Flemish NRttK

[dellzeqq]

You say all the right things:
[bikes] @AgentHilda coming?
[smeus] Yum!
[119km] Perfect! Will sort out final route tonight (may be Wednesday).

she is. Our Eurostar will roll in to Brussels just after ten (Brussels time). We'll make our way to the start (any hints on where to spend the ninety minutes or so we have spare gratefully received) and then, upon arrival in Oostende, we'll have breakfast, take the train to De Panne, cycle to Dunkirk and take the ferry back to Blighty.

Has anybody booked the return ferry? If so, at what time? I'm thinking.....arrive Oostende 8.00. Finish breakfast 9.00. Take tram 9.30. Arrive De Panne 10.45. Arrive Dunkirk 12.15.

Bear in mind, David, that we'll be leaving town after most people have gone to bed. Might it be that roads that are rough during the day are ok during the night? I ask, because the Manchester FNRttCs left town on the A56, and, after the first mile or so we pretty much had the road to ourselves.

 

[mmmmartin]

Re ferry. I was thinking of booking for 4pm and arriving early which is better than booking for 2pm and arriving late. I also have a Seecrit Code which is EXX25JS0Y3 and should give you 20% off, so a massive reduction from £15 to £13.50. Also if you have not done it before the ride from the docks to Dover railway station is dead easy and short but very convoluted, it involves a cycle route on the wrong side of the road and a pedestrian underpass. So might be worth printing it out before.

 

[BalkanExpress]

Bear in mind, David, that we'll be leaving town after most people have gone to bed. Might it be that roads that are rough during the day are ok during the night? I ask, because the Manchester FNRttCs left town on the A56, and, after the first mile or so we pretty much had the road to ourselves.

Much as I hate to malign anyone or anything, it is dire: poor road surface, little or architectural merit, tram lines which are a real pain on a group ride and it passes through a couple of areas which the police from time to time are obliged to state are not "no-go" areas for them after dark

I'd suggest heading down Antoine Dansaert and turn right at (or even before the canal) then up to Bvd Leopold II (not pretty but a largely segregated cycle path). What is pretty is the view as you ride up to the Sacred Heart: 5th largest church in the world, art deco, what's not to like at the cost of 1km

 

[dellzeqq]

I'm not sure I want to ride down anything to do with Leopold. I take your word on the tram tracks, though - those could be quite tricky when we go through Gent.

Els - I'm going up to Stanfords Map Shop on Friday. (any excuse). Let me know if there's anything you need.

 

[BalkanExpress]

As for a place it kill time, Swarm Catcher mentioned waffles at La Chaloupe d'Or (" the Golden Chaloupe").

It's on one corner of the Grand Place, big terrace and lots of room indoors. Various carbs in both solid and liquid form are available

It shoud be possible to lock the bike up and get a table close enough to keep an eye on them. I'll bring along a couple of mini-U's and a krypto cable to help truss bikes up.

 

[swarm_catcher]

I'm not sure I want to ride down anything to do with Leopold. I take your word on the tram tracks, though - those could be quite tricky when we go through Gent.

Els - I'm going up to Stanfords Map Shop on Friday. (any excuse). Let me know if there's anything you need.

Thanks Simon, don't need anything right now.

 

[swarm_catcher]

I'm looking at the route options:
1) BalkanExpress gets us out of Brussels
2) We follow the most direct route (the 119km route), in the knowledge that a more fine-tuned, scenic route can be attempted next year
3) I've spotted a couple of non-road stretches/footpaths and have amended the route for that (now at 120km).
4) Have also amended the route to go via 't Hoekske, the 24hr cafe in Ghent.
5) We may get onto one-way systems in Gent and Bruges, I guess we'll just follow our noses when that happens. The worst that can happen is that we end up on a ring road which we can follow around.

Looks like Simon will have paper maps, and so will my sister.

Roll call:
Kris
Simon
AgentHilda
mmmmartin
BalkanExpress
Delftse Post
Els

La Chaloupe d'Or it is for carbo loading.

 

[BalkanExpress]

Swarm_cathcher

many thanks for all the effort

If a PM is the same as a Conversation then details sent.

I have been reminded of an evening obligation which had slipped my mind, so I will not be at the Grand Place until late. If there is a need for locks and a cable let me know and I can drop them off somewhere between now and Saturday.

Many years ago I studied in Bruges and so should be able to get us through town and out the other side. Even if they have changed the one way system since then, the good news is most one way streets allow cyclists to contraflow.

 

[srw]

Bruges is a pig for navigation (says he having got lost going into it on a bike several times).

Our first cycling holiday was an organised affair starting somewhere near France, taking a detour up to De Panne to sit in the sun and thence to Bruges (whence a day trip to Holland) and Ghent. At the time I thought Bruges to Ghent was an awfully long way...

IIRC, the route from Bruges to Ghent was basically "find the canal, sit on the canal". If it would help a future edition I'm happy to see if I can dig out the route cards we were given, and also the Fietsroutekarte we bought.

 

[dellzeqq]

Thanks, Els. I'd spotted one off-road bit west of Gent, but I assumed that this was in the grand Belgian cyclocross tradition. We'd have been bumping down it at four in the morning and you'd be saying 'Eddy Merckx used this path to toughen up at the age of three'.

Wind now from the west. I'm gong to be three foot in front of Susie's front wheel the entire time.

Srw has a point about Gent to Brugge. Sticking with the canal adds a kilometre to the trip, but it take all the mapreading out of it.
https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?sadd...via=1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14&t=m&z=13

 

[swarm_catcher]

Srw has a point about Gent to Brugge. Sticking with the canal adds a kilometre to the trip, but it take all the mapreading out of it.

And too much canal is like cycling on a disused railway track, only more dangerous. You could hit the water as you fall asleep.

 

[User169]

I'm a definite. I'm going to try to book train tickets this evening. If that doesn't work, I'll ride to Bruges and get the train from there. Will PM number.

 

[mmmmartin]

Current plan:
Train to dover, ride from dunkirk to de panne, catch 8pm or 9pm train to brussels central, walk 600 metres to grossmarkt. i should be there either at 22:30 or 23:30. I have an IGN paper map of the route from dunkirk to de panne and a GPS containing maps of all europe's roads, plus a paper map of the route from the central station to the grossmarkt. So i should be able to get to the bar and meet you all. If i do not, then go without me. I might try to chase you or might just go to a hotel.
You will not be able to contact me because my phone won't work out of the UK.*

After the ride i will take the tram to de panne, ride to dunkirk, and get the ferry. I will go for a 16:00 crossing so will have lots of time.

*My mobile phone will not work abroad yet until i have had this contract for 60 days. But I should be able to send and receive emails if i can find a wi-fi spot.


EDIT Tickets bought. Strangely, it is only £22 for a 24+ hour return with a motorbike and the nice lady at DFDS allowed me to pay that instead of the £30 return it should have been with a bicycle. Yes, she thought it an odd pricing decision, too. But she was very nice about it. I am on the 4pm out and the 4pm back - and you can go on the earlier boat is you wish, which would put tme on the 2pm if I so desired. so I'll try to get that one. And I bet if I was really early they might put me on the 12 noon.

 

[dellzeqq]

I went to Stanfords this afternoon, and sort of failed. I've got a 1 to 100,000 of West-Vlaanderen which takes us from just west of Gent to Oostende and then down to De Panne. They didn't have the Oost-Vlaanderen jobby, which would have taken us from the outskirts of Brussels.

 

[ceepeebee]

I went to Stanfords this afternoon, and sort of failed. I've got a 1 to 100,000 of West-Vlaanderen which takes us from just west of Gent to Oostende and then down to De Panne. They didn't have the Oost-Vlaanderen jobby, which would have taken us from the outskirts of Brussels.

I used the open maps app on my iphone in holland, you can set it to open cycle maps so it'll give you location, a zoomable map and (importantly for sense-of-directionless me) the location of all the fiets points. Haven't found a fiets app that does Belgium yet.