I can’t say the experience of sorting Raven’s tyre problems out has entirely redeemed Belgium, especially after 40 miles yesterday into Brussels along some of the worst cycle tracks and road surfaces I’ve yet encountered. But Kevin and Joey and their bosses at Jupiter cycles in Antwerp went a long way to reassuring me that, … Read more …
I wish I could say I liked Belgium. Riding over the border from six coastal days in orderly and proud Netherlands (orange everywhere for the Euro football team at the moment), and especially after Germany (of course), Belgium feels like old Eastern Europe without the hope of possible future change. Little things like verges not … Read more …
Yesterday’s post had one contemporary Anglodigit poised to save The Netherlands. Today, I found the real thing. The Dutch take their legends seriously, so here he is, Hans Brinker by name, the son of a Dutch sluicer, as they were called. Little Hans knew that even the tiniest trickle through the dykes his father so … Read more …
As I was saying before Blackberry email limits rudely stopped me saying more in that last blog (the downside of my new policy of taking photos at higher resolution)… It’s interesting how the profuse birdlife of the dykes further north – oyster-catchers, peewits, starlings, terns, crows, seagulls of all shapes, swallows, house-martins and more – … Read more …
Yes, there is a hill in the Netherlands. I found it today on a modest 70-mile ride south down the coastal sanddunes to the very English-feeling resort (you could almost hold a party conference here) of Bloemendaal, just north of Zandvoort. The hill was a pretty gentle affair, but I was amused by the signs … Read more …
I wonder if the legend is true of the boy who saved the Netherlands by sticking his finger in a leaky dyke. True or not, this country certainly has a lot of dykes, and for 85 miles today, including along the extraordinary 20-mile long Afsluitdijk across the mouth of the former Zuijderzee, I was solidly … Read more …
Oh dear cubed. Another 100 mile day. This time round the houses on the official Dutch-German North Sea tourist route, and into quite a lot of headwind. So, must be getting fit, or something. Perhaps it had to do with spending over nine hours, longest day yet, very happily in my comfortable, supple saddle, spinning … Read more …
OK, so tonight’s campsite, just before Leer on the German-Dutch border, is also gorgeous. Balmy post-thunderstorm evening; kids and grebes playing in the lake; refreshing post-88-mile day swim behind me; and about to order a second Bitburger beer. This solo long-distance cycling is sometimes such hard work… Heading now with determination towards Brussels, having spent … Read more …
The only question this morning is whether this is the loveliest campsite I have stayed in, or whether it’s the loveliest campsite I have stayed in. Delightfully named Krautsand (sorry, my German friends, but we Brits do sometimes still tease you as Krauts), the site is on the southern bank of the Elbe estuary north-west … Read more …
Blogger.Com is now behaving itself again (took 15 hours instead of the usual 15 seconds to post things yesterday, which led me rashly and briefly to predict an end to this blog…), so some more thoughts from northern East and now West Germany, as I head for Sheringham’s partner town of Otterndorf. Yes, another 100-mile … Read more …