Dunkirk - Berlin - Dunkirk

Dunkirk to Berlin via Belgium and the Netherlands. Different route there and back. I remember big open fields of crops; long straight roads; avenues of trees; canal/riverside cycle paths; woodlands; small villages with an intro and outro of frame rattling, bone shaking cobble stones. Great provision pretty much most of the way for cyclists. That’s the infrastructure and the way other road users notice and treat cyclists. It felt to me that cycling was welcomed and encouraged as a legitimate form of transport as opposed to being seen as a nuisance on the roads in England. Despite being loaded up with two panniers, camping gear, saddle bag and a handlebar box, this was not a tour. There was no planned sight seeing. It was an out and back, head down, get the miles in sort of ride. 2,112 km with 6,782 m of climbing on mainland Europe. Not too shabby for a ten day excursion. Adding in the distance cycled from home to Dover then home again, the total was around 2,232 km. Day Date Ride…