Four of us left Calais on Monday 10th August following the canal to St Omer. Three of us had taken the train from Three Bridges to London and then to Dover on Sunday with a tourer and a tandem. A journey that could have been fraught with the now traditional difficulties of transporting bikes on trains in the UK, but that actually went very smoothly. This was helped by travelling on a Sunday morning. An uneventful crossing followed by a short ride to the hotel in Calais to meet with JV. Most people pass through Calais quickly but we wanted to spend a night and see the highlights including the spectacular Hotel de Ville (Town Hall) and associated gardens.
The canal led us to St Omer, after negotiating a diversion caused by roadworks on the towpath. The final entry in to St Omer was very pretty with a long stretch in to town running alongside the canal and having old workers homes along both sides bedecked in flowers. En route in Watten we rode up a hill to visit a fine restored windmill with views to Gravelines – this was actually the only hill of the whole trip (sounds like one of my Sunday rides!).
St Omer itself is not particularly outstanding but does have some wonderful restaurants – we had a three course gourmet dinner for a prix fixé 16€ - probably the best meal of the trip – at Le P’tit Montmartre. Highly recommended.
40 miles today.
Tuesday 11th
Today we headed for Lille and had hoped to follow a canal, but couldn’t find the way on to the towpath, so we followed quiet lanes to Estaires where we stopped for lunch. We had some light rain early on but it was warm and so didn’t bother with waterproofs. After a very pleasant day in the lanes we arrived in Lille in time for a walk in bright sunshine around the old town centre with its grand buildings, squares, narrow streets and lots of people. We all had time to sit in an outdoor bar for some Leffe blonde before dinner by the Gare de Lille-Flandres station.
54 miles today
Wednesday 12th
Leaving Lillie on an excellent dedicated cycle route that took us up to Roubaix where we rode on some of the pavé used in the Paris – Roubaix classic cycle race. We were allowed in to the velodrome and all had a ride round it, including the tandem with full panniers!
We then found the canal and rode eastwards to the river Scheldt which we joined in Helkijn. The canal was shaded and had large trees at the side; mostly tarmac with some white shell surface. Arrived Oudenaarde at 13:00 for lunch.
In the afternoon we had a longer run by the Schelde, sometimes doing 18 - 20 mph on the tandem with help from the wind. It was very warm but clouded over later. We saw lots of cyclists often on road bikes.
It was quite difficult to find our way in to Ghent, but we arrived at our hotel about 17:00 after JV remembered the layout of the canals.
We all walked in to Ghent centre for dinner.
58 miles today.
Thursday 13th
We liked Ghent; it has lots of old buildings in a large area and is not crowded. When we were there it had lots of major reconstruction work going on.
We left about 11.15 in light rain and followed canal towpath to Brugges, stopping for a coffee on the way by which time it had stopped raining, the sun had come out and it was warming up. It was hot and sunny by the time we ate our pastries by the canal. It was very pleasant riding and route, even in the drizzle.
We spent the afternoon on a very pleasant walk round Brugges in bright sunshine - looking for ice-cream! The centre was very crowded with large numbers of cyclists including touring cyclists.
30 miles today.
Friday 14th
We left at 09:00 in fine sunny weather on the road to Damme, then Sluis, which looked very nice, alongside a wide canal. At Breskens we stopped for coffee before catching the ferry across the Scheldt estuary to Vlissingen. We then rode beside a canal to Middleberg, where we ate our lunch. From there we followed the road to Veere and then across the top of the first dam. Mostly we were following the Long distance cycle route LF1b Nordzee route, which was well signed, but not always. We also had the Dutch red signs directing to towns/places.
Each dam had a two-way road across it and the same space, completely separated from the road, for bikes and service vehicles. This is a big holiday area with lots of bikes around, large sandy beaches, the sea on one side and the inland sea on the other. Lots of sailing and water sports. We were making good speed on the tandem, often cruising at 15-18, with a light tail wind (fortunately).
We stopped for drinks and pannekochen (pancakes) by a working windmill - lovely! Across country for the last leg arriving about 17:00. Marian and I then rode an extra 3 miles to the beach for a swim. Big waves and very pleasant/refreshing.
67 miles today.
Saturday 15th
We left about 9:00 after visiting a windmill next to our overnight pension and a conveniently located bike shop.
We continued to the ferry to Maasluis on the north of the river Maas (Rhine) where we stopped for drinks and to buy lunch.
Rode on to Delft for ice-cream and then to Monster (yes, Monster) for the beach cycle route. We arrived at the Hoek-van-Holland about 19.00 where we stopped for dinner and then went to board the ferry at 20:30.
It had been a very hot day and quite tiring riding. Heading south was hard in to the wind - we have been lucky all week!
Ferry to Harwich left at 22:30.
55 miles today.
Sunday 16th
Ferry arrived at 5.30 and we were able to disembark at 6.30 and JV left us to cycle south. We had an excellent train service leaving from Harwich at 07.30 and getting us back to Three Bridges for 10.30. The only difficulties being lack of provision for bicycles and especially tandems on the train, but we had cunningly planned to travel Sunday morning so there weren’t any problems for us.
A very pleasant 320 miles in six days. Excellent route planning by tour leader, guide and raconteur – John V.
In the afternoon we had a longer run by the Schelde, sometimes doing 18 - 20 mph on the tandem with help from the wind. It was very warm but clouded over later. We saw lots of cyclists often on road bikes.
It was quite difficult to find our way in to Ghent, but we arrived at our hotel about 17:00 after JV remembered the layout of the canals.
We all walked in to Ghent centre for dinner.
58 miles today.
Thursday 13th
We liked Ghent; it has lots of old buildings in a large area and is not crowded. When we were there it had lots of major reconstruction work going on.
We left about 11.15 in light rain and followed canal towpath to Brugges, stopping for a coffee on the way by which time it had stopped raining, the sun had come out and it was warming up. It was hot and sunny by the time we ate our pastries by the canal. It was very pleasant riding and route, even in the drizzle.
We spent the afternoon on a very pleasant walk round Brugges in bright sunshine - looking for ice-cream! The centre was very crowded with large numbers of cyclists including touring cyclists.
30 miles today.
Friday 14th
We left at 09:00 in fine sunny weather on the road to Damme, then Sluis, which looked very nice, alongside a wide canal. At Breskens we stopped for coffee before catching the ferry across the Scheldt estuary to Vlissingen. We then rode beside a canal to Middleberg, where we ate our lunch. From there we followed the road to Veere and then across the top of the first dam. Mostly we were following the Long distance cycle route LF1b Nordzee route, which was well signed, but not always. We also had the Dutch red signs directing to towns/places.
Each dam had a two-way road across it and the same space, completely separated from the road, for bikes and service vehicles. This is a big holiday area with lots of bikes around, large sandy beaches, the sea on one side and the inland sea on the other. Lots of sailing and water sports. We were making good speed on the tandem, often cruising at 15-18, with a light tail wind (fortunately).
We stopped for drinks and pannekochen (pancakes) by a working windmill - lovely! Across country for the last leg arriving about 17:00. Marian and I then rode an extra 3 miles to the beach for a swim. Big waves and very pleasant/refreshing.
67 miles today.
Saturday 15th
We left about 9:00 after visiting a windmill next to our overnight pension and a conveniently located bike shop.
We continued to the ferry to Maasluis on the north of the river Maas (Rhine) where we stopped for drinks and to buy lunch.
Rode on to Delft for ice-cream and then to Monster (yes, Monster) for the beach cycle route. We arrived at the Hoek-van-Holland about 19.00 where we stopped for dinner and then went to board the ferry at 20:30.
It had been a very hot day and quite tiring riding. Heading south was hard in to the wind - we have been lucky all week!
Ferry to Harwich left at 22:30.
55 miles today.
Sunday 16th
Ferry arrived at 5.30 and we were able to disembark at 6.30 and JV left us to cycle south. We had an excellent train service leaving from Harwich at 07.30 and getting us back to Three Bridges for 10.30. The only difficulties being lack of provision for bicycles and especially tandems on the train, but we had cunningly planned to travel Sunday morning so there weren’t any problems for us.
A very pleasant 320 miles in six days. Excellent route planning by tour leader, guide and raconteur – John V.
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