October's ride for beer: Harwich, Bruges and Westvleteren, 28-30 October

[frank9755]

8 am is fine with me if that's the consensus

8am it is then. Just be the four of us as Davy is a martyr to his legs...

 

[frank9755]

I've revised the Maldon-Mersea and Brugge-WestV sections following Stu and Els' comments.
Stu, the whole success of this expedition rests on your ability to guide us to the ferry at Mersea. No pressure

http://ridewithgps.com/routes/783188

http://ridewithgps.com/routes/796406

See everyone tomorrow at HPC at 8

Frank

Also fixed the Harwich terminal location glitch
http://ridewithgps.com/routes/783195

 

[redjedi]

Good luck all. I'll look forward to the write ups afterwards as I'd love to do this next summer.

 

[frank9755]

Good luck all. I'll look forward to the write ups afterwards as I'd love to do this next summer.

Got back late last night after a tiring but interesting and varied weekend. Five ferries and four countries in three days.

We had a great time. It exceeded my expectations; in fact I don't think I've enjoyed another tour more than this. There really was a lot to take in - so many views, some big and dramatic, others historical and magnificent and more that were small and homely.

Weather was good; more headwind than tailwind but not strong.

Here are a few highlights:

1. The Dutch cycling culture and infrastructure. Riding along the Dutch cycling road system, we past hundreds, if not thousands, of people in normal clothes riding sensible Dutch bikes with mudguards, skirtguards and chainguards going about their everyday business; each one representing one fewer car on the road. Wonderful.

2. The big dams and bridges of the southern Dutch coast. Built following devastating flooding in the 50's, these are massive structures and we rode across them, mostly in awestruck silence, under big, dramatic and poetic skies.

3. Ferries - we did five in three days. Big and small, they were great. Three of them provided us with pleasant breaks to our journey, one gave us a bed for the night and one brought us home!

4. Bruges / Brugge. It may be the most beautiful city in Europe. If not, it has to be close. It was looking particularly fine as we rode in to town at sunset on Saturday, as we sat at a cafe in the Markt listening to a concert warming up, and as we walked around after dinner looking at the reflections on the still canals through shimmers of mist

5. Bridges. Like the dams, we saw some wonderful river and canal bridges, big and small. Many opened up in ingenious ways to allow ships or boats to pass.

6. Goodereede. It's probably just an average town on the edge of the Netherlands but it was still stunning. My experience is that every town in Holland is beautiful - apart from Rotterdam which was bombed in the war. We stopped here for apple tart and coffee. As a group of five, we were honoured with being allowed to use the house table at the back of the cafe, where there were marks at each place from endless games of bridge.

7. Middelburg. A bigger town with a bigger square. Beautiful, but not a tourist in sight. Shame we couldn't linger for a coffee

8. The canals which we rode from the Dutch border to Bruges. Big canals with two rows of trees on each side. So peaceful and so pretty. You can see the corners into the distance by following the trees. Els has a great picture (taken from bike) of the big, red, sun setting above the canal.

9. Westvleteren. Heavenly beer in a tranquil setting. Also gorgeous pate and bread to wash down the beer.

10. The Belgian/Dutch border. I'd cycled the first and last half dozen miles of our Saturday route from Hoek to Brugge but not the bit in the middle. Joining them up allowed me to see how dramatic the difference is when you cross the Scheldt and head into Flanders. The building style is different, the countryside and fields are different but it is more the feel of the places. The Netherlands feels so much more ordered while Belgium is relaxed and a bit anarchic. When we saw a Belgian wave a greeting while casually fly-tipping a load of building rubble at the side of the road my first thought was that you wouldn't see that 10 miles further north.

11. Weather. We were very lucky in that it was mild, with light winds and a good bit of sun. There was just enough daylight for the amount of riding we had to do, and the autumn colours, especially on a couple of Belgian forest stretches, were very pretty.

12. Swarmcatcher catching a bee. It landed on Els' lunch and, instead of swatting it, she reached for her camera. Then she taught us how to lift up a bee (by the wings, if you want to try it at home). She then put it on beermat, where it sat, obediently, while we ate.


It really was a great tour, but:

- it was too much to cover in three days. We passed so many lovely towns and enticing, canal-side bars that it was almost a crime to race past them. So many wonderful pictures not taken.

- we should have gone the other way round. The logistics made it inviting to do it clockwise way but the prevailing wind is from the south-west and lack of hills means there is no let-up. It wasn't very strong but it was relentless and it would have been more pleasant to have it behind us.

- I ought to have checked with the hotels about bike storage overnight. Part of the problem is that the locals don't see the risk in leaving your bike out in the street. However it ended up with a moment of fun with TMN and me riding up the ramps of a 5-floor underground car park and onto the Bruges ring-road.

Frank

 

[Davywalnuts]

I missed a treat, great write ups and well done or your first ton TMN!

Truely great reading.

Roll on next year....

 

[Aperitif]

Headline News: "TMN joins the ranks of proper cyclists"

to enjoy a large carb-loading lunch and

Excellent work on your new bicycle - well done, Jenny! Sounds like a good trip and I'll enjoy a peek at the photos later I'm sure. I suspect there will be one of Frank drinking beer, looking innocent...it's his usual ploy. And Els' "bee kind to Apis" lesson must have been a delight!

And to CycleChat's own little Baedeker, Fab Frank - lovely 'mis en scene' stuff from one of 'our' PBP-istes...Sort yourself out and write a book to be published by Lulu or somesuch...Call it something like 'Wearing Rubber with Frank' and list a few of the recent rides you have written about...it will be 'must have' reading for next season's adventurers in the UK and abroad!

 

[StuartG]

I suspect there will be one of Frank drinking beer, looking innocent...it's his usual ploy

First day was a disaster. Both pubs were out of Abbott. We had to pedal on IPA and frankly it didn't get to my legs. By the time we had passed Maldon the unaccustomed speed was beginning to show. I clung on desperately until a Mars bar on the Brightlinsea ferry restored my nutritional balance. And on to Harwich and a very pleasant evening at the Pier hotel & especially the Stena Ferry.

What a ferry! Beautiful ship with a very attentive staff. The cheapest cabin was wonderful and we had a great meal together with a little bubbly to celebrate TMN's first ton.

Second day was the best for me. The 'eat as much as you can get on the plate' baked bean loaded breakfast got me off to a flying start as with Delfte Post we zipped out of the port and alongside the river cycleways to ferry 3 and across Europoort and southward along a coastline that was both wild but tamed in part with an amazing variety of huge flood barriers infrastructure. Views that were jaw dropping yet unphotographable. Pack an easel next time?

Above was the first beer of the day at Renesse, one of many attractive small towns were people, bikes and motors moved easily together. There were tiny kids on the handlebars and even more dogs in trailers standing out from us four in Lycra.

Ferry 4 was a 6km hop from Vilissengen to the detached part of Holland that lies within Belgium. Only room for 80 bicycles as the sign warned us! The photo only shows half the dedicated lower deck:

After that it was an atmospheric ride to Bruges. Cycling into the setting sun shining through the autumnal treelined canal. Again no photo can capture what will be the defining image of the tour for me (and I suspect, everybody else).

A fun evening in Bruges and the Markt. And in the beer stakes Frank did score a duck

Bruges was a nocturnal paradise. It was really a shame we had to retire to bed but day 3 was going to be tough. Well it started wonderfully as we rolled through autumnal woods but soon we were out in the unhedgrowed open with a wind that had swung 180 degrees since we were fighting it in Essex. Only the the promise of the finest beer in the world at Westvleteren spurred me on. And it was! The food was great too. It was just a shame we had to stop at one '8' and one '12' as the shop didn't sell stabilisers.

Nevertheless the beer had the desired effect. For the next 10 miles I felt I had thighs twice the size of Davywalnuts and even pushed to the front at one stage to then be scalped by TMN. It didn't last but the headwind did and the somewhat unpretty approach to Dunkirk didn't help either. Until Frank's Garmin decided to show us the wild side of the E40 towards the saddest ferry port of the tour with no fresh food or drink to replenish us.

And so home via Dover and trying to follow the little red line out of the port (almost ending up on the next boat to Calais - damn!).

This tour of 262 miles was well out of my league at a pace a little faster than I am used to. So it was a personal triumph for me though without Frank's drafting I would probably have not made it. And that was the final delight - to enjoy the company and skill of 'proper' cyclists. So Frank, Els & Jenny, thank you yet again for what might be the finest moment of my cycling career.

 

[swarm_catcher]

Nice pictures!

Thanks Frank, for organising a wonderful cycling trip. It was great! And thanks to Stu and Jenny for excellent company.

Here is my blog post: My link
And photos: My link

 

[velovoice]

Wow, what a lovely trip. Are pre-registrations open for the next one?

 

[stevevw]

How did Frank get that masssssive beer down. Oh hang on it's Frank nuff said.

 

[frank9755]

Thanks TMN for leaping to my defence. But I don't think anyone would seriously think that I would go to Belgium and drink bottled German beer that is also available in my local supermarket!

No, unlike Stu, I went for quality, not just quantity! ;-)

There was a good article on Westvleteren in the FT the other day: thanks Els for spotting it

“There are spiritual as well as practical reasons why it must be so,”

 

[mmmmartin]

Good to see someone reading the correct newspaper.

 

[TheDoctor]

Great write-up, everyone. You've got me planning a spring ride from the Hook to Dunkirk myself...

 

[StuartG]

Great write-up, everyone. You've got me planning a spring ride from the Hook to Dunkirk myself...

No need to take the ferry ...

 

[TheDoctor]

I was thinking in terms of the Dutch cycling infrastructure, the scenic charms of Bruges and the...flatness of northern France. Not the beer.
Well,not just the beer anyhow.