France - Belgium - Holland Cycling : 6

Distance this section : 279km
Distance completed : 1833km

In the tunnel.

I follow a cycle path alongside a railway line from Ghent as far as Antwerp, it is very flat.  In fact all the land here is flat, no sign of hills, the horizon is not far away, it does make this country feel kind of small.  Barring my way to Antwerp is the Sheldt, somehow much bigger here than in Ghent - how to get across?  The answer turns out to be a tunnel, quite exciting with its funicular style lifts.  Antwerp is a big, busy port city - I do glimpse some historic looking bits, no time to stop though.  Along a canal to the wonderfully named Sint Job in 't Goor, where I camp and obtain pizza, and yes, more yummy beer.

Polders.

I ride into Holland without noticing, it is also very flat, but seems to have more trees than Belgium.  There are lots of other bikes here, all going faster than me, though I do notice many of them seem to be electric - can't help but feel this is cheating.  I ride along the top of dikes and past windmills, then through Dordrecht, a large and industrial seeming place.  A little to the north of the city I find a rather expensive campsite, but at least have a cheap meal of tent pasta.

Much water, very wet.

More Dutch scenery follows, I ride through polders, narrow rectangles of cultivated land between parallel drainage ditches.  Then through the outskirts of Rotterdam and back into the countryside - Holland is really very wet, my path is often a little strip of land with substantial bodies of water to either side.  Getting into the afternoon, I ride alongside the river Amstel, this is turning into a long day, finally I make it into Amsterdam, and then out the other side to camp at Durgerdam.  This is a familiar spot, it is still very nice with the little wooden houses on one side of the dike, and houseboats moored up on the other.  Seems I am here just in time for the weather to change, I take a day off during which it rains a fair bit, so I mainly sit around in Amsterdam and drink beer, then back to the campsite - last night's burger was good, and so, it turns out, is the spätzl.

Durgerdam.

Photos to go with this post can be found here