boring. Exactly! No drama wondering if I'm going to survive the day's riding. I've never felt so comfortable or relaxed in a place. The chance of me living in Holland at some point is about as good as finding a Dutch road that is flat.

In Belgium, we quickly got linked up with the Vlaanderen Fietsroute (Flanders Bike Route) which is a very nice bit of riding. It isn't so good if you really want to see the character of real Belgium (it avoids towns for example), but it is probably a lot nicer than real Belgium. There was a lot of riding along canal paths. I will say that the Belgians are cycling fans and although they don't ride much for transportation anymore, they do like to race. The highlight of my Belgian experience was paying a visit to Eddy Merckx. How many tourists do that?

Luxemburg was an unexpected treat. I can say that I've never ridden in such a nice country. Except for in the spectacular capital city, the riding was absolutely perfect. There is a network of former rail lines converted to cycling paths. Wonderful. I highly recommend a tour of Luxemburg for Europeans who only have a few days.

NLBL map


Day 2002 daily
km 		total
km 		daily
miles 		total
miles
1 May 8 6 6 3 3 25 June 1 75 1459 46 906
2 May 9 52 58 32 36 26 June 2 10 1469 6 912
3 May 10 34 92 21 57 27 June 3 63 1532 39 951
4 May 11 76 168 47 104 28 June 4 103 1635 64 1015
5 May 12 60 228 37 141 29 June 5 52 1687 32 1048
6 May 13 65 293 40 182 30 June 6 72 1759 44 1092
7 May 14 11 304 6 188 31 June 7 90 1849 55 1148
8 May 15 65 369 40 229 32 June 8 59 1908 36 1185
9 May 16 50 419 31 260 33 June 9 67 1975 41 1227
10 May 17 28 447 17 277 34 June 10 44 2019 27 1254
11 May 18 62 509 38 316 35 June 11 2 2021 1 1255
12 May 19 84 593 52 368 36 June 12 70 2091 43 1299
13 May 20 82 675 50 419 37 June 13 66 2157 41 1340
14 May 21 110 785 68 487 38 June 14 74 2231 45 1386
15 May 22 16 801 9 497 39 June 15 45 2276 27 1414
16 May 23 83 884 51 549 40 June 16 79 2355 49 1463
17 May 24 84 968 52 601 41 June 17 120 2475 74 1537
18 May 25 72 1040 44 646 42 June 18 69 2544 42 1580
19 May 26 56 1096 34 681 43 June 19 72 2616 44 1625
20 May 27 73 1169 45 726 44 June 20 57 2673 35 1660
21 May 28 0 1169 0 726 45 June 21 85 2758 52 1713
22 May 29 82 1251 50 777 46 June 22 13 2771 8 1721
23 May 30 69 1320 42 820 47 June 23 80 2851 49 1771
24 May 31 64 1384 39 859


The photos are organized onto index pages for easy reference. You can use one of the photo index pages to find a specific photo or you can start at the beginning and work your way through all of the photos in chronological order.

Photo Index One - 8 May 2001 to 15 May 2001
Photo Index Two - 15 May 2001 to 23 May 2001
Photo Index Three - 23 May 2001 to 1 June 2001
Photo Index Four - 2 June 2001 to 8 June 2001
Photo Index Five - 8 June 2001 to 14 June 2001
Photo Index Six - 14 June 2001 to June 19 2001
Photo Index Seven - 20 June 2001 to June 23 2001

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Xed
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Chris X. Edwards ~ May 2002