FNRttC The Fridays Tour 2016

[mmmmartin]

Oh no, that is awful. I had no idea that this was how it has been for you.

That's why she was awarded the medal, and the Long Distance Cyclist of the Year Award.

 

[Aperitif]

Article on this in the paper today. Cycl federations not happy, urging us to write to Eurostar to complain.

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeands...r-plan-to-make-cyclists-dismantle-their-bikes

Further stuff to add to Frank's original link - same journal.
The Guardian - Mark Tran (why couldn't that name have an 'i' in it?)

 

[srw]

Business class isn't bad...

(Declaration: I rarely do it.)

Can I partly change my mind? There is nothing "not bad" about being turfed out of bed after two hours of sleep, with an incipient cold, going through 8 separate security checks to end up sitting in a lounge with terrible aircon in tropical heat at 3am, listening to bad Indian pop playing over a tinny speaker. I'm almost envious of the woman manning the entrance who is fast asleep on her stool with her head on her desk. Fortunately the second flight (upstairs on an A380) will probably make up for it, as long as I have enough champagne.

And with any luck there will be some brown beer for dinner.

 

[frank9755]

I ought to point out that I had 2" wide tyres and the concrete slab paths were still a pain. This shouldn't stop anyone from buying a Dutch bike though.

Did you get one???

 

[mmmmartin]

You need not go all the way to Johnnie Foreigner Land, you could achieve your dreams in the realm of cycling, as in so much else in life, in Royal Tunbridge Wells.
http://www.copenhagen-bicycles.com/
The copenhagen bicycle kompany

 

[frank9755]

They're not quite the same though!
I like the fact that the luggage carrying capacity is 'adult passenger'

 

[totallyfixed]

It is as much about the journey as anything else.

Precisely, we are off back to the Netherlands next month for a long weekend ostensibly to visit friends, not behind the realms of imagination that at least one dutch bike will be returning with us.

 

[mmmmartin]

i am going to dunkirk on november 7, thence to ypres and repeating the Lowlands Tour because i liked the netherlands so much - and november will be chilly, hence the need to buy two new winter cycling caps. (any excuse)

 

[ianmac62]

Further to the above....(shamelessly aimed at the football Fridays)

I don't think you would get @redfalo to visit Borussia Dortmund. He looked very happy indeed at the Emirates when Arsenal beat them 2 - 0.

This kind of movement would either be removals companies (eg Shore Porters, www.shoreporters.com) ...

Aberdeen's finest

Not a bad idea. The default route out, along the Lek / Waal / Rhine is pancake flat, with some interesting places, such as Xanten (Roman stuff + beautiful market town), and Dusseldorf (very pretty along the riverfront) ...

Düsseldorf is indeed very pretty along the riverfront. And, in a nod to @dellzeqq and architectural sites, the trio of Frank Gehry buildings are on the east bank:

OK. I don't know the area well, but we did a lovely few days starting and ending in Glasgow (Houston, actually) ...

One says, "East Kilbride, actually!"

To put a bit of flesh on the bones, drawing on ideas upthread and trying to make it different to The Lowlands 2015 and to a future Dutch Tour ... Then Aachen & Cologne and up the Rhine via Dusseldorf, Krefeld & Xanten (as suggested by @frank9755 )
West to Tilburg & Breda or to Turnhout
Then to Bruges either through Antwerp or to Middelburg & south via the Vlissingen ferry (a section from this year in reverse).
Back to Calais via Ostend & Dunkirk.@frank9755 etc.

And Aachen is brilliant for cycling!

 

[StuAff]

I don't think you would get @redfalo to visit Borussia Dortmund. He looked very happy indeed at the Emirates when Arsenal beat them 2 - 0.

Well, we'd be not too far from Gelsenkirchen, could pop there as well

 

[Gordon P]

Düsseldorf is indeed very pretty along the riverfront.

we'd be not too far from Gelsenkirchen

Funnily enough, on the GR5 this summer we met a couple from Bochum - she plays/teaches clarinet in the orchestra at the Musiktheater im Revier in Gelsenkirchen & he works at the Heinrich Heine Institute in Dusseldorf & tracked down details of the German anarchist emigre who wrote the script for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. So entertainment can be sorted!!!

 

[mmmmartin]

Funnily enough, on the GR5 this summer we met a couple from Bochum - she plays/teaches clarinet in the orchestra at the Musiktheater im Revier in Gelsenkirchen & he works at the Heinrich Heine Institute in Dusseldorf & tracked down details of the German anarchist emigre who wrote the script for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. So entertainment can be sorted!!!

Please, somebody, put me out of my misery - am I completely wrong to believe that The Fridays is the only cycle club on the planet that gives you a post like that one?

 

[hatler]

Quite probably. As in, it is quite probable that this would only come out of the Fridays.

 

[mmmmartin]

A glance at the results of the poll show it is neck-and-neck between three contestants, of which two have been ruled out. Just sayin'.

 

[ianmac62]

December 1st is eagerly anticipated.