FNRttC The (not the) Fridays Tour of the Low Countries 2015

Which of these week-long tours would you sign up for?


  • Total voters
    38
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OP
OP
mmmmartin

mmmmartin

Random geezer
Looking at the voting there seem to be two favourites:
For Bordeaux to the Med later is better as it can be very hot even in late August and early September, yet for the BBB - Beer and Bratwurst in Berlin (Blackadder Banter Banned) late September can be damp.
 

User269

Guest
I'm in, but it'd have to be a Tuesday.
 
OP
OP
mmmmartin

mmmmartin

Random geezer
set-72157627747060694
I rode alongside the canal du midi as part of the Med to Manche trip a few years ago.

The bit in the far south is terrible, in places merely a narrow muddy pond between trees and bushes where you have to push. At one point we crossed "The Bridge Of Death", which is a functioning railway line and involved two of us pushing each bike up steep steps then trundling across the railway sleepers on the bridge. (We lived, obvs.)

But once across the local government boundary and we were in the fleshpots of Babylon, with a beautiful wide tarmac road you could drive a car on. This went on for days and was interrupted only by cafes and restaurants. We found at 38 degrees the riding was quite comfy: in the shade by water and with a breeze caused by our movement. Very pleasant.
It wasn't very gnarly though.
i seem to have failed to put these pix in correctly but you can see them if you right click and open in another window.

lots of pix here:
http://bit.ly/1EONw1I


14rbtzl

the steep steps up which we had to push the bikes
1H1N7Ln

The Bridge Of Death
http://bit.ly/11qHru6
the tarmac road by the canal.


and while I'm at it, here are some pix that might give you an idesa of the cycling in Germany (only a bit was actually in Germany, much was in the Netherlands and Denmark, but i was pretty much the same.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/29651652@N06/sets/72157647746820045/
 
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rvw

Guru
Location
Amersham
Paging @StuartG, the Bordeaux to The Med option, is the canal path a single file all day ride or a riding along side able to talk one?

Our recollection of the canal paths, at least until around Carcassonne, was that they were quite wide enough for nattering* and very pleasant**. We diverted onto the roads somewhere around the departmental border (?Languedoc) because we'd been told the canal path got vile from there on - which seems to be borne out by mmmartin's comments.

*apart from the point where a large branch of a tree had blown down which had to be hauled out of the way.
**yes, well, there was a 1-in-6 hill up to a village at one point, which we schlepped up only to find the one cafe was closed...
 

lilolee

Veteran
Location
Maidenhead
All very interesting.

So from Hook of Holland, as iconic as Berlin is, it may be a bit too far (750km). How about Hamberg (520km), heidelberg (540km), Nancy (560km), Paris via Reims (540km) or even as Stu has suggested to Caen/Cherbourg
 
OP
OP
mmmmartin

mmmmartin

Random geezer
Good points well made, lee.
We have 7 days to ride 750k on the flat. It'll be similar to the terrain after the transporter bridge, a bit like that after the ferry crossing from Royan. So doable. If it's not doable the recce will find out. Checkpoint Charlie is deffo an iconic destination.
The other potential destinations also sound good.
 

lilolee

Veteran
Location
Maidenhead
I just think that it would good to think about all comers, who want to have a pleasurable ride, taking in the sights, sounds, food and drink, rather than thinking of it as a chore as @User13710 pointed out earlier in the thread.

We could even have a great circular route from Hook, going up into Holland and down and around into Belgium and back. Keeps some of the transport problems simple.
 

frank9755

Cyclist
Location
West London
Slogging across the north German plain doesn't do it for me, either, I'm afraid.
The distances are too long (I learned from experience riding part of this with Uta in August, although they are flat, progress is slow on the Dutch and German cyclepaths, it took longer than I had thought and we were finishing at 8pm after 12-hour days - with only short stops and no mechanicals - which was too late).
Also, it's not the pretty part of Germany. We're not the only people to spot it's the easiest route to Berlin: most of it was flattened in the war and it was rebuilt afterwards in functional but plain concrete. And, while Berlin has appeal as a place we've all heard of, cycling into a big capital city is never great. It tends to mean an unpleasant half a day on busy roads.

I came on here to post two suggestions.

Lee and Jenny have already made one of them; to do a longer thing in the Netherlands / Belgium.
If anyone hasn't done it, cycling in the Netherlands is pure joy. The small Dutch towns are stunning and the cities aren't bad either. Those bridges and dams in Zeeland are as breathtaking as the alps and a bit easier to cycle over (especially if you get an echelon going into the crosswind). Transport is easy at both ends. Even the food is ok nowadays - it not quite as cheap as Germany.
I did a loop from Hoek to Leiden, Haarlem, Amsterdam, Weesp, Zeist, Utrecht, Gouda, Delft, Hoek, a few years ago. That was about 40 miles a day. Would be easy to extend it, to go up the coast a bit more, up towards, the Friesan Islands and back via Edam, or even over the long bridge up towards Groeningen, or south into Flanders, where the cycling is second only to the Netherlands and the delights of Bruges, Ghent, Antwerp await with their pretty canals, world-beating beer slections, moules-frites and countless other temptations.

My other one would be to go to south-western Germany and do a route there. For example, the Romantic Road. Here's a site that a CTC group who were there a few weeks ago. Villages are stunning, easy cycling (we could extend their distances a bit), Alpine views without the big climbs, etc. All the ingredients are there to construct something a bit more ambitious. It's got the Rhine and the Danube, the main rivers of Western and Eastern Europe, the Alps, the Black Forest, and the meeting point of France, Switzerland and Germany at Basel. Switzerland is a joy to cycle in, and the northern bit is flat but with lovely views of the alps. I've not thought out an itinerary there, as I'm not sure if it would pass the 'must be accessible by train' test, but it would not be hard to put together something spectacular from that material.
 
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StuartG

slower but further
Location
SE London
Re 'Ride to the Med' cycle paths - as far as Castelnaudry they are tarmacked and riding in pairs is very doable. In one or two places the tarmac has been ridged by tree roots which should keep the powerpack the sensible side of 20mph. But it is mostly very good.

The main downside for some who have nothing to say or don't like plane trees but love a stiff climb is it could be boring. But if you like boats and waving at sailors its great. With reference to @mmmmartin remark above - DO NOT EVEN START TO THINK ABOUT THE PATH BEYOND CASTELNAUDRY. The tarmac ends and doesn't start again. It just won't work. The good news is the roads from there are quiet, beautiful and good. The vllages even better and by that time you might not want to see another canal. So it 3.75 days by canal, 1.25 by road.

The real magic and views are from the aqueducts. Worthy rivals to the Llangothlen but with proper paths and walls. If its very hot you will be riding in shade. if it wet you have some cover.
 
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frank9755

Cyclist
Location
West London
Uta and I had a wonderful approach to the Med back in May, after we left you in Gisors, Stu.
We dropped down from the Massif Central into mid-summer weather, rolled around a few mediaeval villages in Provence, got blown at high speed by the Mistral across the Rhone valley - which is a very arid area, camped in the shadow of Mt Ventoux with the tent flap open to keep cool and so we could watch the mountain silhouetted by stars, found the Ardeche Gorge, which was stunningly pretty, then found the Valley of the Cherries, where they sold them by the kilo at every corner, and finally found Marseille airport and the plane home!
Having done it twice, I reckon it's hard to go wrong cycling through France to the Med.
 

srw

It's a bit more complicated than that...
Basel is a fairly straightfoward train journey, changing in Paris - but I haven't checked the bike policies.

I also like Frank's German suggestion. 400km is a straightforward 4 or 5 day trip. The end of that trip is about 70 miles from Frankfurt (less to the suburbs) and the start is about the same distance from Munich (less to the suburbs). Munich's suburban trains are incredibly bike-friendly, and I assume Frankfurt's will be the same. Both Frankfurt and Munich are well-connected by plane to London, and (for the patient) can also be reached on the train.

On the other hand, in late September I'd suggest doing the trip in the opposite direction - Munich as a destination has one huge advantage (in the availability of entertainment) and one huge disadvantage (in the availability of reasonably-priced accommodation).
 

rich p

ridiculous old lush
Location
Brighton
I'm not in the frame for this trip, but the Romantic Road is a sensationally good and relatively easy route. So good I've done it twice.
 
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