recommend me a two day trip.

[jonny jeez]

Hi.

I've ridden lejog, L2P, Brussels to Paris, Flanders, Lon to Brighton and a good number of 100 milers.

My lejog buddie and I are really missing the challenge and feeling of accomplishment that we got from lejog but both realise that we don't have two weeks to invest in an experience.

So I'm looking for a long weekend ride, anywhere on earth that we can get to with bikes from the south east of the UK.

We don't have tents or the kit to carry them.so will opt for hotels and a small backpack.

If you had two to three days to ride around 80 miles a day, where would you go.
Ideas so far
London to Bruges...but we have done so many London to the coast rides that the first bit feels dull.

Iceland golden circle- but getting there is a challenge, with bikes.

Alps- bit I'm not awesome with hills

Isle of Wight. Not sure if that's a two day thing.

Island tours in general


We are a bit lacking in inspiration, please help.

 

[jonny jeez]

Day 1: Ferry from Dover to Dunkirk. Cycle from Dunkirk to Ypres or Kortrijk (depending on what sort of mileage you want to do - 36 miles or 53 miles). Both are nice places for a visit.
Day 2: Cycle from Ypres / Kortrijk to Lille (25 miles / 20 miles) visiting some of the tourist places on the way. Get the Eurostar home from Lille.

Good shout, I like the idea of the train home as neither of us enjoy the sense of finding back on ourselves.

May need to stretch day two out a bit though.

Thanks

 

[martint235]

I have a great fondness for Ypres and would recommend it, particularly if you're staying over and can make it to the Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate (8.00 p.m. every day). If you're riding from their to Lille then there's lots of WW1 related places to visit on the way, and the last part of the ride into Lille can be done on river can canal paths that have been upgraded in recent years.

Ypres is also one of my favourite place. If you've got time, the Tyne Cot cemetery is only about 5 miles away and is worth a visit. When you've finished riding and watching the bugler, there's a few decent bars around the main square and plenty of cheap hotels in the town too.

If you want to stay in the UK, how about riding down to Stonehenge for the Solstice? I coupled it with Wootton Bassett and did there and back in a day but it breaks nicely into 2 days with a stopover.

 

[jonny jeez]

Ypres is also one of my favourite place. If you've got time, the Tyne Cot cemetery is only about 5 miles away and is worth a visit. When you've finished riding and watching the bugler, there's a few decent bars around the main square and plenty of cheap hotels in the town too.

If you want to stay in the UK, how about riding down to Stonehenge for the Solstice? I coupled it with Wootton Bassett and did there and back in a day but it breaks nicely into 2 days with a stopover.

These two recommendations are making me think about a Normandy, market garden, battle of the bulge kind of tour. My grandfather fought in all three and my ride buddie is (as an empirial museum curator) a ww2 nut

 

[NorthernDave]

What about the Yorkshire Wolds Way?

http://www.sustrans.org.uk/ncn/map/route/yorkshire-wolds-cycle-route

Book in advance and the train to York (or Hull) can be had for well under £20 each way, then a local train to either Malton or Beverley puts you on a 146 mile loop around some of the finest cycling in the country.

 

[jefmcg]

May need to stretch day two out a bit though.

It's WWI, but when I (car) pootled around northern France, one thing that stuck out was the newly opened (then) tunnels under Arras. They had housed soldiers during the war, and then be closed for most of a century, so there was a tiny feeling of what it must have been at the time.

 

[Pale Rider]

The part of the journey closest to home is the dullest bit, so you could get a train to somewhere about 30 or 40 miles away and start from there.

As experienced cyclists, you could pick a general direction and make it up as you go along.

It should be possible - and part of the fun - to work out a loop which will put you back at the railway station at about the time/on the day you need to be.

 

[Blue Hills]

Sod the hassle of going abroad for such a short time.

I'd head for Norfolk.

You could quickly train a bit so that you clear London.

I have a new found fondness for tubing it to Upminster and then riding.

Admiteddly partly because as a skinflint I've discovered that you can do it for £1.50 from my part of south London.

Recently did a day trip to Cambridge and back from there.

 

[Aravis]

If you're thinking of Normandy, you could do Home - Newhaven - Dieppe - Ouistreham - Portsmouth - Home, or reverse.

Alternatively, if you could stretch to three full days, an idea I've been looking is Home - Portsmouth - St Malo - Ouistreham - Portsmouth - Home. This can be done for a mere £31 on Brittany Ferries' Day in France offer, alhough I guess it might be advisable to get a cabin for the St Malo crossing at least.

 

[doughnut]

Train to Lancaster then do the full Bay Cycle Way - about 80 miles from one end to the other. Excellent route that I keep planning on doing again.
https://www.strava.com/activities/364787381
That strava route includes the 35 miles I rode to get to the start of the Bay Cycle Way.

 

[jonny jeez]

I have a great fondness for Ypres and would recommend it, particularly if you're staying over and can make it to the Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate (8.00 p.m. every day). If you're riding from there to Lille then there's lots of WW1 related places to visit on the way, and the last part of the ride into Lille can be done on river and canal paths that have been upgraded in recent years.

Well, we are taking your advice and 5 (possibly 7) of us are off to Ypres in the second weekend of may. There is talk of riding to dover but I may struggle for the time off.

Excited now, will make a pleasant change after Flanders next month!

Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[jonny jeez]

Err... Ypres is in Flanders (West-Vlaanderen) so it won't be that much of a change.

Have you booked somewhere to stay? I can recommend Kasteelhof 't Hooge or the Hotel Ariane.

Yes but Flanders (as in the Ronde Van Vlaanderen) has Bergs...with bloody cobbles all over them...and is 100 miles...with the middle bit being at the finish line. I have no idea why I'm riding it again..

I am responsible for the Hotel and restaurant in Dunkirk (and the route planning), which is easy as we have all stayed there before. One of my ride buddies is booking a hotel in Ypres that he stayed in last summer, I'll ask him what its called, it'll be amusing if its Kasteelhof 't Hooge.

 

[martint235]

So jealous!!

The last couple of times I stayed in Ypres I stayed at the Old Tom which is right on the main square, 5 mins walk from the Menin Gate and staggering distance from the bars.

 

[Donger]

Err... Ypres is in Flanders (West-Vlaanderen) so it won't be that much of a change.

Have you booked somewhere to stay? I can recommend Kasteelhof 't Hooge or the Hotel Ariane.

Hotel Ariane ... Nice. Have stayed there before. We will be staying there again on our way back from the Ardennes in the Summer.

 

[User169]

Was riding in flanders at the weekend, south of Gent. Rode past a farm in the middle of nowhere and there was a potato vending machine at the entrance to the farm.