The Saturday cycle ride was an energetic 85 km loop to the west of Heerlen.
I set off over half an hour before sunrise, and made great progress towards the city of Maastricht, about 30 km away.
The cobbled streets of the old city are real bone shakers on a bicycle, even one with big, fat tyres to soften the repeated blows to the saddle area.
The cobbles lasted about 5 km before the road smoothed out and I could get back into a good rhythm once more.
At Wolder I passed into Belgium and a short distance later crossed the bridge over the Albert canal.
After a few km riding through the countryside near the Belgian village of Riemst I dropped down to the canal once more and crossed the bridge at Kanne.
At around 50 km I came to the pedestrian/cyclist ferry between Lanaye in Belgium and Eijsden in the Netherlands.
The river Maas at this point forms the border between these two countries.
There are many of these small ferries along the length of the Maas with a single crossing costing just one Euro.
From Eijsden I made way homewards on mostly unfamiliar country lanes as far as Gulpen.
The remaining 17 km from Gulpen was uneventful and on much more frequently used roads.
Today’s featured image is of the ‘Cramignon Ferry’ just after it deposited me back in the Netherlands.
