Chenonceau -> Voorschoten maps can be deceiving

Got going in the morning (22nd), and cleared up camp. Got stuck on the phone and Andre drove off for a quick visit to the bakery for my last French baguette. If possible, I would try to make it back in one day, so I could help Anneke move my mum, and do the house transfer together the coming week.

So, said our goodbyes and got going, but of course, I had no idea of all the small places that were not on the map, and aimed for the highway, generally same direction of Andre. Fortunately a familiar place (Tours) showed on the road signs, waved goodbye and I was on my own. In hindsight, a direct pass through the countryside would have saved me about 30 km. This tiny bit on our heavily used Europe map was deceptive because of the scale.
From Tours, Paris was signposted as 240+ km, and since Paris is signposted I think at about 550 km from Shiphol, I figured I had to do about 750 that day to do it in one run...That is a lot on a bike.

From then on, the route was simple enough:
Orleans, Paris, Lille, Gent, Antwerpen, Rotterdam, The Hague and Voorschoten = home.
Paris was jammed with traffic on the Saturday, so I got some practice driving between the queues. I got a hell of a fright when another biker (as did all of them) overtook me while I was gently easing my way through.
Boy, do they have a death wish. I cannot believe how much risk they take.
The advantage was that they would clear a route and I could follow, although I did not even consider keeping up with any of them.

After Paris, the throttle went on again and cruised up to just past Lille, where of course the French B...elgians did not put Gand (Gent) on the signs, except at the last moment, in small print. A manouvre that would make my Italian driving instructor proud followed, and I kept to the right route.
Fuel only lasts about 250 km at cruising speed so took a nice break at each tank stop. Nonetheless, a long way to go and often, I just leaned on the tank a little with one arm, to be a bit lower and reduce the noise and forces on my neck.

In Belgium, some crazy guy nearly ran me off the road, with a new car with "No Fear" on it.
He can add "No brain" cause he then proceeded to do the same to the next vehicle in front. I hadn't come this far to  be run down near home.
Took the Toll route from Antwerpen to Rotterdam, and there was little traffic there, so good progress again.

Now in Dutch territory, I was getting clogged up in traffic again near Rotterdam, and noticed how busy and agressive the driving is here compared to what we had seen. Everybody seems in a rush. Organized though.
Well, here I was getting pretty tired also, so just cruised over to Voorschoten. Got there just over 1900 hrs, so 8.5 hours on the bike. A sore bum and rough neck and shoulders were the only damage.



Got a big hug from all the 3 girls and could finally sit down and take a break.

Here is the final mileage on the bike 15.939 km