Low countries tour

[srw]

Earlier in September I did a solo tour around bits of Benelux plus a corner of Germany and a border of France. I realised that I'd not been away on my own ...ever... and thought it was about time I rectified that.

These are lightly edited contemporaneous posts I made on an evil social media site.

Day 0 - home to Harwich. Underground to Liverpool Street and train to Harwich via Manningtree. My previous experience of this trip involved chaos, cancelled and delayed trains and a nearly midnight dinner on the ferry. This time it was absurdly easy, apart from the challenge of finding my way from station to the ferry without signposts.

Day 1 - Hoek to Doredcht. Genteel with a flat 70km and two ferries. Plus a UNESCO world heritage site (Kinderdijk) and a bike escalator which was broken at the top.

Only one country!

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/24259399586?share_unique_id=25

Day 2. Another extremely genteel day. 70km between two old port towns - Dordrecht and Turnhout - via Baarle. No ferries, one anxiety-inducing diversion (because it wasn't explicitly signed for bikes) and ending, it turned out, in another UNESCO world heritage site. Two countries and countless borders.

The first part of this day was suboptimal - a motorway bridge and too much riding beside main roads. Although I did get stopped by a shunter on a level crossing. A better, if slightly longer, route is possible.

If the forecast and the clouds are reliable then tomorrow might be less genteel!

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/24271461283?share_unique_id=27

Day 3. More genteel than expected - the forecast was wrong and the rain arrived as I was checking in to my hotel. 90km of woods and canals (although like a numpty I forgot to start the Garmin until some time after I left.)

The same UNESCO world heritage site as I fell asleep in yesterday, a national park, soldiers doing training, and riding through water and the treetops. Oh. And my first serious bit of misplanning - belting along the hard shoulder of a very busy N-road and expecting to be able to cross it...

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/24285380224?share_unique_id=29

Day 4. Genk to Aachen. About 80km. Three countries, an international ferry, an international footbridge over an international rill, deer, slag heaps and a path across a lake between them, cycling across a national park with heathland and a sting in the tail - not all of the Netherlands is flat and Aachen most certainly isn't. And another UNESCO world heritage site.

My bike and I are enjoying the hospitality of the Mercure, with free beer and nuts for staying in the chain's hotels a lot last year.

I might edit the last bit of this in future - it took me through the Netherlandish version of an Alpine resort (complete with cable car), which wasn't the most attractive route.

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/24298312864?share_unique_id=45

Day 5. Aachen to Aachen. Three countries, three languages, via the NL-DE-BE tripoint. With a bonus for history and quiz buffs of Neutral Moresnet, a condominium that lasted between the two treaties of Versailles. Under 30km, but not at all flat. And a view all the way back to yesterday's slag heaps.

The cathedral treasury, with its store of early mediaeval treasures, was shut for technical reasons, so I had to make do with the hardship of the municipal museum - one of the best displays of late mediaeval sculpture I've come across.

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/24308598079?share_unique_id=33

 

[srw]

Day 6. 95km from Aachen to St Vith in German-speaking Belgium, about three-quarters of the way along the Vennbahn. 40km (25 miles) of just about nonstop climbing - even at railway gradients that's draining! Ending up at 560m ASL.

Two countries, including the historico-geographic quirk of a long thin bit of Belgium along the trackbed of the railway line creating German exclaves. Presumably there is some international treaty equivalent of flying freeholds to deal with bridges? Mostly one language - except a couple of French-speaking areas interrupting the German-speaking expanse of Eastern Belgium. And a hotel booking fail. Top tip - double check your reservations before you leave home. Credit card and very nice lady at the very nice hotel to the rescue!

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/24323237689?share_unique_id=47

Day 7. Challenge day 1. 85km from St Vith to La Roche en Ardennes that became 90km with extra climbing when everyone (including Belgian roadsigns) lied about access to the Ravel (ex railway path). Over 1000m of climbing, including one hill of over 100m.

Climbed to 550m again and the day ended with a long descent whose road surface would have made Bucks council embarrassed.

Three countries, ticked off one more small country in my lifetime list; only Andorra and Liechtenstein to go before all the European small countries are done.

Nearly interrupted a wedding (thought better of standing in full view of everyone to photograph the chateau), went through a tunnel, couldn't get through the border tunnel because of rare bat species, took to my feet for the first time, was absolutely exhausted.

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/24336306247?share_unique_id=51

Day 8. Rest day! Vague intentions to visit the wildlife park scuppered by lack of tourist "train" so plumped for generous and delicious lunch and lazy afternoon with Belgian Francophone Radio 3. Very glad I wasn't trying to ride in this weather. (An afternoon of nonstop rain)

Tomorrow's forecast is better, and route has had a gratuitous and pointless hill removed as well.

 

[srw]

Day 9. Challenge day 2. 90km from La Roche to Givet. Attempt to dechallenge scuppered by closed road with no way through. In retrospect going back to plan A would have been more sensible than replanning on the hoof - that nice straight road on the map is a Napoleonic up-and-down main road that is taking all the traffic from the flat main road that's closed....

Two countries - my fifth of the tour - and I'll be tracking the border (more or less) from here on north.

More delightful railway path and more Wallonian infrastructure taking a lead from the Brits - "fin de piste cyclable"... Lots of chateaux and big houses. And a velodrome and walking figures in Marche.

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/24359168787?share_unique_id=37

Day 10 (I think). Givet to Maubeuge. Just shy of 100km mostly via a RaVel and a voie verte. Snuck over the second border via the longest bit of comedy off-roading yet - all of 100m or so. Lunch in Chimay after lunch in Rochefort yesterday: spot a theme (no, I didn't indulge)

Two countries, three sundials and lots of useful shade on a hot early-autumn day.

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/24371926149?share_unique_id=39

Day 11. Just shy of 100km from Maubeuge to Roubaix, including some filthy pavé. Mostly on road (one Roman) via small towns (one the Roman seven dials), with a divertissement along the Escaut (the Scheldt) and through Tournai.

Two countries, four international borders all on roads, only one actually visible on the ground.

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/24385469317?share_unique_id=41

Day 12. Just over 100km from Roubaix to Dunkirk, heading basically northwest across open fields with a rather strong and gusty southwest wind - both headwind and crosswind and less tailwind than I'd like! And the first real rain while riding.

First quarter gentle meander by the river, after which I discovered the downside of the advice I'd had to use the popularity route option on RidewithGPS - some of the users are nutters who seek out the steep hills. Strava KOM segments are marked on the road!

Inevitably a lot of sobering reminders of history - including the football truce of 1914, French and German Empire graves and a Belgian war cemetery.

Poperinge welcomed me for lunch with Greensleeves on its carillon as it was preparing for its hop festival.

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/24397906192?share_unique_id=53

Day 13. On the way home. Filthy westerly on the road to Loon-Plage.

Got the earlier ferry to avoid kicking my heels in Dunkirk - a good thing as my train was cancelled so had shorter kicking my heels on Dover than expected and a bonus heelkick at St Pancras waiting for TFL's bike ban to expire.

Also my only real bit of motorist anger - someone in Dover who shouted and honked because I'd held her up by about 20 seconds on the hill up to the station while I was trying to work out where the hell to go.

 

[srw]

The trouble with touring across the channel is that you're spoilt for riding in this country! The excellent facilities, warm welcome and courteous driving make it an absolute delight.

I'm glad I visited Luxembourg, even if it was every bit as hilly as its reputation suggests. And Troisvierges, where the Vennbahn ends, is a nonentity of a place. The best bits of the Vennbahn ends shortly after St Vith.

The international borders are essentially invisible. But they're also impermeable in practice. By the time you're a couple of miles through them the number plates are completely dominated by the new country. That's partly a reflection of the fact that most cars sit at home most of the day, but not entirely.

It's all a very far cry from the doomy worries about open borders you get in this country!

 

[Mike Ayling]

Earlier in September I did a solo tour around bits of Benelux plus a corner of Germany and a border of France. I realised that I'd not been away on my own ...ever... and thought it was about time I rectified that.

These are lightly edited contemporaneous posts I made on an evil social media site.

Day 0 - home to Harwich. Underground to Liverpool Street and train to Harwich via Manningtree.y previous experience of this trip involved chaos, cancelled and delayed trains and a nearly midnight dinner on the ferry. This time it was absurdly easy, apart from the challenge of finding my way from station to the ferry without signposts.

Day 1 - Hoek to Doredcht. Genteel with a flat 70km and two ferries. Plus a UNESCO world heritage site (Kinderdijk) and a bike escalator which was broken at the top.

Only one country!

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/24259399586?share_unique_id=25

Day 2. Another extremely genteel day. 70km between two old port towns - Dordrecht and Turnhout - via Baarle. No ferries, one anxiety-inducing diversion (because it wasn't explicitly signed for bikes) and ending, it turned out, in another UNESCO world heritage site.

The first part of this day was suboptimal - a motorway bridge and too much riding beside main roads. Although I did get stopped by a shunter on a level crossing. A better, if slightly longer, route is possible.

If the forecast and the clouds are reliable then tomorrow might be less genteel!

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/24271461283?share_unique_id=27

Day 3. More genteel than expected - the forecast was wrong and the rain arrived as I was checking in to my hotel. 90km of woods and canals (although like a numpty I forgot to start the Garmin until some time after I left.)

The same UNESCO world heritage site as I fell asleep in yesterday, a national park, soldiers doing training, and riding through water and the treetops. Oh. And my first serious bit of misplanning - belting along the hard shoulder of a very busy N-road and expecting to be able to cross it...

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/24285380224?share_unique_id=29

Day 4. Genk to Aachen. About 80km. Three countries, an international ferry, an international footbridge over an international rill, deer, slag heaps and a path across a lake between them, cycling across a national park with heathland and a sting in the tail - not all of the Netherlands is flat and Aachen most certainly isn't. And another UNESCO world heritage site.

My bike and I are enjoying the hospitality of the Mercure, with free beer and nuts for staying in the chain's hotels a lot last year.

I might edit the last bit of this in future - it took me through the Netherlandish version of an Alpine resort (complete with cable car), which wasn't the most attractive route.

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/24298312864?share_unique_id=45

Day 5. Aachen to Aachen. Three countries, three languages, via the NL-DE-BE tripoint. With a bonus for history and quiz buffs of Neutral Moresnet, a condominium that lasted between the two treaties of Versailles. Under 30km, but not at all flat. And a view all the way back to yesterday's slag heaps.

The cathedral treasury, with its store of early mediaeval treasures, was shut for technical reasons, so I had to make do with the hardship of the municipal museum - one of the best displays of late mediaeval sculpture I've come across.

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/24308598079?share_unique_id=33

A great tour!

 

[matticus]

Lovely tour, nice ride-up! (it overlaps almost every day with rides I did this summer, and 4 years ago, some mentioned elsewhere on CC - what's nice to see is that you mostly managed to pick different roads, so there's plenty still waiting for me to explore!)

Day 11. Just shy of 100km from Maubeuge to Roubaix, including some filthy pavé.
...
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/24385469317?share_unique_id=41

Hmm. Roubaix ... I might suggest going that way to the BofB organiser. He kept us on the Belgian side between Mons and Ypres, but does like touristy/historic diversions ...