Dordtse Kil II to Alphen aan Den Rijn

Saturday October 23, 2010

My campsite for the night in Dordtse Kil II, the Netherlands.

I got off to quite a good start, but then progress slowed right down, because I was trying to follow a cycling route to Rotterdam just using signs, and I had to go slowly to keep a look out for signs and I kept missing them or taking wrong turns.
I did get to Rotterdam though, and by this stage the weather had turned quite nasty.

Just crossed the Willemsbrug, a bridge in the centre of Rotterdam spanning the Nieuwe Maas.

On the Blaak in Rotterdam: lots of unusual architecture and lots of bikes!

It was very cold and wet and windy.
It didn't seem to deter the cyclists though, because there were still heaps of cyclists out and about in Rotterdam. There were even cyclists holding umbrellas up as they cycled to keep themselves dry.
After my difficulty in following the cycling route into Rotterdam, I decided to do some research into these cycling routes and see if I could get some maps. I stopped at a Macca's for the free Wi-Fi.
It turned out there were a number of long distance bike routes all across the country.

A map of the long distance cycling routes in the Netherlands.

The LF2 runs from Brussels to Amsterdam via Antwerp, so I could have been following that most of the way from Leuven if I'd known about it. But at least I could follow it the rest of the way to Amsterdam, as long as I could find a map. A map at the scale of the above map wouldn't suffice since it didn't have enough detail.
Finding a good map online proved more difficult than I expected, because there didn't seem to be any high resolution maps that one could download, only low resolution ones which were pretty useless.

A map of the bike route from north of Antwerp to the Amsterdam.

It looked like you were meant to buy physical maps for the routes, but you could only get the maps from a certain shop, or you could order them online. I couldn't order them online though since I didn't have a fixed address, and I wanted the maps right away. I thought it was ridiculous that you couldn't download a high resolution map, in this day and age!
I found some GPS maps that people had posted of the route, in gpsx file or something, but I couldn't work out how to open them on my iPhone. MotionX-GPS should have been able to, as well as Google Earth, and I spent hours trying to figure it out, but I just couldn't get it to work, it was very frustrating. Eventually I headed off again at about 4 pm, having to just try and follow the signs, and use the low resolution map which I copied to my iPhone.

A sign for the LF2b cycle route, beside the Pompenburg.

I lost the route pretty much straight away, then ended up having to take a bit of a detour to get back to it, using the guidance of the low-res map.

A bird looking intently at the green water plant covering the water. Just beside 's-Gravenweg in Rotterdam.

Ducks swimming through some kind of green water plant. Just beside 's-Gravenweg in Rotterdam.

The poor weather continued, and the rain was quite heavy at times.

I continued onto the night and at one stage it was so heavy I had to take shelter, luckily I was near a McDonalds, so I hopped on their free Wi-Fi again (gee I've done that a few times hey). I did some more touring research, and tried again to get a GPS map for the LF2 route, but was unsuccessful. Then I thought I'd check the MotionX-GPS maps and I discovered they actually already had these long distance bike routes marked in the maps, as well as heaps of other bike routes. The Bike Hub app also used the same maps, "OpenCycleMap", it's called. Argh, how stupid of me! Why didn't I realise this earlier? I could have saved so much time.
During my research I read that "GPS is useful but it's no replacement for a traditional map, which is an essential item for every touring cyclist, for both planning and navigating." Well I beg to differ. How many times have I used a traditional map on my trip, I ask you? The only one I've used so far was the map I got from the hostel in London on the second day I arrived, and that got me lost. And the map I used in Brussels to do my self-guided tour, but had I had the map on my iPhone, with GPS, it would have been so much easier to follow.
Once I was using the GPS route marked on the map, progress was so much quicker and easier! It shows the superiority of GPS over traditional maps.
And compare the two in the rain. You don't want to be getting out a traditional paper map in the rain because it will get wet be ruined. Rain is also an inconvenience for an iPhone, I have to keep it in the waterproof handlebar bag instead of in the dock, but to check the map, I just have to open the handlebar bag. I think it's just old fashioned traditionalists that say a traditional map is an essential item for every touring cyclist.
So I was cruising now, with a tail wind and plenty of energy.

Riding alongside a canal on Westkanaalweg in Alphen aan den Rijn.

I was just getting into good groove when I got a puncture! Grrr! Puncture number eleven, bloody useless WTB Slickersaurus tyres! Once I get to Amsterdam I'm going to replace them, no ifs, ands or buts. They're gone! I've already noted down a speciality touring bike store in Amsterdam that I came across in my research that will be sure to have what want.
I stopped in a tunnel to fix the puncture, because the tunnel had good light, and was dry.

Repairing puncture number eleven for the trip in a little dry tunnel with good lighting, not far out of Alphen aan den Rijn.

I had wanted to get to Amsterdam to stay there that night, but it was already about 10:30 pm and I guessed I had about 30 km to go, so I figured it wasn't really worth it. I decided I'd just find somewhere to camp nearby then ride the rest of the way to Amsterdam in the morning, and find a hostel. It wouldn't have been very good value if I'd checked into a hostel at midnight anyway, nor would there be any guarantee I could find one with a 24 hour reception easily. So I rode around for several kilometres and picked out a spot to camp. There were quite a few options, some too close to a noisy (busy) road, all of them the ground was very wet and muddy. Eventually I settled for a spot beside a lake, on a bit of a dirt levee/wall. I Used the plastic bag I use for keeping the sleeping bag, sleeping mat and tent in for a base under the tent to keep it (and me) drier. I got to sleep after 1 am.

My route for the day, Dordtse Kil II to Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands.

An overview of my route so far from France to the Netherlands.

Ride stats:
Distance: 80.64 km
Average: 18.4 km/h
Maximum: 36.0 km/h
Time: 4:22:36
Total ascent: 63 m
Total descent: 65 m