Almost the end of the road for us. We cycled 64 Kms through cheesy Gouda to the Ibis in Rotterdam. Gouda was charming and the ibis mostly charmless but clean and reasonable.
There are a number of ways to follow the Dutch cycle routes. There is the numbered junction system, and then there are long distance routes which meander a bit more we are following the Maas route it tries to stay by the river but that’s not always possible. We got about 40 Kms went into get a drink in a cafe/B&B we met some Australians we had helped earlier. They were suffering from the excess heat. We asked the owner if he had any rooms and he said there was nothing in the whole region and rattled off a number of reasons why it was so. I immediately saw us stranded by the side of the road so I panic booked a hotel. Another 30 INS down the road we were in Horn in an old convent converted into a nice hotel. We had a lovely evening chatting to the other guests and visiting the town’s castle.
I woke at six and a thought popped into my mind. Didn’t I read that the path would be repaired by June 2022? Maybe I’d better check that out. The web site is clear, the path is impassable at the southern end. This is due to the terrible floods of 2021 which took out the rail lines and bits of the bike path. The good news is that enough train track remains to get us beyond the block. Off tho the train and 9€ later we’re on the little train into the hills. We left the train and onto the path which was eerily empty. We were a little worried at first. But slowly people began to appear and we cycled along a stunning valley, which had any number of stations but no trains. We had crepes about half way and we’re quite tired after 50km of climbing but heartened to find the last 10km we’re rail to trail!
“It’s a wee bit Hilly”said the elderly Scottish cyclist when we told him we had just cycled in from Berwick on Tweed and he wasn't joking... we had just climbed 1200ft over the Scottish border toward Dunbar. That was last year’s trip, 1500 miles from London to Taunton and then to Edinburgh and Glasgow. This was followed by a short spin through East Anglia. This summer, post-COVID panic, we are trying something a little longer. So we will begin again in London where we pick up our bikes and equipment. Then it’s the Avenue Verte to Paris. Then a visit to Fontainbleu and on to the Loire, finishing that bike path at the Atlantic. There we turn Southwards to Bordeaux and onto the canal des deux mers to the Med. From there up to Lyons via the Rhône cycle path. Then onto Lake Constance and the Konigsee cycle path to Salzburg. If there is still time we will head South and aim for lake Bled in Slovenia. Flying home from Venice. As you can see from the map, it is an ambitious pr...
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