Nice calm winds and slightly cool as I set off southbound towards Deventer. I got close to outskirts of town before turning left and following a ring road around Deventer. The next kilometers were a mixture of roads and bike paths as I generally followed signs to nearby towns “Schalkhaar”, “Bathmen”, “Holten”. At Holten I stopped at local supermarket for more to eat. It was a little confusing from here but I found paths via Rijsen and into Wierden. I stopped in at VVV in Wierden and had a helpful person explain routes from here into Almelo.

Almelo was a somewhat large city, so first followed the signs to the centrum and then outbound. Here I came across a “Almelo – Nordhorn” canal with bike path. Since I was going towards Nordhorn, this seemed like a good choice and made for some pleasant cycling without much traffic. I made some good distance along the canal but saw confusing signs around kilometer 64 so turned northbound. This took me on quiet roads and one dirt path via Groot Agelo and into Ootnarsum.

Ootnarsum was a nice little tourist town with a quiet center, a lot of little hotels and a busy VVV office. It definitely looked like a tourist destination. I walked some through town and then set off east again. These roads took me via Tilligte and suddenly I was back at the original canal. I had added at least six kilometers with my detours though also saw a nice town. I followed the canal for a bit, and then came onto the main road leading into Nordhorn.

Around three in the afternoon I crossed the border of Netherlands and Germany. Nice to have crossed my first country, though now I would need to work harder at the language. I followed main roads into center of Nordhorn and then outbound towards Lingen. Bike paths weren’t as consistent as in the Netherlands and I was along a busy highway for a bit. Fortunately, the main Nordhorn/Lingen road had a good path. At 96km I saw a nice hotel and was tempted, particularly since the headwind was stronger here. However, I wanted to get at least 100km today so kept going. At 106km the bike path went directly in towards Lingen. I followed it into center of town.

I passed multiple hotels, but none seemed quite right. I kept going outbound out of town and saw signs for two guesthouses 3.5km ahead. The first one was in Ramsel and was closed. The second was in Baccum and with some pantimine and half German, and a few choice Dutch words thrown in, I arranged a room and had a nice schnitzel dinner. Nice end to a day that was surprisingly longer than I expected.

So far Germany looks a lot like the parts of the Netherlands I’ve just been. Slight differences in road signs (yellow not blue) but similar houses and landscapes.

116 km today. 239 km across Europe. 1877 km total.

Left Amsterdam just past 9am. The first exercise was to find my way out of Amsterdam. I mostly tried different streets heading towards the east (into the sun) and also looked for signs to “Diemen” and “Weesp” since those towns were just east of the city. Cycling was still a little slow with the weight and occasional stops. At one point, I came past the “Amstel” train station and noticed I was a little too far to the south, so corrected to the north.

Outside Naarden, the bike path was suddenly closed due to construction. Just at this time a group of tourists came by on bikes with helmets and went on the road. So I followed. I took small roads to Laren and from here decided to take back roads through the countryside. The land was flat and open, but I also noticed the winds from the east. Weather forecast had called for winds of scale “4”, but I assume this beaufort scale. At noon, I had done just 45km and came to the Eems River. There was a ferry here and as you can see, the ferry was stopped until 13:00. Not much to do, but wait for an hour.


After the ferry was Eemdijk and then Spakenburg. More flat and sometimes windy terrain across to Nijkerk at 60km. From here, more trees and slightly faster cycling along smaller roads and bike paths to Harderwijk (82km). I was feeling the cycling already but came east to Nunspeet (98km) and then turned south through the Veluwe Forests. Some beautiful cycling here via Epe (110km). Here I accidentally got onto a larger road without a bike path. Despite the “caution bicycles” sign, several of the cars let me know with honks that they didn’t expect a bicycle.

From here a few small towns including Oene and then via Wilsum across another ferry. I wasn’t quite sure how long this one might be open so I kept going to reach it just before 6pm. Crossed the river and made my way to my Tante (Aunt) Gea. Nice end to the first day of cycling. I’ve decided to increase my estimated trip distance to 13000 km, since it may be a little further to St Petersburg than initial estimate. 123 km today. 1761 km total.

An uneventful flight that was delayed by 60 minutes by weather in Chicago. Other flights had been delayed before, so our flight was completely full. Sitting behind me were folks from a tour group. They were going to see Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris and London…all in one week! Now just six days because they had been delayed by a day.

Luggage was slow to arrive, but bike and all gear arrived in good condition. At Amsterdam I was met by Mickey. Mickey is planning to cycle across Eurasia as well. Leaving Amsterdam a little later and then joining together from St Petersburg. We left bike in the box, and took the train and metro to Mickey’s place.

In the afternoon I put the bike together and we bicycled to my Oom (Uncle) Gerard. Along the way we took an official start photo shown above left. A nice meal in Amsterdam before turning in early for the night.