I generally don't like to travel/ move around in Western Europe in the summer months: the crowds, the heat, the prices, and the long days of light that aren't great for photography. So I based myself in Maastricht (The Netherlands) for a necessary recharge of my battery (body).

Ironically, what ended up re-energising me more than anything I've done for a long time, was to buy a questionable used bike (€80), adding some panniers (€14 each, top quality stuff from the budget shop Action) and bike-touring around 1,000km through the southern Netherlands and Belgium with a splash of Germany and Luxembourg.

There is simply no compare to the cycle infrastructure in this part of the world. There's now an infinite number of dedicated routes to choose from through all forms of scenery - one can select routes focused on all manner of themes such as medieval history, World War 1/2, rivers, forests, hills, old railways, etc. I opted to partially follow the Maas River LF (long-distance) Cycle Route and also completed the superb Vennbahn Cycleway from Aachen in Germany to Troisvierges in Luxembourg. I only packed the Ricoh GRiii (is there a better camera for cycle touring?!) but with the focus really being on enjoying the ride, I didn't take too many photos (with my phone, yes).

Around that cycle touring, for which I won't include photos, I did squeeze in some street photography, for which I will :) per below.