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| Tour de Netherlands
This was a bike ride with John Rimmer, whom I'd met on my Lejog ride, his cousin, Keith Rimmer, whom I hadn't met before, and Andrew Todd. Andrew had called off at one point thinking he had heart problems but as it turned out he was fine and along he came. Andrew had arrived in Ware at about 6.00 pm and after putting the bikes on the rack Trisha drove us to Harwich to get the 23.15 ferry. Amber came with us too, in order to drive the car back as Trisha didn't want to do that on her own in the dark.
We got to the ferry with plenty of time in hand and met John and Keith on board where we had two cabins booked for the overnight crossing. Keith was a white-haired, decent sort of chap, a retired accountant who still did a bit of work for a charity and who'd had a valve in his heart replaced a couple of years earlier. He looked very well now and was certainly fit enough on the ride. Monday 3rd June 2013 - Hook of Holland to Amstelveen I was in the bottom bunk but didn't get a very sound sleep; I dropped off eventually but we were wakened at 6.30 local time (5.30 BST) by the ship's PA system advising that the ship would be docking in 1¼ hours and that breakfast was being served in the restaurant. We disembarked at about 8.00 but after Andrew and I had jumped the queue of cars to get through passport control we then had to wait for 40 minutes for John and Keith who were politely and patiently waiting their turn in the queue.
The weather had been cold and wet the previous week but today was dry and although initially overcast and cool it brightened up as the day progressed and warmed up a tad too. At this early part of the day (8.00), however, it was still quite cold so after a while we repaired to a nearby very basic café for a cup of tea while we waited for the other two. Eventually the others turned up and together we set off for Amstelveen, following the course downloaded to the GPS from the excellent Dutch route-planning website, http://www.nederlandfietsland.nl/fietsrouteplanner. After about 7 miles we stopped at a hotel and got some breakfast there. It was still cool and cloudy with some light wind to overcome but we carried on and came to the Hague where we saw the king's palace and a statue of William II and stopped for a cup of tea. Tea in the Netherlands invariably amounts to a cup of no longer boiling water with a tea bag or choice of bags supplied separately for you to pop in at your leisure. It's tea, Captain, but not as we know it.
There were further tea stops in Oegstgeest and Burgerveen then somewhere in the later stage of the ride as we were cycling through a small town a young girl and her even younger brother appeared in front of us, both on bikes. The girl was happily messing about and riding no-hands, waving them in the air when her bike hit a bump or something, wobbled, and she came crashing down. She began wailing and we stopped to see if we could help but being all male, foreign and non-Dutch-speaking we couldn't really comfort her much - fortunately some Dutch woman turned up and took over.
At Amstelveen we checked into our hotel, the Hostellerie de Veenen, and after a shower and change of clothes we wandered into town looking for somewhere to eat. We found an Indian restaurant and had something there then went to a pub and had a white beer or two, followed by a final beer back at the hotel.
Stats for the day: GPS: 54.9 miles; 8.6 mph average speed; 1525 feet of ascent Bike computer: 51.4 miles Tuesday 4th June 2013 - Amstelveen to De Sternhof Today was a beautiful blue-skies day and quite hot. It started slowly in the B&B, the Hostellerie de Veenen, where you couldn't help yourself to cereal or anything - a waiter or waitress would come round and give you bread and cheese and coffee but we had to ask for cereal. Then Andrew asked for a poached egg so I had one too but John and Keith were fed up by then and declined, going back to their room. When it came time to check out Andrew moaned that the air conditioner had kept him awake and asked for a reduction - they knocked off 15 euros reducing the cost of the room and breakfast for the two of us from 105 to 90 euros.
Continuing his campaign to enrage the Dutch Andrew removed his T-shirt at the coffee break stop - a museum/conference centre place in the middle of nowhere, where we'd stopped for an apple slice and coffee and were sitting outside pleasantly taking in the sun. After a few minutes the manageress came out and said in English 'Can I ask you something?' We thought it was a conversational gambit but she then continued rather humourlessly with 'Can you put your shirt on?' Rather embarrassing especially when Andrew replied 'Yes I can. Would you like me to?' The answer was yes, of course, so he had to cover up the topless Todd torso.
We passed large areas of water, crossed a canal on a ferry and paused at Eemnes to buy the makings of a cheese and tomato sandwich which we had later after getting off the ferry. After crossing the major stretch of canal/river to reach Zeewolde, effectively we were on a large island now and continued along some very long and straight tracks, mostly cycleways rather than roads as was the case for most of today's mileage in fact. Long, straight and mostly empty.
We passed through woods at times, where the GPS coverage flickered a bit - no major problems but a couple of overshoots - and the track was a bit bridleway-like in places. At about 18:00 we arrived at De Sternhof camp site and B&B, only to find that they'd never heard of us and were full up. It turned out Keith had booked online but failed to click the 'confirm' button at the end. Not to worry though, they were able to sort out a couple of caravans for us at a knock-down price of 30 euros per caravan including breakfast. Very decent of them.
In the evening Henrik (the hubby) gave us a lift into Harderwijk, the nearby town, as de Sternhof itself is in the middle of nowhere - well about 3 miles away. It was a pleasant town with a seaside-like 'café society' ambience and the evening was clear and warm - very nice. We ate outside in a square - Gabriel's Italian restaurant where I had Penne & Vegetables with Gorgonzola sauce. Not sure about it but I needed the food after a long day's cycling. After that we had a couple of nice 'white' beers then got a taxi back to de Sternhof. The taxi-driver had been taxiing there for 12 years but said that was the first time he'd ever been there - we had to tell him the way! Stats for the day: GPS: 56.7 miles; 9.6 mph average speed; 24.5 max speed; 1499 feet of ascent Bike computer: 51.04 miles Wednesday 5th June 2013 - De Sternhof to Meppel A fine day with beautiful blue skies and a few cumulus clouds appearing later in the day; hot with little wind about and I got a bit burnt.
We managed to leave De Sternhof by 9.25 and set off for Meppel. En route we stopped at Kampen, a place with town walls, a big gatehouse, an impressively large church and a fairly busy pedestrianised and café-littered main street where we got some rolls and tomatoes. I got the tomatoes from a stall after walking nigh on half a mile looking for some. We had lunch from these makings a couple of miles further on after having had to forge our way through a street market.
Eventually we arrived at Giethoorn which is basically an attractive village with all the houses edging the canals and access to them being mostly by foot or by boat; all the residents there seemed to have a boat. The bridges over the junctions with the main stream were quite steeply arched to allow boats to pass under them so you had to take a bit of a run at them on the bike to get over them. Keith slipped up a bit on one of these bridges, not carrying enough speed and stalling half-way up causing him to fall sideways a bit. He caught something in time to arrest his fall though and was ok.
On leaving Giethoorn we headed north following the allotted cycle route which took a slightly roundabout way of getting to Meppel. As we came in to Meppel we spent quarter of an hour riding rather circuitously through the town trying to find the Hotel Riesiger and by this time Andrew was becoming hot, tired and rather obnoxiously irritable. He was also cross because he thought we should have spent more time looking round Giethoorn although when we had been there and everyone said 'Off to Meppel now then?' he hadn't said anything - so, tough, I thought. I suppose I was getting irritable by then as well and perhaps wasn't overly receptive to his moans. Anyway he now thought he could find his own way better so after some rather abrasive argument he left to make his own way by following the road signs. And fair enough he did get to the hotel before us. That surprised me as I'd thought we wouldn't see him for a couple of hours but there you go.
In the evening at Meppel we went into town and had a meal and a few beers. Cheese croquettes and vegetable croquettes and French fries for me and Andrew - we swapped and had half and half. Very nice. I had a cherry waffle for afters but it came with shavy type cream instead of ice cream as requested. Then a few beers: 'spring' beer to start, then a couple of white beers and finally a 7.5% Trappist beer. Stats for the day: GPS: 64.9 miles; 10.7 mph average speed; 18.6 max speed; 1830 feet of ascent Bike computer: 61.4 miles Thursday 6th June 2013 - Meppel to Amersfoort We had a long day ahead of us so we were up in time for a 7.30 breakfast at the Hotel de Reisiger. In the event I was unable to get a GPS reading - I forgot to start it recording in the morning and it stopped working sensibly when we reached Amersfoort anyway. The bike computer made the mileage 74 miles and Keith concurred with that.
It was a long slog anyway and we were all hot and tired by the time we arrived. Still the weather was nice again and the wind, if any, was behind us. We bowled along at a good rate having got away about 8.35. Once again we stopped in Kampen for a cup of tea and a bit further on we stopped again for refreshment at a hotel set in nice grounds in a small place we were passing through.
On reaching Amersfoort after a long westerly run by the side of some water we had trouble finding the hotel, the Mercure Hotel, because of the GPS playing up - I think it had used up all its memory storing waypoints and was getting a bit confused. Amersfoort is a big, bustling city and after we'd negotiated a horribly busy stretch through rush-hour traffic Keith, the old charmer, asked a local girl for directions and she very kindly got on her own bike and led us to where we needed to go.
The Mercure Hotel was a huge modern building, very clean and nice and they let us wheel our bikes through the lobby then down some steps to their basement garage where we locked them up for the night.We had to leave a 50 euro deposit at the hotel, though, just in case we smashed the place up.
After unpacking and showering we went into the town centre for a meal, ending up in a town square with an enormous brick-built tower 'Our Lady Tower' (Onze-Lieve-Vrouwentoren). We had a couple of white beers (and had already had a free one back at the hotel) and a very nice vegetable lasagna and chips. There was a rather cocky Australian-Dutch waiter serving us - John thought he was disrespectful but I expect he was just being friendly and bantering in his own mind. Stats for the day: GPS: No reading Bike computer: 74 miles Friday 7th June 2013 - Amersfoort to Delft Another good day weatherwise. We left Amersfoort, which is a big town with lots of traffic and lights and turnings, and rode west through a forested area for seven or eight miles. It was very pleasant riding along through dappled sunlight and shady trees. There were some protruberant tufts of land in places making a few small ups and downs, something of a change from the sea-bed flatness of the country we'd seen so far.
Andrew chose to do his own thing, leaving the rest of us at Utrecht because he wanted to look round it. He can't have spent much time there though and must have cycled faster than he did when he was with us because he caught us up in Woerden while we were having a nice bit of lunch in a café there.
After lunch we carried on to Delft where Andrew once again parted company with us. He lost patience because we went up a wrong street and said he'd make his own way - this time, however, he got to the hotel about 20 minutes after we did. Then in the evening when we were discussing start times for the next day he wouldn't have breakfast before 9.00 but then started saying we should bring the Delft departure time back to 10.30 instead of 11.00 and that instead of all going to Delft town centre together we should each go when we felt like it. Alright maybe there's nothing wrong with that but by now I was becoming a bit annoyed with him.
In the evening we walked into Delft and had a meal in an Indonesian restaurant. We were the only ones in there; they got my order wrong and brought me a meat version so the others had more or less finished their meals by the time I got mine. After that we went and sat in the main square and had a couple of beers. Stats for the day: GPS: 63.5 miles; 18.8 mph max speed; 10.8 mph average speed; 2276 feet of ascent Bike computer: 61 miles Saturday 8th June 2013 - Delft to Home As agreed, following breakfast we did our own thing for a couple of hours. I rode to the town centre then wandered around looking for family gifts. It was market day and the market in Delft is fairly extensive, a good number of people around and a wide variety of wares spread out on stalls and bits of handy walls.
At the agreed time, probably 10.30 but I can't remember, we met up and set off for the short ride back to the Hook of Holland and the ferry. It was another beautiful day and as we approached the port we pulled in to a café, the "Cafetaria 't Trefpunt" (at the corner of Heenweg and Maasdijk, just before crossing the N220 on the way from Delft to Hook of Holland) and had a cup of tea in the sunshine. Then it was on to the ferry.
There were no problems boarding and we had a straightforward voyage back to Harwich. When we got there Trisha was already waiting nearby so we loaded the bikes, made our farewells to John and Keith, and drove back to Ware. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
