The loss of my gloves a couple of days beforehand must have affected my judgement.
In a rash move I also binned the old trainers I’d been wearing for the past week and checked out of my hotel in Rotterdam.
The weather was great, and it meant I could leave my panniers at the hotel for the day before setting off for Hoek can Holland.
I didn’t want the hassle of getting changed back into cycle gear for the last few miles.
It was all perfectly fine bombing round town in flip flops, but by the time I got 10k into the ride to Hoek my dogs were seriously barking.
Never again will I cycle in flip-flops.
Not only that, but having convinced myself I couldn’t possibly get lost I relaxed and managed to achieve just that within 5 minutes of setting off. Rather than backtracking I persevered, with the net result being an 10km on to the 23km route it took last time I cycled between the same two points.
Not only do my feet hurt, but my flip flops are ruined.
I finally made it to the beach at the end of the Rhine for a closing photo (you can tell because my bike is pointing the opposite way).
I may have messed up with gloves and trainers on the trip, but I wasn’t making any mistakes when it came to the cheese and sirop waffles.
Last stop before the ferry was a trip to Albert Heijn to stock up.
I still don’t fancy that Stena Line cooked breakfast.
Miles today: 19.54
Total for the trip: 419.26






Well done Mark!
Couldn’t tell how you got lost but had a stab at the route
https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=zGlV2EnexpcU.kVGFAPcgiw_c
Thanks Su – its about as good an approximation as I could give – I just kept following the signs when I found them again (and the destination km’s had jumped up!).