Marney & Bob :: 2022 Europe

Limburg Node-to-Node

Day One

:: Thursday, May 19 ::

Opglabeek to Berg aan de Maas

about 39 kilometers

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We have begun an eight day bicycle tour that will be unlike any we have done before. We will go from place to place most days, but our goal will never be to get there. On Day One, for instance we started from the e-bike2rent bicycle shop in Opglabeek, Belgiums at about 2:30 in the afternoon and wound up at the Hotel Cafe Knoors-Meeks in Berg aan de Maas in the Netherlands about 6:30. We used the beautifully clear and well-signed node to node system. However, while we cycled 39 kilometers, we could have found our way using the system by cycling only about 20 kilometers. Kristin has planned eight days of rides for us piecing together parts of several published routes. Thus, each day is a tour in the core sense of the word. We are out to tour the country sidee and the scattered settlements along the way.

We took a train from Brussels to Genk and a taxi to e-bike2 rent. There, Miguel Noukens gave us a thorough explanation of how our Giant e-bikes work with their Yamaha mid-drive motors. Given the late start we might have been eager to cut the tutorial to a minimum, but a 15-minute rain storm kept us relaxed and in the shop--perfect timing.

A technical aside: Unlike the Bosch motors we used on the fine bikes we rented in Avignon, and the system we enjoy on our own bikes, these have an "Auto" setting. Instead of using their torque sensors to just match our effort according the chosen level of assist, it will actually change the level of assist--if that makes sense to you. We were somewhat dubious, but it works and makes us more aware of the bike's responsiveness to our level of effort. It's obviously not as energy efficient as, for example, just keeping it in Eco-mode where it matches every two grunts from us with one from the motor, but with our minimal distance that fact was eager to ignore. Of course, it is more efficient than it would be to cycle at a high level of assist. The bikes also have 8 gears so, despite the auto-mode, we find it natural to help the motor and ourselves by shifting gears to accommodate the slight undulations in the generally flat terrain.

General description of the day's ride: With a few minor exceptions we rode on narrow, minimal-traffic roads and bicycle paths through an agricultural country side and wooded preserves. We saw lots of horses in the beginning and even a few domesticated (deer. We spent much time near, along, and crossing (by ferry) the Meuse (in Dutch it is "Maas") River and its parallel canal, and we stopped to study some interpretive signs and maps. Dinner was pizza delivered to our hotel.