Amsterdam to Hoek Van Holland

Have I mentioned that I quite like riding this bike? 

I think the tail wind has helped. And the flat ground. I'm not looking forward to tackling a real hill. If I knew my mechanics I'd have worked out gear ratios by now. I'm already planning butterfly handlebars and low riders - and ideally a new coat of paint on the weirdly separate front forks. 

I wondered about catching the train from Amsterdam to Leiden. The journey to the Hoek would be 80k at a very conservative estimate and I was in a relaxed mood.  But then by the time I would have got to the train and waited and done the journey, I thought I'd just ride. 

I flew along. For most of the journey I wasn't sure how flying along that was. I couldn't quite work out why the cheep computer I bought wasn't working but then, I turned it the right way up. It's a new kind of computer, the contacts are on the handle bar mount. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. It turns out I was flying along. 

By the time I got to The Hague I was hungry but I didn't want to stop.  In real life I'm terrible at time keeping so when I have a train / boat to catch I'm always ridiculously early. 

With 20km and 5 hours to go I decided to take my foot off the metaphorical gas. That, it turned out, was good timing. As I turned the bend my rear pannier rack came extremely lose. It turned out that somewhere on my journey I'd lost a screw. 

I took a few deep breaths and inspected the damage. The rear rack was sitting on the wheel but a bit of bungee chording and it looked ok. After a check - a passing cyclist told me to take the corners slowly - it seemed ok but not great. There was lots of creaking and friction. It would be slow progress from now on. I decided to take a chance and retraced my steps. Thinking of my run of luck I didn't hold out much hope but, just after turning round and giving up, there it was - I'd found my lose screw. I unloaded everything and fixed the rack properly. Then I added a bit of duct tape. Just in case. 

I stopped at the next cafe I found for a leisurely lunch. I had a full normal sized pizza whilst overlooking the sea as I read my book and had a general relax. Eventually I set off on that last few miles. I took an 'after' photo to go with the unintentionally 'before' photo I'd taken six weeks ago. 

At the port I was only an hour early for check in. The latest I've ever been