FNRttC The Fridays 2017 Tour On Tour Thread

[User169]

Top tip. Check that your Antwerp suburb's neighbourhood pizzeria takes a card before racking up an €80 bill with only €74 in cash.

Always worth checking in NL and BE. They still can get a bit awkward over furrin cards. Even the main EU Commission building in Brussels only accepts BE cards in the restaurant.

 

[Gordon P]

Good luck with your packing and bike-prep everyone.

 

[mmmmartin]

Weather reports, please, Tandemistas!

Looking to Dunkirk on Saturday, Accuweather tells me there's a 55 per cent chance there will be 1mm of rain. It describes the day as "a passing morning shower".
Ostend on Sunday is slight chance of rain but some sun and the 20kph wind from behind on our left.
Gent on Monday is 40 per cent chance of 1mm of rain and a 15kph following wind.
Leuven on Tuesday is "nice with partial sunshine" and 7 per cent chance of slight rain, and an 11kph wind from NNE, so on our left side.
Maastricht for Wednesday and Thursday (the day off) is about 20 degrees 10kph wind from WNW which is dead behind us for the journey there.
Eindhoven on Friday is dry, 21 degrees, and 9kph wind coming on our left side.
Breda on Saturday is "abundant sunshine" and 24 degrees with a 7kph headwind all day but the second half of this day is through woods, if you so choose, so the wind won't matter.
And the Sunday run to the Hook of Holland is 22 degrees, with 2mm of rain and a 20kph wind from the ENE which is more or less going to blow us there. There is the chance fo a ferry ride on this day, if you wish, and the ferryman has told me he'll do a couple of runs for us - the boat takes 12 bikes. But if you don't like the look of the water we can use a road bridge with a segregated cycle lane.

Accuweather can be wrong: but that forecast looks as good as we could wish for. I'll pack a thin, light, flimsy waterproof. And the yellow Rainlegs, obvs.

 

[User482]

My eyes!

 

[StuAff]

My eyes!

You won't have to look at the real thing next week though, Steve!

 

[srw]

segregated cycle lane

A second road, wide enough for two cars to pass in comfort and with gentle gradients. And a view down to mahoosive locks for mahoosive barges.

 

[srw]

Time to get into Belgian mood...

 

[rvw]

Sitting down to a very late lunch after visiting the Plantin -Moretus printing museum. A fascinating place, and the reason we're eating at 4pm. Drinks - the wine is for me when the food arrives - are being taken.

 

[rvw]

The Belgian version of 'Jenga'.

 

[mmmmartin]

This looks very good training for how I intend the tour to be.
Have started to think that maybe I ought to do something about packing things.

 

[srw]

"Leave your own mirror-image message" left for us in the Renaissance printworks. Home of a phrase book in seven languages from the 16th century.

 

[mmmmartin]

That takes me back to the days of hot metal. And printers. I don't mean things made by Hewlett Packard.

 

[srw]

Just for @mmmmartin.

A set of stamps for music printing, circa 1600.

I can't remember whether that's the font, or whether this is....

.... which is what you get after creating moulds from the stamps and casting characters in lead.

 

[srw]

mahoosive barges

Spot the family saloon car.

We've done 62 miles from Antwerp to Middelburg into a stiff westerly, fighting with roadworks in Antwerp and a slow satnav in Middelburg. And I suspect the first 45 or so we're with an increasingly soft front tyre.

 

[Flying Dodo]

I know which bike I won't be taking...

View attachment 359034

Mmm - I may have to re-think what tools I bring............