# Netherlands, with some Belgium & Germany



## totallyfixed (22 Aug 2014)

My second travelogue, the first was the Netherlands at the same time last year. This one is 4 days longer, we went back because we enjoyed the first one so much and with all the experience under our belts from last year it ought to be plain sailing [cough].
This is a great way of writing a diary for future reference and of course to recall some great memories. The plan this time was to circumnavigate the Netherlands anti-clockwise taking in some of Belgium and likewise Germany and hope that the usual prevailing westerly wind would not be too strong for the second half, that was the hope.................
Wednesday 6th August, bikes checked panniers loaded we headed down the road to Oakham station to get the train to Cambridge then ride from there to Harwich to catch the over night ferry to Hook of Holland. It was not an auspicious start, we arrived at the station to discover the train had been cancelled eek! No explanation until dr_pink went to ask, staff shortage. We went back home for a cup of tea. Back to the station for the hour later train and just to add a bit more misery to our plans this was 15 mins late. 
Those of you who travel with your bikes by train will know that the carriage for bikes is pathetic as you can only fit 2 bikes there plus there is no way of securing them [Netherlands 1, UK 0]. We found seats not too far away where we could see the bikes when a chap opposite said hello, it was @400bhp ! He was on his way to work at Stansted, what an amazing coincidence, it certainly helped to pass the time. We said our goodbyes and leaving the train at Cambridge began our ride to Harwich,
Leaving Six Mile Bottom, about 5 miles done.






All photos were taken on my mobile so not the greatest quality, also many were taken on the move which was often tricky with a loaded bike.
Luckily the weather was about perfect for cycling with a gentle tailwind so progress was good. I had planned a route via Lavenham and knew most of the roads already from leading Cambridge CC club runs
Outside The Swan in Lavenham




We made Harwich in really good time, a touch over 5 hours. As last year we headed for the same fish and chip shop and thence to the same park by the sea to eat.
A 3 mile ride to the ship to discover 20 or more other cyclists and almost as many motorbikes. Many of the latter were old Royal Enfields pulling trailers. This is on the ramp that takes you over the freight area on to the ship.





About to board





Before boarding we had visited Morrisons conveniently situated by the docks to get a stack of food for a late night snack on board, this included 2 small [honest] bottles of red wine.
Mileage for the day





Day 2 to follow.


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## totallyfixed (26 Aug 2014)

Day 2 - Hook of Holland to Breda
You get a very early wake up call on the ship, 5.30 as disembarking begins at 6.30. It's a good idea to get to the lifts early if you are lugging 2 panniers, a bar bag and a water bottle, otherwise it means negotiating a lot of flights of steps that are quite narrow.
Panniers back on, bikes quickly checked plus tyres as I am always worried we might have picked up a puncture from the flint you tend to get in Suffolk. Once off with all the other cyclists there is just passport control to get through.




This time last year, actually a week later we were disembarking and trying to work out how to get to the coastal path when we were rescued by 2 young Dutch women who invited us to go with them to Delft before continuing our first day's journey. I mention this because it was our intention to see them again at the end of this holiday as we were going around in the opposite direction.
So much easier this time as we knew which path to take straight away which was the estuary cycle route we had finished on last year. After a few minutes I noticed one of our fellow travellers from the ship behind us, we slowed up a bit and got chatting [once he had taken out his headphones and switched off his mini stereo system strapped to his handlebars], turns out he hails from London and was heading to a reggae festival in Eindhoven. The first part coincided with our journey to Breda so we rode together for a nearly 40 miles.
Last year we crossed the many stretches of water you tend to encounter either by bridge or ferry, unknown to us this first day was to be very different. We had decided to plot a route to Breda that was completely different to the way we had returned last year. About a mile before the first crossing we stopped at a village bakery to fuel up on their wonderful cheese bread and almond tarts [note plural!]. A middle aged lady who was also in the bakers had seen us in the shop and while we were eating outside came over and inquired if we were English, when we replied in the affirmative she replied that it made her heart feel good to meet us! [her words]. I knew we had a close relationship historically with the Dutch but this was unexpected, what a great welcome to the Netherlands.
The bridge turned out to be a tunnel that had it's own cycle path and even bike lifts to take you down into the start of the tunnel. This is not a road, it is a dedicated cycle path!




Once we had cleared the Rotterdam we said farewell to our London cyclist and we were out into the countryside we remembered so well.




It was good to have an incident free first day with balmy temperatures and light tailwinds and we were looking forward to seeing the lady we had stayed with on our last day the previous year. This is just entering Breda.




It was our intention this year to cut down our daily mileage a bit to around an average of 60 as last year we had very little time to explore the places we stayed in each day. Walking through Breda this single speed bike attachment caught my eye, the Dutch think of everything when it comes to bikes!





We headed across Breda to meet up with our host from last year. After much catching up and tea drinking, something the Dutch do even more than the English. Walking back into town to find somewhere to eat we hadn't realised it was late night shopping and finding a table was turning out to be a difficult task, it was absolutely packed with people. After much walking up and down we grabbed a table, after ordering we began to relax and look around, we had only ended up sitting only 2 tables away from the same one we had sat at a year ago! Pure chance as there were dozens of places to eat.
The square and church where we ate.





I think this picture is a true reflection of what you can expect in most places we stayed in the Netherlands. We could easily have stayed there for several days but ours is a holiday where moving on each day is a necessity, new places and people to meet but nearly always a sadness with each goodbye.
Back to our host and more tea and coffee with talk into the small hours.
Cumulative mileage from home, 62.09 for the day.





Tomorrow was to be a very different sort of day.


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## totallyfixed (29 Aug 2014)

Day 3, Breda to Valkenswaard
We always try to find out what the weather prospects are for the day, and it is good to know that the UK is not alone in having a special talent for getting it spectacularly wrong, except today was not good in that sense. Sitting 10 floors up eating breakfast and looking out towards Belgium [our intended route] with good visibility and no sign of rain, it was easy to believe the forecast our friend Miek had just read out to us - no rain until 1600.
Miek said she would ride out with us for a little way to put us on the right road, which can often be tricky when leaving a city. We had just taken a few photos before setting off when I felt a few drops of rain, not much but it didn't auger well.




We parted company with Miek at a supermarket where dr_pink raided the pastry section as is our wont most days. By now there was a steady gentle rain falling [as opposed to rising] and I took the opportunity to watch the Dutch population going about their daily lives. A mum leaving the shop, shopping in her front bike basket and her son, maybe 6 or 7 nonchalantly jumping sideways on to the rear pannier rack while the bike was moving; an elegant well dressed young woman cycling past while holding an umbrella and 3 people who recognised each other on their bikes stopping to chat. Can't do that in a car I thought. The rain did not appear to stop anyone cycling, many just cycled with an umbrella. No doubt about it, we could live in this kind of society where no one appeared to be rushing anywhere and folk actually talked to each other.
Time to move on. After reaching the outskirts of Breda we stopped to don overshoes as the rain didn't appear to be stopping anytime soon, it was one of those days where you could not see any clouds, just grey. As last year we often came across Storks in the fields within a few miles of city / town boundaries, and as last year they were always just too far away for the mobile camera to get a good picture.





This was a day for just getting the job done, unfortunately the rain got harder with no shelter in sight as we were well and truly out in the sticks with only 11 miles done, the Dutch don't do shelters or public toilets [NL 0, UK 1] so we positioned ourselves under a couple of adjacent trees and ate our pastries. 45 minutes later we are still there flattened against slightly overhanging tree trunks, the rain however was really coming down hard now with no real sign of letting up so with a resigned shrug we pedalled off again.
Not often, but occasionally a bike route will take you off road, but even those are hard packed and smooth. This time however we found ourselves riding through an extensive wooded area on a mixture of a light coloured sandy kind of mud, though still firm. Often on these scenic routes you don't see many people, this time I spotted a fellow traveller a few hundred metres ahead of us, probably touring because of the colour of his / her panniers, usually a good clue. We passed him later where the forest track divided, I think he turned the wrong way.
A few miles further we reached the small town of Hilvarenbeek where we found a cafe [this the Dutch do very well], sitting a few seats away was the guy we had seen earlier in the woods, we got chatting and it turned out he was heading for Maastricht the following day, as were we. First we had to get through the rest of this day so we said goodbye to Henk [another new friend made] and said maybe see you on the road to Maastricht, very unlikely of course but you tend to say these things.
The only significant thing I can recall about the rest of the afternoon aside from a buzzard taking off virtually under our feet and being wet was when we passed through the village of Casteren followed by Hoogeloon [I called it Hooligan]. Ten minutes later I saw the village sign of Casteren, now, although feeling wet, bedraggled and a bit disinterested at this point in my surroundings, I thought the village name looked familiar, yup, we had gone round in a circle! Well there is a first time for everything, personally it was probably my fault for secretly calling a village Hooligan, which of course we visited a second time.
On the way in to Valkenswaard [thumb makes a first appearance]




Somewhere between 5 and 6 we got to our destination and would you believe the rain stopped just as we arrived! Our host family Wiep [not sure if this is the correct spelling] and is wife [forgotten her name] were very welcoming and after a shower and a Trappist white beer [delicious] we went out with a borrowed umbrella to a restaurant a few hundred metres away to eat. What a great place it was, the food was excellent and reasonably priced together with very friendly waitresses. All the staff were called into action during our meal when the outer area which had a canvas roof collapsed in one part due to the weight of water, very entertaining! 
My meal with small knife.




Just shy of 56 miles today, running total




Tomorrow, into Belgium.


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## totallyfixed (1 Sep 2014)

Day 4, Valkenswaard to Maastricht
We reckoned this ought to be one of our shorter days as the plan was to pick up a canal in Belgium and follow that all the way to Maastricht. To make things even easier our host Wieb, after stuffing us with a very nice breakfast, offered to ride out with us and show us the best route out of Valkenswaard. Another farewell, but I am sure we will return one day.
Our route took us due south and for the first time we had a headwind, not too strong so progress was steady and the sun was shining again. Before the holiday I had given some thought to the problem of wet clothes that hadn't dried by the next morning. The solution was to carry a string bag which one of us tied to the top of our panniers and this worked very well when it wasn't raining. It was only about 5 miles to the border and still not quite 10am, things were looking good.




The quality of the cycle paths deteriorated very slightly in Belgium, though this is relative to the NL where they are about perfect, so good in fact that in many places we were riding on paths that had been constructed using 2 or 3 metre square concrete slabs and when you rode on them you could not detect the join, incredible! So Belgium paths were only about 90% better than those in the UK, terrible then.




Did I mention that there are a few canals in this neck of the woods? This was one of the larger ones with barges 100 metres in length usually carrying at least one private car, it certainly helps to keep HGV's off the roads.
A couple of hours later we stopped to eat lunch and give the bikes a clean and lube as there was a lot of sandy gunk on them from yesterdays rain.
We had just set off again and had stopped briefly to watch a water skier on the canal, when I was conscious of 2 cyclists going past in the same direction as us. We set off again following the 2 cyclists, one of which had panniers similar to Henk who we had met yesterday, they were really blatting along and it took a while before we hauled them in by which time the guy in front who was on a road bike and unencumbered by panniers had dropped the one we caught up with, it was Henk! [even more recognisable by the cucumber strapped to the top of his pannier rack - don't ask].
Of course we cycled with him for the rest of the way to Maastricht. It would seem that Garmin on the continent is just as unreliable as in the UK as Henk's Garmin at one point said we still had 40k to go to Maastricht when we reckoned it was about 12k, thankfully the Garmin was wrong.
Where we left the canal and said goodbye to Henk it turned out we were only a few hundred metres from our address for that night. As we had arrived so early we decided to go into Maastricht for a look round first as we usually agreed to arrive at hosts addresses between 1700 and 1800. It was only a couple of km's into the city which turned out to be a wonderful place, old buildings, narrow streets, big squares lined with cafes, just a great atmosphere all helped by the very warm sunny weather. We propped our bikes against a tree and sat at one of the many cafes to people watch. The cyclists were always the most fascinating, yes she is carrying a bike under one arm [as you do]




Reluctantly we retraced our steps back to the address we were staying at and had checked out earlier. Our hosts were Coen and Petra, what lovely people. We ended up sitting outside the back of their property which overlooked the river Maas chatting to them for more than 3 hours, drinking coffee then beer and wine and lots of nibbles during which we were joined by neighbours and various dogs. It really was the best evening ever and then we realised it was getting late and we had not had a meal yet! They very kindly lent us their Dutch bikes with locks and lights to cycle back into Maastricht, a very odd experience sitting so upright, but very comfortable and we felt very much at home. After eating at a Turkish restaurant we cycled around looking at the many old buildings and seemingly hundreds of bars spilling out into the streets, eventually though we had to leave.




The next morning we spent ages talking over breakfast, Coen had an amazing workshop tagged onto the house and makes things from wood, Petra is a textile artist and works with wool from different breeds of sheep. It was extremely difficult to leave and we promised them that we would return, very very sad to go.
49 miles done on our bikes [several more on the Dutch bikes unrecorded] to Maastricht and running total:




The next days cycling involved mad Belgiums and a lot of "what country are we in now" questions.


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## Hop3y (5 Sep 2014)

What a great thread!


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## totallyfixed (8 Sep 2014)

Day 5, Maastricht to Venlo.
It was the kind of day every cyclist cherishes and remembers, lovely and warm with a tailwind, bliss. Armed with a packed lunch provided free of charge by our wonderful hosts we set forth, vowing to return as soon as we could. Today's plan was to follow the river Maas north to the border town [with Germany] of Venlo. Not as straightforward as one might think, as the cycleways and roads often split company with the river. It occurred to me that up until this point we were just about level pegging [if you include the few miles done on Dutch bikes that are unrecorded] with the distance dr_pink achieved in her National 12 hr effort, quite remarkable!
After only a few miles along the river, 3 cyclists [roadies] merged with us from another direction, our / my usual greeting is "hi" or "hey", this time I went for "top of the morning, how the devil are you"? No, not really, but I did go with "good morning", this provoked the immediate response of "ah you are English". They were from Belgium and offered to show us a good route which involved many [I lost count} of ferry crossings and innumerable crossing of borders between the Netherlands and Belgium.
One of the ferry crossings.










Our new found friends turned out to be great company and real characters, this was one of their regular rides and they promised to take us on the most scenic route. On one of the ferry crossings one of them said he would arrange for us to stop with them at their regular cafe once he had spoken to the "boss" on his mobile. Intriguing, who was this "boss"? Their names were Ivo, Eddy and Arnaud and while I was chatting to Ivo he told me that one of them was a dentist, one a GP and he was an eye surgeon! Good company indeed! 





At some point before we reached the cafe I managed to find out that the 4th member of this group who they called the boss was the deputy mayor of the region we were in.
I think they might have been a little concerned that they might be going a little quick for us, but after telling them that dr_pink had ridden 400km in 12 hours they were in complete awe of her! As it turned out their pace never bothered us and it was great not to be stopping to look at the map for once and getting some fast miles under our belts so early in the day.
When we arrived at the cafe at Stokkem we were shown a table and beers were ordered all round, it was not yet 1100hrs, however I have always thought that the saying "when in Rome do as the Romans do" is one I should take to heart, so I was left with no choice, after all, one should not offend ones hosts. We spent a brilliant time with them laughing and joking which had the effect of other customers smiling along with us.





They paid for everything and invited us to come back and see them again which I am sure we will do [if we keep this up our next holiday will take months not weeks!].
They suggested to us a good route to follow, adding that we should stop off at the white village of Thorn to eat some fly pie [spelt Vlaai]. The good weather looked to be finally coming to an end and we batted along at a fairly high speed to try and outrun the rain which was coming up behind us, at one point it appeared to be raining behind and to both sides but we stayed dry, not sure how.
This is Thorn where we duly had our fly pie and a drink. The village is entirely white, the waitress at the cafe told us it was because there was a window tax a couple of centuries ago so the villagers whitewashed their windows and the house as well to disguise the windows. What a devious ploy.










With rain still threatening we pushed on. With 5km to go I punctured, the first one in both touring holidays. Time was still in our favour to make our address in Venlo at the allotted time so I repaired the tube only for it to go flat less than 50 metres after setting off again. What was that about having plenty of time? Replaced the tube, extracted a sharp piece of steel and cycled into Venlo. Things usually slow down at this point in the ride as we try to work out how to get to the address. We were cycling along one of the main roads, or should I say the beautiful cycle path adjacent to the road when a voice shouted "Helen"! I nearly fell off, who the hell would know who Helen is in large town in the east of the Netherlands? Was dr_pink not telling me something? Of course it was our host who was on her way to visit her mother in hospital and just guessed that we were her English guests. Obviously we must not look at all Dutch!
There were in fact 7 of us at staying at this address and that evening we went out to find a meal with 2 other Dutch couples, ending up at a pizza place that had the slowest service I had ever experienced. I still wonder if this was the cause of the disaster that happened the following day.
Mileage for the day was just over 57. Running total:


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## totallyfixed (15 Sep 2014)

Day 6, Venlo to Nijmegen [Mon]
Today was probably one of the days we were most looking forward to, seeing our friends who live in Nijmegen, hard to believe already a year had passed since we last saw them. On that occasion we stayed Sat and Sun and it was the next to last stop of our tour, this time we were not half way through and would only be staying for one night, however they had said we could arrive as soon as we could make it. Just as well this was our shortest day.
The only picture of Venlo I took




Progress initially was good, we followed the Lf [long distance] routes and between those and the river Maas route finding was straightforward.
The first odd thing occurred when we cycled past this lovely picturesque converted water mill now a cafe / restaurant. I turned around to get a picture thinking maybe it would make a good stop in the future. I propped the bike against the railings and took the photo, the odd thing about the result is the colour of my panniers, they appear to have changed from orange to yellow, the same as dr_pink's! Bizzarre, as you can see from the cafe parasol that orange shades still show .





Still with a tailwind and with two thirds of the distance to Nijmegen done we stopped at the small town of Gennep where we had a bowl of soup and a smoothie and watched life go by.
As the day wore on I realised I wasn't feeling 100% but because the sun was shining and the wind was favourable I had tried to ignore it, just a few griping stomach pains and an overall lack of strength, much of the time I was just sitting in behind dr_pink. At some point we crossed a road to follow the cycle path that headed off into the countryside away from the road, nothing unusual about that except that without warning we were climbing, and not a gentle one either. How I got up this hill I have no idea because I was feeling dizzy and out of energy and dr_pink was receding into the distance and nothing I could do about it. Once at the top I just collapsed over the handlebars while a worried dr_pink looked on. The top wasn't really the top as I could see a landscape ahead that was more reminiscent of Rutland than the Netherlands. Of course we were very close to the border with Germany and I knew from last year that there were hills to the east of Nijmegen. I struggled on continuing through rolling terrain but still going inexorably uphill, eventually entering a large wooded area that was off road cycling and fairly slow going for our 28c tyres even though downhill. When we eventually got back alongside the road and approaching the outskirts of Nijmegen waves of dizziness were becoming frequent.
About 3k from our destination riding along a super smooth cycle path alongside one of the main roads into Nijmegen I remember thinking not far to go now, the next thing I remember was lying on the cycle path. I must have fainted while riding, not a good thing to do at about 17 mph. I had lost a fair bit of skin and was bleeding from quite a few places, fortunately I had landed on the opposite side to the chainset, on the negative side I landed on the shoulder that I had been operated on 4 months earlier. I got up fairly quickly, not wanting a fuss to be made and promptly sat down as dizziness struck again. People stopped to ask if I was ok which was nice but I bet they were secretly thinking that the English can't ride bikes.
We made it to our friends where I got patched up and despite being somewhat tender we had a wonderful afternoon and evening. I know I couldn't have been feeling brilliant because when we all walked out to get an ice cream at one of those places that has umpteen varieties I could only manage one scoop while everyone else had two. Unheard of!
A lack of pictures today for obvious reasons.
45 miles for the day and running total:




Not entirely looking forward to the next day as I had no idea if I would even be able to climb on the bike, let alone turn the pedals.


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## Pat "5mph" (15 Sep 2014)

"fortunately I had landed on the opposite side to the chainset"  
Great report, great pictures. I'm enjoying reading this, thanks for sharing!


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## totallyfixed (15 Sep 2014)

Thanks Pat, it would all go much quicker if this computer wasn't wheezing out it's last dying breaths, each part is painfully slow to put together. Will try for the next chapter tomorrow.


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## Rickshaw Phil (16 Sep 2014)

A like for the report.   for fainting at speed.


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## totallyfixed (16 Sep 2014)

Day 7, Nijmegen to Almelo [Tue]

I slept fairly well all things considered but I was aching from the inevitable bruises, added to that I was still weak from the stomach bug / food poisoning, doing a long distance bike ride was not overly appealing. However, needs must, the sun was shining again, the wind would still be behind us and we were booked in to stay with someone in Almelo so not a lot of options. Once I clambered aboard the bike I knew I would be able to ride.
Time is short when you stay with people you like. Our friends cycled out with us a little way together with young daughter who was on her way to nursery. More heartfelt goodbyes and armed with verbal instructions on the best way to get through and out of Nijmegen, we were off again.
Leaving Nijmegen, many people live on the water in the Netherlands





As expected, the directions we had been given were spot on and even though we had several miles of crossing the city at no time did we feel we had gone wrong.
I thought my allotment was ok until we saw this on the outskirts of the city





I frequently found myself looking back as we bowled along in the warm sunshine to see Nijmegen dwindling into the distance. We are now promising ourselves that next time will not be a whistle stop tour and a 14 day holiday will entail fewer days cycling with some stops lasting 2 days.
In a few miles we had to find a ferry to cross the Rhein and despite me being a long way below par we were averaging high teens in mph which was a waste of energy as it turned out. The ferry crossing was where it was supposed to be, but no ferry in sight! We got chatting to a Dutch family who said the ferry only runs every hour [it was quarter past] and then only if there are 6 or more people waiting to cross. There was no one else waiting at this point, so with not much else to do, two types of bike maintenance began





and





I did have an excuse!
With about 10 mins to go other cyclists began appearing, until there were about 7 or 8 of us altogether, phew! The small ferry appeared as if from nowhere and very quickly we were crossing this famous river.





I got accused of making sure the [other] cute cyclist was in the frame too, as if. Moving swiftly on, once across, there was a choice of left or right, we went right and everyone else went left, when this happens it always leaves you with the niggling feeling that they knew something we didn't.
Clouds again were gathering as the day progressed, but still the southerly tailwind persisted which was just as well because I wasn't feeling in top shape. Our days on the bike have a similar routine, if we haven't managed to make some sandwiches from breakfast to take with us, we find a supermarket or bakery and get something there. My appetite was coming back, a good sign even though I was still getting infrequent mild stomach pains. How typical that the day I could have done with a shorter mileage was one of our longer ones.
With about 15 km to go [confusing, one of us had our speedo in miles and the other in kms making it easier to calculate where we were. That was the theory], and not for the first time we turned left on to the banks of a major canal that ran into Almelo. Behind us the sky was darkening and I was making rapid calculations as to where we might shelter. Out in the countryside there is usually nowhere to get cover, on these larger canals there are always bridges crossing them, the difficulty I found was in assessing the distance to these bridges as it was always hard to tell when you saw one in the distance if it was large or small. I could see a bridge in the distance and I could also sense that we were about to get wet if we didn't get moving. The bridge was nearly 2 miles away, it had looked closer because it was so large, dr_pink stamped on the pedals, I gritted my teeth and tucked in behind, my speedo was reading 28 mph! At just 200 m short of the bridge the rain hit, great timing, but I was shattered.
We ate and drank there and before too long the rain had passed through.
One last stop on the outskirts of Almelo





Riding through Almelo





Fortunately, the address was easy to find, inside it was very bright and minimalist, very functional as it was also a B&B. We had use of a small kitchen which meant we were able to go to the supermarket and make our own dinner. This was also the first place we had stayed at with a TV. Over dinner we watched some of the European athletics with the bonus of seeing Helen Clitheroe winning a gold medal, good timing!
Distance today, 69.9 miles. 
Running total


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## ColinJ (16 Sep 2014)

I had a similar tummy bug/weakness problem a couple of weeks ago when riding on the Isle of Mull but I managed to get off my bike and lie down at the side of the road whenever I felt like fainting. I had to do that 5 or 6 times in the course of struggling round a 74 mile loop.

I'm looking forward to going back to the start of this thread and reading the posts properly rather than just speed-reading them!


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## ColinJ (16 Sep 2014)

I've caught up now.

It sounds great. I really must buy a touring bike one day and have some cycling holidays like this one!

Where did you find all those host families?


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## totallyfixed (16 Sep 2014)

ColinJ said:


> I've caught up now.
> 
> It sounds great. I really must buy a touring bike one day and have some cycling holidays like this one!
> 
> Where did you find all those host families?


A good question, but if you had read last years travelogue to the Netherlands you would know the answer!
Ok, I will be nice as it's you, We joined an organisation called Vrienden op de Fiets or in English, Friends on Bikes :
http://www.vriendenopdefiets.nl/nl/ [you will need to translate]
The cost for a year was 9 euros I think and gives you access to thousands of addresses and not just in the Netherlands. It is a cheap way of touring, max 19 euros per person per night and includes bed & breakfast, shower and somewhere safe to keep your bike. Cannot recommend it enough and a great way to make new friends, several of which we have revisited on this tour.


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## ColinJ (16 Sep 2014)

totallyfixed said:


> A good question, but if you had read last years travelogue to the Netherlands you would know the answer!
> Ok, I will be nice as it's you, We joined an organisation called Vrienden op de Fiets or in English, Friends on Bikes :
> http://www.vriendenopdefiets.nl/nl/ [you will need to translate]
> The cost for a year was 9 euros I think and gives you access to thousands of addresses and not just in the Netherlands. It is a cheap way of touring, max 19 euros per person per night and includes bed & breakfast, shower and somewhere safe to keep your bike. Cannot recommend it enough and a great way to make new friends, several of which we have revisited on this tour.


I had a feeling that I got distracted when you were posting about last year's holiday. It probably coincided with when I got ill the second time. If not, I can't think why I didn't read it at the time. I am usually good at keeping an eye open for threads that interest me.

Will go back and read the old thread tomorrow!


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## totallyfixed (13 Oct 2014)

About time I got on with this!
Day 8, Almelo to Stadskanaal.
We have tried on this holiday to arrive at our overnight stops with enough time to look around and get a flavour of the towns and cities we stay in. On this occasion because of my injuries and to be honest being shattered by the days ride I wasn't up to sightseeing, so we left Almelo without seeing much of it. On the plus side I was already recovering after a a good sleep aided by a glass or two of vino.
We are now heading almost due north but still the wind is being kind to us and the weather is warm. This is the day we have planned to cross into Germany where a chunk of it sticks out into the Netherlands. We made good time with no incidents and got to the German border in just over one hour





We are out on a country road, but as with the Netherlands the cycle paths continue as you can see from the photo. From the expression on dr_pink's face it would seem she is thinking, blimey they are a bit high but could probably break the top one.
Halfway through Germany we stopped for a morning snack in heavily wooded rolling countryside. I remember from when I lived in Germany that they are big on walking and having rest huts dotted around, so when we spotted this one not far off the road it was a good opportunity to stuff our faces, we did a lot of that!




This next photo was taken in Nieuw Amsterdam [I have no idea why it is named thus, not yet looked it up] I guess it is typical of the many canals we crossed on this tour.




This is getting to be as far east as we would go so probably as far away from the influence of Atlantic weather systems as we could get, but at this point we were not aware of a big depression sat over the North sea that had been giving Scotland some grim weather.
Emmen was to be our late lunch stop, we were well ahead of time. If you head into a large town or city you run the risk of losing a lot of time finding your way out again so we skirted the edge of Emmen until we found a nice spot by one of those rare canals. This was actually opposite a square of shops on the other side of the canal so while eating we were treated to a birds eye view of how the Dutch go shopping - bike, walk, roller skate, not a car in sight.




Back out into rolling countryside before we get to the region around Stadskanaal which is more reminiscent of the fens back in the UK. I took this next photo to show a typical junction where bikes have the right of way, almost always the case even out in the countryside, and to portray the older generation out on their electric bikes, often many miles from anywhere.




Another cycle path that is as wide as the road it runs alongside, even if the UK achieved anything approaching this you would still have to give way to any vehicle movement that crossed the cycle path, not here.




Grandad out with the children, one ding of our bells and this was the result! More children not wearing helmets, what a terrible place this is.




Approaching Stadskanaal the weather begins to turn and when we reach the centre where the bus station and tourist information is the rain arrives, not bad timing. We chatted to an old lady who had lived there all her life, she spoke very good English, despite having never been there unlike so many of her compatriots. Fortunately she was a mine of information so when we asked her how to get to our overnight address we had good directions. Except it wasn't there! We were on the correct road but the house number did not exist. After much frustrated to-ing and fro-ing we stopped to ask and were told it was probably the campsite another km up the road heading out of town. Eek! Surely there was a mistake, a tent wasn't on the menu! It turned out to be the correct address, it was a campsite but also had an apartment, phew.




Very nice it was too. We cycled back into town and shopped at the Jumbo supermarket for our dinner, well dr_pink did, I looked after the bikes and tried to shelter from another rain shower. The apartment had cooking facilities so for the second day running we cooked for ourselves.
65 miles for the day, our running total





Tomorrow was to be a very different day.


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## totallyfixed (14 Oct 2014)

Hop3y said:


> What a great thread!


Thank you, just seen your post after looking back over the thread.


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## glenjarvis (10 Dec 2014)

Hi
really enjoyed reading your travelogue


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## totallyfixed (10 Dec 2014)

glenjarvis said:


> Hi
> really enjoyed reading your travelogue


Thank you. I will try to get on with it now as I have a new computer so no excuse.


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## jonny jeez (14 Dec 2014)

Thanks for putting this up, great read. I found a lot of memories of my own trip through Belgium.


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## totallyfixed (16 Dec 2014)

*Day 9, Stadskanaal to Leeuwarden*
This was the day that things got a little tougher. Eating breakfast it was hard to ignore the trees waving around in the wind, I knew that today we would be heading towards the depression that we later found out had produced gale force winds and flooding in Scotland. On the bright side we would be staying that night with another Helen who we stayed with last year and were very much looking forward to seeing the family again.
I was feeling a lot better following my crash 2 days earlier so I wasn't as fearful as I might have been. We waved goodbye and set off into the wind, our initial destination being Groningen, a university city where everyone rides a bike, first however there was the small matter of getting there across a wide open expanse and nothing to stop the wind from trying to send us back to Stadskanaal.
Caps were taken off, if they blew off it might have been a long chase back! This picture doesn't really capture the darker clouds, I was trying hard to read them and I could see some darker stuff in the distance that had us averaging close to 15 mph into the wind in an effort to get to the line of trees in the distance.





In the event we made it across, but I thought that rain was imminent, unfortunately that proved to be a bit too accurate and memories of leaving Breda on our second day came flooding [possibly the wrong pun to use] back. So there we were again flattened up against a couple of trees.





Luckily the rain stopped after about 15 mins, even so we were pretty wet. After saying earlier that shelters and toilets are rare over here, we had only ridden a few hundred metres from where we had been sheltering when we saw a shelter and toilets at the bottom of the Zuidlaardermeer, a lake and navigation point we had pinpointed on the map the previous evening. Oh well, might as well wander out on to the jetty and have my photo taken.





From there it ought to have been straightforward but in the tiny hamlet of Midlaren we managed [along with another couple] to reach a cycle route that was off road so it was about turn, retrace the last 5 or 10 minutes and get a move on. The morning was ebbing away and there was still 12 miles to the centre of Groningen. At least it was a side / tail wind and we really went for it until we started to hit traffic close to the centre.





We rolled up to the tourist information centre where we stopped last year, this time I was determined to get the t-shirt I had missed out on because they didn't have my size. Guess what, same guy serving, same story, out of my size! I bought one anyway, might have to stretch it a bit.
The next few pics reflect life on bikes in Groningen amid the sunshine and showers.





Our bikes amongst the many others.















We ate our lunch in warm sun and were probably happy to stay there for the duration, sadly there was still over 30 miles to go, all of it directly into the wind. One thing we did before leaving Groningen was to buy 2 small umbrellas, if anything could keep the rain at bay, carrying umbrellas ought to do the trick.
We went via


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## coffeejo (16 Dec 2014)

totallyfixed said:


> *Day 9, Stadskanaal to Leeuwarden*
> [...]
> We ate our lunch in warm sun and were probably happy to stay there for the duration, sadly there was still over 30 miles to go, all of it directly into the wind. One thing we did before leaving Groningen was to buy 2 small umbrellas, if anything could keep the rain at bay, carrying umbrellas ought to do the trick.
> *We went via*


Yes? Via?


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## totallyfixed (16 Dec 2014)

I have no idea why that posted! To continue, we went via Zuidhorn and from there joined the canal, in essence doing the reverse of what we did a year ago, except of course it all looks different when ones nose is resting on the handlebars in a futile effort to defeat the wind. After what seemed forever we stopped to stuff our faces at a picnic bench, as we approached I recognised it as the place we had stopped a year ago! Quite unintentional. This is where our world traveller "Bun" muscled in on the photo, he is our mascot and even has his own photo album!





Not a lot to say about the the rest of the ride to Leeuwarden except that we burnt more calories than we consumed and we did consume a lot! dr_pink looking a bit wind blown





Arriving at Helen's house made up for the tough day, another dutch cycling couple were also staying there and we had a great time swapping stories and then eating with the family, followed by a stroll along the canal looking at some of the amazing houseboats that many people live in.
A character building day for sure, tomorrow was to be a real test.


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## Gert Lush (7 Dec 2015)

:O What happened next!?


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## steveindenmark (7 Dec 2015)

You must be going across the causeway 

Not a bad ride, depending on the wind.

I like your blog and photos. Did you realise that you are the only people in lycra


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## totallyfixed (7 Dec 2015)

Gert Lush said:


> :O What happened next!?


A good question, life got in the way last year, I kept meaning to finish it off, thanks for the reminder. I still have all the diary notes and photos so I will.



steveindenmark said:


> You must be going across the causeway
> 
> Not a bad ride, depending on the wind.
> 
> I like your blog and photos. Did you realise that you are the only people in lycra


This is why we always got enquiring looks from both touring bike riders [to be fair I wore baggies] and also from club cyclists. On the one hand we had panniers [and a bar bag], on the other hand we had drop bar bikes with 28mm tyres. Add to that we cycled at quite high average speeds which in turn puzzled the tourers and the club riders. In other words we were hard to categorise. A bit like if you went touring on your scooter thingymijig.


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## steveindenmark (8 Dec 2015)

It sounds like you ride the same as us. I ride with a lycra top and MTB shorts. I find them comfortable and easy to wash and dry.

Next year we are touring light on carbon road bikes with Di2 but with 28c tyres and small panniers off a seatpost rack. That will get the club riders talking


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## totallyfixed (8 Dec 2015)

Be warned, if you ride in Belgium you will fiss off the roadies, particularly if you overtake or catch any of them in their immaculately matched kit and bikes. This is losing face on a mammoth scale and not recommended. I enjoyed it though.


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## Fiona R (27 Feb 2017)

Great report. Touring Holland is on my list as our daughter lives in Groningen. What a fabulous city for cycling. We just hire bikes at the station for €8 a day and we're sorted!

Once you start a biopic it's so hard to finish, it took me 8 months to write up a 15 day tour! Any chance of the rest?


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