June 7: Planning, Packing, and Travel

Planning. 

Time spent with your children is priceless, especially when you live hundreds of miles apart. My first bike tour with my son, Kevin, followed his high school graduation. He was taking French, and I promised him if he would continue into the 3rd and 4th year, I would take him on a bike trip in France. We rode our folding Bike Fridays from Lyon to Nice, paralleling the French Alps south along the Rhone River Valley. We managed to link up with the Tour de France Mont Ventoux stage. Great memories.  

I'm retired, finally, completely, as of July 2022, logging lots of miles year round between the Central CA Coast in winter and Bozeman, MT, in summer. Kevin, a tenured marketing professor at Providence College, Providence, RI, has summers off, mostly. More a hiker than committed cyclist, he is more than fit enough to keep up with me despite limited saddle time. We planned short daily mileage, steep climbs over bridges, and many stops along meandering back roads and cycle paths. Our route is through The Netherlands historic south, merging into Belgium. My last time in this area was Nancy's last cycling tour on our Tandem Tuesday. That ended with her now familiar epiphany: "I like everything about bike touring but the bike." 

After reading about using ChatGPT for travel planning, I asked for a potential10-day route from Amsterdam to Bruges. Not bad, but a good place to start. Then I researched lodging availability for an approximate route. We will consult ChatGPT for suggestions along our daily route.

Lodging

June in The Netherlands is post-flower season (often damp, chilly mornings), so hopefully fewer flower peepers and before the major vacation season. After a few days in Amsterdam, I've arranged lodging via the Vrienden ops de Fiets network. Vrienden ops de Fiets offers bed & breakfast lodging exclusively to cyclists and walkers/hikers, 25 euros per person per night. My favorite bike tour memories mostly involve the people we meet, and Vrienden ops de Fiets affords a unique opportunity to meet natives, to understand how they live and share insights on the local area. I reserved lodging for each overnight stop except Amsterdam and Antwerp. 

Note: The Vrienden ops de Fiets website: www.vriendenopdefiets.nl.  Joining instructions are on the web site. Essentially, you join, pay a small fee, and they give you access to the host network and send you a book and member card. You email or call a potential host, and then present your membership card and pay each host in car upon arrival. The Vrienden ops de Fiets network extends into Belgium and Luxembourg.

Gear

While The Netherlands is the most densely populated country in Europe, it probably has the best cycling network. I will ride my 1994 Bike Friday Pocket Rocket, towing the bike case as the trailer. Kevin will rent a bike in Amsterdam and use panniers. Friends familiar with the area assured me that bike rentals are abundant.

Final Packing

I have a detailed packing list that I modify slightly before each cycle tour. I was 95% packed a day early, so with a 3:30 PM departure, plenty of time for a morning ride. I have just 2 flights, BZN to MSP, then MSP to AMS, just under 2 hours for the MSP transfer.

I'm again using Organic Maps for navigation. On arrival in Amsterdam, I plan to assemble the bike at the airport and cycle 6 miles to the hotel.


Spanish Peaks. Southwest of Bozeman this morning

Bridger Range. View northeast of Bozeman.

 
Dog of the Day. Lily, of course. The bike is in the case and gear in the backpack/duffle.

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