It is time for the next guest blog from Alexandre Rotenberg. Alexandre is based in Italy and is a photographer and cycle touring enthusiast. He enjoys exploring the beautiful areas of Italy by bicycle and contacted me about sharing his writing and photography work with the Cycling Touring Community.

This is the second of four great posts from Alexandre. There are some fantastic photos from Alexandre's bicycle touring journeys. Hope you enjoy!

If you would like to see Alexandre's first post, check it out here. https://www.cycletouring.org/blog/entry/cycle-tourism-along-milan-s-canal-navigli-network

The Journey is More Important Than the Destination

One of my hobbies is to cycle long distances across the countryside of Northern Italy.  Prior to cycling long distances, I like to have a general plan of where I’ll be going and when I should reach my “destination”. My rational side proceeds to painstakingly research and draw a proposed safe route on a map, taking into account important historical landmarks & pit stops. 

However, as often is the case in a continent full of history, my creative side takes over as something interesting catches my eye, causing me to deviate from the proposed route. Other times, I would have taken a wrong turn and gone too far into a different direction. Either way, as long as there’s unique experiences, I’ll be philosophical and just go along with the journey with often surprising results. When there is frustration it’s usually down to fatigue, darkness and/or my mobile phone battery has run out – usually all three combined!

Perhaps this is all a metaphor for life, who knows. In my humble opinion, it’s important to have a plan, but what I find more important is that my plan must be flexible enough to ensure I venture outside my comfort zone as that is where the magic happens.

Enough writing, the following are some examples.

These cute/scary sheep were captured just outside the grounds of the main Heineken factory in Zoeterwoude, Netherlands.  I was on my way from Rotterdam to Amsterdam and was looking for a good angle of the massive factory when I ran into them. There was a sweet smell of burnt hops in the air.

The Bridge to Nowhere

This was a rare frustrating day. I tried to take a short-cut through a dense forest where the rivers Ticino and Po meet by following signs towards a bridge, except there was no way onto the bridge (where the star sign is). All was not lost as I stumbled upon an abandoned house in the forest.    

About the Author

Alexandre Rotenberg is a semi-professional photographer and touring cycling enthusiast based in Milan.