Originally Posted by cyccommute
I guarantee that in 10 years you likely won't remember the days that you rode 100 miles but you will remember that little tea shop in Aberdeen or the ruins of Urqart Castle or even the sea gull making a bullseye on your shoe.
Isn't that the truth. I've done a lot of touring of various kinds, and in talking about encounters with animals with someone yesterday, I had no trouble reeling off 15 or 20 or them (well, I probably could have reeled off that many). But ask me what distance I travelled each day, and I can't really tell you -- except my first ever 100-mile day was at the end of my Nullarbor Ride, and included the small mining community of Iron Knob.
There are short days, and long days, and medium days, and days when nothing happens at all. There are days when alternative transport -- coach, train or ferry -- is easier and logical (over boring routes or those with high-speed and high-volume traffic... or water). I spent four days "recovering" in Brugge in 2003 and it became my favourite city on my northern European trip.
Emotions play an important role. So does weather. And mechanical mishap. As well as lovely people. And comfortable accommodation.
And for less-experienced tourers (well... yes, even for older hands) there seems to be that desire to "get on with it" at the start of a tour, meaning early distances may be longer than they need to be and good experiences might be missed.
Having said that, long-distance randonnees have allowed me to travel to areas I otherwise would not have done, including France and parts of Australia. And generally I want to go back with a bit of "buffer" time around the events to appreciate the regions a bit more by doing "normal" touring.