Good to hear from you, old friend. Prague is wonderful, isn't it? I rode there a couple of years ago. And Holland, I know well. Do keep in touch.

As so many others have said...welcome back. Glad to hear you’ve mostly recovered from a fall we never heard about! It is amazing how muscle aches and sore parts of the body seem to disappear once one starts turning the pedals.

And as for that 1%, there’s no question that anything more than that now feels a bit like l'Alpe d'Huez. In fact, the thought of tomorrow’s short 7% climb between Arnhem and Utrecht is already giving me pause! (I’m just finishing a tour that started in Prague, followed the Elbe, and had me dinking around Holland.)

Anyway, welcome back. Looking forward to more wonderful journals soon.

Congrats on the successful tour! I'm looking forward to the journal on your ride to Brussels.

As always, I thoroughly enjoyed following your colorful narrative and nice photography. Thanks for the efforts!

Looking forward to your next turn of the pedals.

Good to hear from you again, Leo, and to have another report from one of our favorite corners of the world. Looking forward to following along with your next outing.

Lovely to hear from you. Thanks. Yes, a bad bump going downhill and a night in hospital and a back that still hurts when I walk (although not when I ride!) 15 months later. But it all just makes me ever more saintly, don't you think?

Hi, fellow old codger. My old friend Terry, both a cyclist and philosopher, once observed that girls who would never have spoken to you when you were 17 show no hesitation when you're 70. His reasoning is that they think you're Safe. And you are. But it doesn't stop a bit of secret lusting, he insisted.

Bonjour Leo,

Well sir, its been a while but there you are again and I for one am glad to see it. You were awfully quiet about your crash, which seems very un-French to me as we do revel in our misfortunes, don’t we?
I am amused to see that you are being asked to explain Brexit, which of course you had nothing to do with. I would have said that it beats trying to explain Trump, but now that Boris has come to center stage the two phenomena appear to be linked.
And you may not be immortal, but you still have time to chat up dark eyed Spanish maidens and Dutch sirens, creatures who I have not encountered recently and would not know what to do with should I be so lucky. Although I do find that nice young ladies smile at me in the bakery and even open doors for me. I guess I have become an old codger, and am viewed as harmless or worse, feeble.
One of the benefits of cycling for me is that it has never strained my back, and the exercise has had significant benefits. I can’t run, and walking any distance is difficult, but on a bike I fly. Plus the fraternity of cyclists means that there always friends nearby.
I won't carry on further, and await your further posts.
Welcome back!
Cheers,
Keith

Lovely to hear from you. Thanks. Yes, a bad bump going downhill and a night in hospital and a back that still hurts when I walk (although not when I ride!) 15 months later. But it all just makes me ever more saintly, don't you think?

Hi there, Léo! Happy to see you're back in the saddle again and making an appearance here! I didn't know about your crash, glad to see you're back!

Chuckle... nope...

Thanks. Have you ever tried it yourself?

As usual, this sounds like it will be quite an interesting tour to follow.

Good to see you are on the road again!