Sleeping on the overnight ferry between England and the Netherlands didn’t come easy after the first couple hours. I’d chosen one of the few front-facing cabins, which meant that the ship’s rocking was side-to side for my bed facing forward, and it was rough on me. Queasiness set in as it felt a bit like I could get rolled off the side of the bed. I was on little sleep when the wake-up announcement came, so I packed up, had breakfast on the ferry, and retrieved my bike from the parked car area along with a dozen or so other cyclists. We biked off the ferry facing a ferocious northwest wind to get thru passport control, but the good news is that the wind was at my back from that point forward.
I’d spend hours on the ferry contemplating a different route than originally planned, due entirely to the strong northwest winds and storms coming off the North Sea, so to buy myself time and recover from the intense day before, I cut my biking short and did just 35 miles to Dordrecht, the wind at my back the entire time. The fresh air and incredible bike paths made me feel better, and I only had a few storms to deal with en route. I also discovered an unbelievable bike tunnel that went under Rotterdam’s tunnel.
After lunch, I caught a train to Antwerp to regroup and figure out the last three days to Paris. Antwerp turned out to be exactly what I needed. I got a hotel room that faced the historic train station, and walked around the city for hours before getting a light dinner of groceries to relax back in the room. Tracking the weather, I decided to keep with my original route and shave off some distance due to the wind With the last rain of the trip in Antwerp, I darkened my room and had my best sleep of the trip…
…which was good, because Sunday was the hardest biking day of the trip, due to fierce headwinds and crosswinds nearly the entire time, and a sore right calf-achilles heel that had been building since the hills in England. I took an early train to Ghent for my starting point, and biked all the way to Lille, France, stopping in Dienze and Kordrijk along the way. Most of the ride was along a wide canal, and given it was a Sunday, I passed (and were passed by) dozens of bikers doing their national tradition. In Kordrijk there was even a bike festival and a cooking school giving out free bowls of food!
Getting thru Sunday’s ride gave a definite sense of accomplishment, and the hotel in Lille was a great reward. After a wonderful last hour of biking on a beautiful tree-lined path in the middle of the highway right into Lille, the helpful host upgraded me to a corner room, recommended an incredible pizza restaurant, and pointed me to a laundromat right across the street from the hotel. All of that, plus walking around the beautiful city of Lille, made for a very complete experience for the 4th day of my tour.
Dan – Tammy – Noah 
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