D - Day was R - Day start of trip 9158 km

OK, I admit it, I did not leave as scheduled, as we had some people sending me off and I did not pack the last bits till they were more or less there. Here you can see some of the last few moments at home, and the wave of flags goodbye.



But, got going at 10:30.

In the rain, and more rain, and more rain. Light rain; but a real pain:
Most of NL seemed to be on the road going on vacation. One big traffic jam from before Breda to Antwerp and beyond. The wide Belgian roads gave me ample space to overtake slowly, although I needed to remind myself I was much wider with the panniers on the side.
At the last moment I decided to divert to Brugge, as the roads to Gent looked completely blocked.


By Brugge it started to dry up, but by now, I was wet and cold, as I was wearing my summer pants, not waterproof.....Lunchtime and in need of fuel of both kinds.
 
Found a small Frituur called Frituur Martens in Maldegem, near Brugge. Had a nice chat there with Annick who wanted to know all about the adventure and all the things we had been considering wrt safety. Annick, let me know if you found the blog with a comment message below. You can follow teh blog qnd see if I was right that the kidnap risk is quite low.......
 
Around 1700 the roads went completely empty and I could make some good progress. But by now I was getting weary and decided to stop in Rouen. Approx 550 km done. Made it there by 1930. I wanted to dry out a bit so got lazy and took a hotel. Parked the bike right in front of the door.
 
Had a walk around town, quite a nice old town, but some areas are a bit run down.

 

I have never seen so many small restaurants in such a small place, from all kind of cuisines...
And some say, the french one is the best there is....that seems contradictory.
 
Tomorrow is another day.