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"The more you travel, the more you realize how little you've seen" - This is the quote that opens this magnificent book. It's so true.

Don't worry, I'm not going to get all deep with travel-isms and bragging about past personal experiences here.

This is solely about the incredible accomplishments of Martijn Doolaard and the rebuttal of the special needs reviewer, Martin B., who rated this with 2 stars.

Firstly, and most importantly, I'm going to give credit where credit is due: to the author, Martijn Doolaard. Yes, this is a book, sure, but it's also a piece of art, a journal, and to me most importantly, a piece of significant inspiration. As noted by others, this book is on the larger size - just under 10"x13". I say, the bigger the better for these photographs. If they did a reprint in twice the size, I'd buy it in a second.

I collect coffee table books and admittedly there are more words in this piece than I'd typically like. BUT considering this tells the story of his journey with the faces he met and the places he went, I couldn't imagine it printed any other way.

I became inspired to write this review because I checked on his blog, Espiritu Libre, and noted that 2 days ago, he completed a 2nd and even more ridiculously amazing journey. Martijn cycled from Vancouver, Canada to the southernmost tip of Patagonia, in South America over the course of I think 2+ years.

Back to this first trip, I want to encourage you to pause and think about this for a moment... he rode a bicycle from Amsterdam to Singapore. Again...

HE RODE A BICYCLE FROM AMSTERDAM TO SINGAPORE.

If you're not inspired to quit your crappy day job and do something similar, I'm sorry, but there's no hope for you. Am I saying you need to? No. But if the longing, the desire, the recklessness of doing something equally ambitious doesn't even kind of enter your mind, you're probably like Martin B., who rated this book 2 stars.

Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about him. Look, I'm not going to tear this guy (?) apart, but he has one review EVER, it's negative, and it's about this book. Dude probably works for Walmart corporate, thinks foreigners are the devil, and chants MAGA while he sleeps. His ability to judge artwork and accomplishment has been severely stagnated by his lust for familiarity, as well as the safety of his own 800 person town. Get out. I mean for your own sake, Martin B., get out of your town and realize that life is both passing you by and happening around/without you. Perhaps your idea of a great photograph is a gym selfie posted to Plenty of Fish, but I'd saw my left arm off to be able to take comparable images.

This book has literally inspired me to take the first step of my journey - ironically retracing Martijn's - and cycle from Vancouver to my hometown of San Diego, on the border of Mexico. Technically I'd ride all the way to the Mexico border in IB, cause, you know, that would be lame to cut it ~25 miles short.

Thank you, Martijn, for inspiring me, for guiding me, and documenting your entire trip. I hope that one day, somewhere in the world we cross paths by bike, and I can thank you for the impact you story has had on a complete stranger. Ride on.

Brand	N/A
Rating	4.9 (158 ratings)
Price	$47.35
Category	Middle East

One Year on a Bike: From Amsterdam to Singapore