Amsterdam to Brugge Bike and Barge Tour

I once again spent a week in August cycling with friends, Geri, Kim, and Ellen. Our journey began at the barge, The Elodie,(pictured here in Gent) in the Amsterdam Harbour on a Sunday afternoon where we got acquainted with the other 13 passengers and 3 crew members. Everyone spoke English except for one couple who were from Germany. The others were Scottish, English, Canadian, and American. It was a fantastic group with whom to spend a week long vacation bicycling and touring the Dutch and Belgium countryside. Our first 2 days of travel were actually hot(upper 80's), but by Wed. it was typical Holland weather of rain and wind, then the last 3 days were just windy and much cooler(upper 60's, low 70's). Most days we started biking from where the barge was docked, but some days the barge took us out of town to avoid the traffic congestion. We always met up with the barge at the end of the day where we had a gourmet dinner waiting for us and our cozy sleeping quarters. It was very nice not to have to pack up each day. I would have to say the highlight of the trip was not the cycling, but the evening activities beginning with a relaxing dinner, then taking a guided walking tour of the town where we were staying that night, and finally ending the day with a hot cup of tea in the lounge chatting with the other guests and crew members. I thought the biking portion of the trip was going to be a lazy ride through the countryside, but I was mistaken. We easily biked 50km (30miles) a day (no odometers on the bikes for exact mileage) and sometimes more, but at least we never got lost since the tour was guided. I enjoyed the Dutch landscape more than the Belgium one, but perhaps I'm biased. The tour ended in Brugge the following Sunday where we caught the train back to The Hague.