June 20: Return
Per Delta's instruction to arrive 3 hours before an international flight, I set an alarm to rise and cycle to the Schiphol Airport. As usual, I ended up with a lot of extra time but less stress. Activities:
- 20 minutes to clear the hotel room
- 30 minutes to cycle to the airport. 67F, daylight, minimal people out and minimal traffic
- 40 minutes to dissemble the bike, bike trailer, redistribute weight in 2 pieces of luggage
- 15 minutes to find counter and drop luggage
- 5 minutes to finish check in
- 45 minutes to exit passport control
Schiphol has a convenient Albert Heijn store on the check-in level, prior to security, by far the best place to pick up food items. Drink? Well nothing over 3 ounces through security. The airport concourse also has some nice minimally padded benches where one can lay down without trying to span chairs with arm rests. Had a 45 minute nap/lay down. Uneventful flight, the best kind.
Irony. 2 days after leaving Bruges and a 10.5 hour flight from Amsterdam to Salt Lake City, I walk by this shop in the Salt Lake airport, the Bruges Belgium Bistro, featuring Frites and Waffles.
Lessons Learned
Mapping Apps. We compared Organic Maps and Google Maps. Expect different routing recommendations. No one knows the underlying parameters. In general, Organic Maps seemed to suggest longer routes but sometimes did not direct us to certain paved bike paths. Google Maps, on the cycling option, offered multiple potential routes. In one case, directions from our Amsterdam hotel to the Airport, Googles shorts, most direct option cited 85% bike paths, with a longer option cited 97.5% bike paths. The longer option matched the Organic Maps sole route suggestion.
Both Organic and Google Maps offer off-line options, where the area maps are down-loaded to your phone. However, there seemed to be minimal difference in the performance under either mode.
I'll probably rely more on Google Maps on future bike tours with Organic Maps as a backup. I found Apple's Maps option often lacked bicycle coverage.
One oddity with Google Maps was that the Your position arrow always pointed North. I prefer the arrow to point in the direction of travel. My workaround was to use two fingers to rotate the display to show the route in forward trade mode and ignore the arrow. Another tip to avoid confusion at turns was to expand the view so that the option are more defined.
Both of us carried an auxiliary battery, phone size, rated at 10,000 mah, sufficient to recharge our phones 3+ times. We used phone mounts on the handlebars to hold the phone and auxiliary battery. Despite setting my phone screen at maximum brightness, it was still difficult to see in bright sunlight while wearing sunglasses.
Data Options. I purchased e-SIM for my phone. A number of web sites list and offer links to various e-SIM providers. The most economical are data only, but some offer data and voice. The options generally include 1,5, 10 GB (giga bytes), or more; usage lengths in days or weeks; and geographic coverage by country/region.
I purchased a 10 GB plan, 18 euros, 15-day span, EU region (only needed The Netherlands & Belgium.) I reset my data tracking and found I only used 1.3 GB over 13 days. One downloads the eSIM upon purchase, then select it in Settings upon arrival. Leave your physical SIM in you phone. Upon departure, I deleted the eSIM. Seems that to revert to the physical SIM, you need to power your phone off, re-start, and it finds and locks onto your original network provider.
While plans vary, at one time Verizon & ATT charge 10 dollar/day for unlimited usage for each day that you use their plans to roam internationally. T-Mobil seems to offer data at no charge, but might throttle speed depending upon usage. Voice may be charged by the minute.
Know your plan. I plan to use the eSIM option on future tours.
Lodging. All of our lodging except Amsterdam and Antwerp were via Vrienden op de Fiets. Wonderful opportunity to meet local people, share stories, and gain a better perspective on the travel area.
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