I’m writing this at the end of our first week on the road, from our first foreign country, the Netherlands. And what a week it has been! Whilst it’s early days and it’s not all been plain sailing (or pedalling), I feel we can confidently say that we’re having a good time. Which is good… as this is life now, for the foreseeable future!
We set off on Easter Monday from Matt’s parents’ house (near Boston in Lincolnshire) following a lovely sunny Easter weekend with the Copes. Of course we awoke on departure day to a lot of rain and wind so set off fully waterproofed onto the muddy back lanes of the Eaudyke. We were joined for the first few kilometres by Matt’s brother Chris running, elongating the farewells a little longer – but lovely to have the company as we took those first revolutions forward.
And that was it, we were off, a very inauspicious beginning it felt, as we braced ourselves (and our heavy bikes) against the wind and lashing rain wondering what on earth we were doing. Until we found a bus shelter to make coffees, the rain (eventually) stopped and we rolled into Norfolk with the sun emerging.
We arrived at our first night’s accommodation (a beautiful holiday home in Snettisham courtesy of Bridgett and John, thank you!!) feeling like we were actually doing it after conquering the headwinds around King’s Lynn and the hills around Sandringham.
Day 2 we headed straight to my parents who live between Norwich and Great Yarmouth (proper Norfolk in my book). We’d originally planned to do shorter days on the Tuesday and Wednesday going via the North Norfolk coast. We were put off by the gale force winds predicted for Tuesday night and Wednesday. Whilst some may call us intrepid (thank you Bernie) we didn’t fancy our first night in the tent resulting in losing it into the North Sea.
Cycling through West Norfolk was lovely (maybe this is actually proper Norfolk?) with stops in Fakenham and Reepham before looping into Norwich along the Marriott Way (part of National Cycle Route 1 and also our first bit of EuroVelo). As the scene of my really not very mis-spent youth, it was lovely to revisit Norwich and remind myself what all of the fuss is about (it is a ‘Fine City’ after all!)
Thanks to Mum we were very well fed at my parents for a restful two nights – heading off after the very last farewells (so we thought) – and Southward bound. First stop the world famous Reedham Ferry as advertised and then into Suffolk a winding way with more bloomin’ wind for company.
The sun was out though and took us all the way to our night’s accommodation in Reydon, near Southwold (a quick stop for an Adnam’s beer in Southwold first, rude not to).
We were staying at our first ‘Warm Shower’ – an online community of people who like travelling by bike and are happy to have similar minded people (by bike) stay for the night, for free. Too good to be true? Nope – the kindness of strangers shouldn’t be so surprising, as in our experience the vast majority of people are really very kind, including the Rollo family, and specifically Moray and Sarah who put us up for the night AND fed us a delicious dinner and breakfast. And of course provided the requisite warm (actually lovely and hot) shower. Thank you so much Moray and Sarah, hope we can repay the favour when we have a house again!
Day 4 of cycling was meant to be an uneventful and sedate spin down through Suffolk, nipping into Essex for our overnight ferry from Harwich. We set off late thinking we had LOADS of time.
Which we did, assuming that the very important three ferries en route which we needed to catch were running. Which they weren’t, or at least not at the time of the day/day of the week we needed them to. We didn’t realise this until rather late in the day, by which time it was too late to cycle all the way round the two remaining estuaries. If you are wondering what I am on about, google maps will clear it up – suffice to say not our smartest moment.
All was well though as after eating some chocolate we cracked on with researching trains – cycled 10 kilometres to the nearest station, jumped on a train 5 minutes after arrival which magically connected up with the two next trains taking us all the way to the port, within 1 hour 45 minutes of realising our mistake.
[I know – we travelled BY TRAIN. Doesn’t really fit with the ‘we’re cycling to Istanbul’ thing does it? Well we are, just from a different starting point (now)…! And for the pedants out there, we did enough distance that day, just not to the right final destination!]
Another reason for getting to Harwich, apart from making our ferry, was that we managed to squeeze in a meet up at the very salubrious Brewer’s Fayre near the port with one of Matt’s work colleagues, Nadeeja. I am told that Brewer’s Fayre is not her normal venue of choice (feels important to say) but she treated us to a bottle of Prosecco to celebrate, Matt and I stuffed our faces with some premium British cuisine (the last to be had in a while) and enjoyed being seen off one last time.
To the ferry, to bed in our cabin and then up and off on Saturday morning . Excited anyone?! We were, for about 10 minutes, until we realised that we were feeling a bit… tired. Yes tired. Only a few hours of sleep on the ferry, the fact it’s all been ‘a lot’ and then I suppose I should mention that it had already been quite a bit of cycling on completely untrained legs. An early break was called for – coffee and chocolate. Another break in Rotterdam quickly followed where we battled the Rotterdam Marathon crowds, and enjoyed chips and our first continental beers (thank you so much Hannah and Jody!). We were on our way. Fighting the wind, enjoying the sun and re-acquainting ourselves with all things Dutch. Which we like, a lot. Big skies, flat riding, amazing cycling infrastructure and super friendly (and very tall) people. Our kind of place.
As the day moved on, the anticipation was building as we knew that we were heading to our first campsite and our first night in The Tent. Our new home. Gulps.
We landed on our feet with a lovely peaceful campsite, in the sunshine in the Biesbosch National Park. Perfection except for the wind which fought us a bit as we put up ‘new home’ for the first time outside. New beds went up, sleeping bags unrolled, stove set up and a dinner of curried rice and vegetables cooked. Apart from the cold (it really was cold!) a surprisingly straightforward first evening and night (I slept!) And Matt definitely did after falling asleep fully clothed at 9pm).
First tent morning was tricky – it was raining so tent went away soaking, packing up was a challenge etc. But I’m pleased to say that at no point did I wonder ‘what am I doing here’ (OK maybe once) and we set off for day 6 of riding feeling relatively refreshed.
The rain went but it continued to be a very cold day which we managed by layering up, stopping for more chips (rude not to whilst we’re still in the Netherlands) and then an afternoon coffee inside which sorted us out ahead of arriving at a beautiful, peaceful and incredibly well maintained campsite near Nijmegen for already our last night in the Netherlands!
We’ve learnt a lot so far I think (maybe the subject of another post) but know we have a lot left to learn. Just happy to be on the road(/bike lane), turning the pedals and beginning to feel like my mind (and I think Matt’s) are clearing.
Looking forward to country no.3 tomorrow 🙂
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