Amsterdam to Bruges

Day one of my first solo motorcycle trip across Europe took me from Amsterdam, through the Netherlands to Bruges in North East Belgium. This was the first time I'd ever toured on a motorcycle, let alone making the journey all on my own so I was feeling a little nervous to say the least.

The first stop was the beautiful Dutch town of Delft just North of Rotterdam, where I stopped to stretch my legs and have a coffee next to the lilly-covered canal. Like most of the Netherlands, it was ridiculously chilled-out, I wished I could've stayed for longer, but I had many more miles to munch.

Of course, a roadtrip across the Netherlands wouldn't be complete without the obligatory photograph of my trusty Triumph Bonneville in front of a quintessentially Dutch windmill. Shame about the lampost, but I've never been one to spend hours Photoshopping my pictures.

After fighting my way through central Rotterdam, the next stop on the road to Belgium was Middelburg, a town famous for its 16th century lens-making and it's impressive Gothic townhall. There's not a great deal more than that in Middelburg, so I was soon back on the road toward Bruges.

I arrived in Bruges around teatime, just as the sun was going down on the peaceful canals. It's a beautiful ancient city, which Ralph Fiennes encapsulated perfectly in the movie In Bruges when he said:

"It’s just a shame it’s in Belgium, really. But then you figure if it wasn’t in Belgium... if it was somewhere good, there’d be too many people coming to see it. It would spoil the whole thing."

Never a truer word was spoken.

These photographs were taken on my Olympus Pen micro four thirds camera and the extraordinary Panasonic 15mm f1.7 DG ASPH - one of my all time favourite lenses.