mmmmartin
Random geezer
There are four options on which we think you would like to vote. They all have pros & cons so take your time to think about it. They all involve carrying our own luggage. They all have some unsolved problems waiting for your practical and creative suggestions.
[EDIT -
Anyone can comment and come along - not just members of The Fridays. Before you come on the tour you'll have to join the CTC and The Fridays plus come on a ride with us: this is to make sure you like us and the culture of the club, and understand and can perform the duties of waymarking, etc. (And also we want to make sure you're not a complete prat.)
- end of EDIT}
We’ll also be asking about dates - we’re thinking of September (early if northern europe, late if it is southern France) - but think that can wait until the destination is decided.
We will take a decision on 1st December so those who need to book holidays before the end of the year can do so.
We’d like your comments - preferably the more critical the better, it’s no use just coming up with the hallelujah chorus. At the end of this we’ll put something together, and you then have the choice of signing up for it or not.
Thoughts, please…...
[EDIT -
Anyone can comment and come along - not just members of The Fridays. Before you come on the tour you'll have to join the CTC and The Fridays plus come on a ride with us: this is to make sure you like us and the culture of the club, and understand and can perform the duties of waymarking, etc. (And also we want to make sure you're not a complete prat.)
- end of EDIT}
We’ll also be asking about dates - we’re thinking of September (early if northern europe, late if it is southern France) - but think that can wait until the destination is decided.
We will take a decision on 1st December so those who need to book holidays before the end of the year can do so.
- Bordeaux to the Med.
An easy tour. The natural continuation of what is now a series of routes from the Netherlands to Normandy & Bordeaux.
The route would be a mix of small lanes with some stretches along the Canal du Midi in increasingly warm sunshine stopping at little hotels in small villages, very different to the massive mono-agriculture of Northern France. It's flat and the weather can be warm and pleasant in late September.
Leave home on the Friday morning, travel on Friday and Saturday and start riding on Sunday. Ride until Friday evening - six days in all to do a bit under 500km (with only something over 2,000m of climbing). Saturday & Sunday to get home.
Some days will be pretty short and flat, which means those who want a harder ride can leave bags at the hotel and go for a harder ride.
One downside is that the amount of time spent on getting to the start and back is quite big, as it involves travelling twice. Moreover, the Eurostar seems to have done away with the option of checking in naked non-folding bikes.
- Go by car-share and park in or near Bordeaux then travel back from Narbonne by train. We could suggest a hotel (probably outside the town, not in the centre as last year) that we’d stay in and park the cars at, then travel across France in, say, four cars. [NB. According to Deutschen Bahn, on Saturdays with a bike Narbonne-Bordeaux trains leave at 1005 & 1228 and take 6 or 7 hours with 2 or 3 changes, arriving at 1608 or 2008. captaintrain.com shows more & quicker (3h 30m) trains costing E116 that have bike reservation options. This is the big problem of the trip.
Driving would necessitate an overnight stop en route to & from Bordeaux but with 3 or 4 people & their bikes on the roof it is probably competitive with the train. - By train with a return ticket to Bordeaux - then at Narbonne go back by train to Bordeaux and thence home on the train. Paris-Bordeaux about £70 single depending on the train.
- Fly to Bordeaux – but there is not an airport close to Narbonne so you could go by train to Montpellier airport which has lots of flights to the UK - or might have to return to Bordeaux by train.
- Take a folder & go by train with more options available.
- the European Bike Express does not run to Bordeaux in September BUT this year it did a "Narbonne pick-up" heading north at the end of the season so that may be an option. This will depend on the date of the tour.
2. Hook of Holland to Berlin
A big, hard tour, long distances, possibility of bad weather in northern Europe but with Our Favourite German as a guide. Berlin is a great destination & the cycling would be good and mostly flat but days would be long: 800 km (with something like 4,500m of climbing) in 7 days means an average of nearly 120 km/75 miles every day, obviously longer days if we decided to do it in 6 days. We would need to research accommodation but there may not be much between youth hostels and rather expensive hotels.
Friday night ferry from Harwich, ride Saturday to Friday, have Saturday to see Berlin then Sunday to get home.
OR ride Saturday to Thursday night, have Friday sightseeing, then Saturday on the train (it’s an eight-hour journey with a few changes)
Taking the night ferry out from Harwich on Thursday night may be an attractive variation, as an extra day of riding can shorten the distances and extend the time for sightseeing in Berlin.
The route could be shortened by taking bikes on a train from Hook to Zwolle or Arnhem, but that would take time as Dutch trains are very bike-unfriendly (only a few spaces on each train so 20 of us would have to take a few trains to get to the “starting point”) and also loses the concept of riding from the coast to central Europe. This is a thorny problem.
Getting There & Back:
This is by far the most difficult logistics of all the options. Getting to the ferry is straightforward. Getting back from Berlin is anything but. So far, we can’t work out a way of getting bikes from Berlin to the Hook, unless we use the trains.
With a plethora of flights from Berlin to several London airports (Easyjet, BA, Lufthansa), the plane is clearly an option for the brave. Trains to Hoek offer some limited bike spaces which can work for 2 or 4 people but not for a group of 20 or so. The folding society can take high speed trains back, either combined with the ferry or the Eurostar.
We thought we may be able to hire a van with a driver but it does not look clear. Hiring a coach or using a freight company do not appeal, so we need creative thought on this. Renting estate cars at least to the Dutch border may be an option?
3. Roscoff – Caen; Brittany to Normandy.
Easy to get to the start and home from the end, familiar territory but different from the northern France we know.
New territory but a popular cycling area and straightforward ferries to get there (assuming you can get to Plymouth to get to Roscoff.)
A shorter distance overall so plenty of scope on the recce to identify attractive options for a good route and places to stay. Familiarly French – but different from either of the other areas we have visited.
Getting There & Back:
If we can find a way to get enough of us & our bikes to Plymouth it is straightforward: trains are one an hour, prices vary but from London are about £50-£70 single. Many of you will have sorted out a way to get home from Caen on previous Fridays jaunts.
A big, hard tour, long distances, possibility of bad weather in northern Europe but with Our Favourite German as a guide. Berlin is a great destination & the cycling would be good and mostly flat but days would be long: 800 km (with something like 4,500m of climbing) in 7 days means an average of nearly 120 km/75 miles every day, obviously longer days if we decided to do it in 6 days. We would need to research accommodation but there may not be much between youth hostels and rather expensive hotels.
Friday night ferry from Harwich, ride Saturday to Friday, have Saturday to see Berlin then Sunday to get home.
OR ride Saturday to Thursday night, have Friday sightseeing, then Saturday on the train (it’s an eight-hour journey with a few changes)
Taking the night ferry out from Harwich on Thursday night may be an attractive variation, as an extra day of riding can shorten the distances and extend the time for sightseeing in Berlin.
The route could be shortened by taking bikes on a train from Hook to Zwolle or Arnhem, but that would take time as Dutch trains are very bike-unfriendly (only a few spaces on each train so 20 of us would have to take a few trains to get to the “starting point”) and also loses the concept of riding from the coast to central Europe. This is a thorny problem.
Getting There & Back:
This is by far the most difficult logistics of all the options. Getting to the ferry is straightforward. Getting back from Berlin is anything but. So far, we can’t work out a way of getting bikes from Berlin to the Hook, unless we use the trains.
With a plethora of flights from Berlin to several London airports (Easyjet, BA, Lufthansa), the plane is clearly an option for the brave. Trains to Hoek offer some limited bike spaces which can work for 2 or 4 people but not for a group of 20 or so. The folding society can take high speed trains back, either combined with the ferry or the Eurostar.
We thought we may be able to hire a van with a driver but it does not look clear. Hiring a coach or using a freight company do not appeal, so we need creative thought on this. Renting estate cars at least to the Dutch border may be an option?
3. Roscoff – Caen; Brittany to Normandy.
Easy to get to the start and home from the end, familiar territory but different from the northern France we know.
New territory but a popular cycling area and straightforward ferries to get there (assuming you can get to Plymouth to get to Roscoff.)
A shorter distance overall so plenty of scope on the recce to identify attractive options for a good route and places to stay. Familiarly French – but different from either of the other areas we have visited.
Getting There & Back:
If we can find a way to get enough of us & our bikes to Plymouth it is straightforward: trains are one an hour, prices vary but from London are about £50-£70 single. Many of you will have sorted out a way to get home from Caen on previous Fridays jaunts.
4. The Netherlands.
We dithered over offering this option because it would involve the same country two years running. However, several of you said - unprompted - you’d be happy to return so we felt it ought to be an option for this year. There is no doubt the cycling was the very best, anywhere we have been. We think we can come up with an interesting route that would not repeat any of this year’s route. Where it would go, we don’t know, but it’d start and finish at the Hook, so would involve trains to Harwich. Easy to get there and home, flat, but possibly windy. But the same country as this year and you might want something new.
We dithered over offering this option because it would involve the same country two years running. However, several of you said - unprompted - you’d be happy to return so we felt it ought to be an option for this year. There is no doubt the cycling was the very best, anywhere we have been. We think we can come up with an interesting route that would not repeat any of this year’s route. Where it would go, we don’t know, but it’d start and finish at the Hook, so would involve trains to Harwich. Easy to get there and home, flat, but possibly windy. But the same country as this year and you might want something new.
5. Any random place.
We’re aware that whatever poll is up, the one choice that usually has the most votes is “I don’t care where we’re going, if it’s The Fridays, sign me up”.
We’re aware that whatever poll is up, the one choice that usually has the most votes is “I don’t care where we’re going, if it’s The Fridays, sign me up”.
We’d like your comments - preferably the more critical the better, it’s no use just coming up with the hallelujah chorus. At the end of this we’ll put something together, and you then have the choice of signing up for it or not.
Thoughts, please…...
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As I've stated before, reversing it and doing Berlin to the Hook would probably be easier logistically- certainly for anyone ready and willing to fly to the Fatherland. Trains going that way probably easier with a boxed bike too- in both cases disposable on arrival in Berlin. Seeing the place appeals, and it would be a reason to finally go through the German CD course I got some years ago....Roscoff-Caen works for me. As I missed out on the Netherlands. that certainly appeals too. AN Other location: Anything involving Belgium has an obvious appeal to me, there's plenty you missed out last month (Ghent, Oudenaarde, anything in Wallonia).
