After visiting the Netherlands Institute of Architecture yesterday we visited the Sonneveld House Museum.
If you like modern architecture and are in Rotterdam, then you should definitely pay this place a visit. When built in 1933 for Albertus Sonneveld and his family it was the height of modernity, every room had a telephone and integrated music system that played music from one room across the house. Here are a few photos to give you a taste.
So there we have it; our cycling holiday is nearly over. Fourteen glorious days in the saddle through England, Netherlands, Belgium and France -more amazingly, (everyone in Britain may want to turn away now), only one rain storm! Our final day is in Rotterdam before we catch the overnight ferry from Hook of Holland tonight. We’re visiting the Netherlands Institute of Architecture, there are some fab exhibitions and architects models (for those of us who like buildings), and the café isn’t bad either! I particularly liked the display about Olympic cities, as I have a very particular OCD for these. Across the road is the Sonneveld House Museum, a renovated 1930s gem, Then it’s one last visit to the Tour Café to watch today’s stage finish and it’s farewell Rotterdam, it’s been fun.
If you liked the blog post, you might like the film!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFtrxftExuo
When the North Sea floods your country, killing 1836 people, destroying 9% of farm land and damaging over 47,000 properties – as it did in 1953 in the Netherlands – then you’re going to do whatever you can to stop it happening again. The response of the Dutch government to the 1953 flood was to begin the Delta Works Programme; building dams, sluices, locks, dikes, levees, and storm surge barriers to cut off the North Sea from the large Dutch water inlets. The constructions are huge and mighty impressive and as this is the Netherlands, they also form part of a fantastic cycle route that goes right across the top of them. Fortunately, the sun shone and the wind blew us along most of the way (I wouldn’t be so keen cycling on then in a headwind or rain) so we got to Rotterdam in good time to be greeted by our Warm Showers hosts Emmy and Robert.
After our travels through Belgium, it is good to be finally back on Dutch soil. To be fair, the last Belgian stretch of the journey from Brugge was quite picturesque and not bad for cycling, (by Belgian standards). However, almost as soon as we crossed the border into the Netherlands, just before the town of Sluis, the cycle infrastructure and attitude of drivers to cyclists improved markedly. The next part of today’s route takes us to Breskens, where we’ll board a ferry over to Vlissingen, from there we follow the North Sea coast all the way to Rotterdam via three pretty impressive dikes and dams – expect a special ‘dyke blog update’ later!
After ten days of no rain, (except a couple of spots in Newbury on day one) our summer holiday weather turned decidedly British yesterday. Our day wandering around Ghent had been sunny and increasingly humid so it wasn’t much of a surprise that as we departed and headed towards Brugge the sky was beginning to become darker and darker. About ten miles into our thirty mile journey, (the shortest one of the trip) the heavens opened. Riding in the rain is one thing, but riding in the midst of a ferocious thunder and lightening storm is quite another. It was at times quite scary, I found myself considering the odds of a cyclist being hit by lightening and (on a more positive thought) that if one was to be hit by lightening, being on a bike with rubber tyres was probably as good a place to be as any. By about 15 miles the sky were well and truly ‘raining on our parade’ with us having to dodge or ride through the vast puddles that were forming. Any semblance of waterproofing in my jacket was well and truly fading – but to be honest everything else was wet so having a dry top seemed a bit futile. As we arrived in Brugge the storm passed. Johan our Warm Showers host was waiting for us and soon warmed us up with coffee and a nice shower. After throwing our damp gear into the washing machine we headed into Brugge town for dinner, with Johan giving us a quick tour of some of the locations used in the film ‘In Brugge’. After dinner and a sample of the local beer (for me and Johan, Mike stuck with orange juice), we headed back to Johan’s house – alas in the rain again, but at least not so heavy this time. We’re cycling to Rotterdam today via the coast over some impressive dykes – so fingers crossed for a favourable tail wind!
It’s another warm day and the heat combined with long hair (well long for me) has finally got on top of me. We walked past a barber shop and I went in for a tidy up. I know it’s hard to tell from looking, but believe me it feels much cooler.
As if having a shrine to a painting of a sheep wasn’t enough of a homage to Damien Hirst the cathedral in Ghent is attempting to be uber cool and ‘get down with the kids’ by hosting a contemporary art show. I’m not sure that the video installation of the pigs in muck in the crypt or the mirror clad coffin were in particularly good taste, but I guess everyone has their own take on modern art.
No trip to Ghent would be complete without a visit to see ‘The adoration of the mystic lamb’ in St Bavo’s cathedral (€4 each – a baa-gain). Painted by the van Eyck brothers it is considered ‘the absolute masterpiece of medieval painting’. Admittedly, it is very good. However, the hype surrounding the Mystic Lamb could be equally put down to a good campaign by the Flemish Lamb Marketing Board, (if indeed there is one). Anyway the Mystic Lamb is now ticked off the tourist to-do list, so we can go hunting for other farmyard animal and other tourist sights.
As we checked out of our hotel in Maastricht a few days ago we had a conversation with the receptionist about Belgium and Belgians. As we bemoaned the state of Belgian roads and their attitude to cyclists, the receptionist nodded and agreed, but added, “They’re Belgian, they think they’re cool – so they’re not worried about anything else”. I was a little surprised by this statement as ‘cool’ was not amongst the things that had struck me about Belgians – that was until we reached Ghent. Ghent is ‘cool central’. Yes it’s all very old and ‘chocolate box’ picturesque but there are an awful lot of young trendy people here and everything that goes with them, bars, restaurants, clubs, art galleries boutiques etc. Ghent is also not shy of adding some contemporary additions to its mediaeval centre, we’ve seen a lots of modern additions to old buildings and a very striking new hall is being built in the centre cheek-by-jowel with some very old buildings. This fusion of old and new shows a lot of confidence and quite a few places in the UK could learn from Ghent’s example of how to be ‘cool’ and still have old-world character.
We’re spending the night in Ghent, which is in the Flemish part of Belgium. It is much more like the Netherlands, the architecture is similar to Amsterdam and many more people are cycling (on better roads too). Here are a few shots taken on our stroll around the old part of town this evening.
Personally I thought the dancing Haribo bear with the Strada bidon was the peak – but others may disagree. I know you have to squint a bit but, here is the Strada bidon with Fabian Cancellara (aka Sparticus), in the yellow jersey!!
Alas, we saw the last live stage of this year’s Tour de France today, (well until we go to Paris to see the finish!). We’ve turned north and are making our way back to Rotterdam and Hook van Holland via Ghent and Brugge. Here is our video from Tournai/Orchies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uxu_Wlk4tyY
I’m sure That I’ve said this before, but cycling is a great way see an area. The pace you travel at (in our case between 15-20mph) is perfect for looking at the scenery and if you want to stop off anywhere pulling over and parking is never a problem. Unfortunately the down side of the cycling pace is the amount of road-kill you see. Travelling between Tournai and Orchies today (and back again) there seemed to be lots of animal carcasses littering the sides of the road. One poor creature seemed to be particularly affected – the hedgehog. I guess that their slow traveling speed makes them very vulnerable on some of the main roads. Thankfully we managed to avoid their remains as I don’t think riding over a deceased relative of Mrs Tiggywinkle would be very respectful, (or very good for the tyres)
You may have noticed my displeasure with Belgium and Belgian drivers – well I’m pleased to be able to restore some balance to my view of the Belgians. Melanie, our warm showers host in Tournai, made us exceptionally welcome. Despite us turning up late and initially to the wrong address (one street away) she made us feel very at home – even giving up her own bed for us to sleep in. Her apartment, a stones throw from the centre of Tournai was tiny but that didn’t stop her preparing a lovely meal of pasta, salad and fruit. After a sound nights sleep we bid our farewell this morning and are having a quick look around old Tournai before we head off to see the start of today’s Tour stage in Orchies. We also need to find a bike shop to try and get a new cleat for my shoes (they’ve worn a bit) and oil for my chain or I’ll be squeaking all the way to Ghent!
Being a bit of a shopping enthusiast I’m always interested to see what’s hot and what’s not on the European high street – particularly when it comes to which British brands are doing well. It seems that the current UK exports that pop-up frequently are confined to the Body Shop and Lush. There are plenty of names that were once familiar in Britain that have now retreated, in Maastricht we even spotted a Tupperwear store – alas it was closed. C&A is the most familiar. I have fond memories of the C&A store in Coventry’s’ lower precinct, as when I was growing up the C&A ‘clock house’ range was right up my street. In the late 80s and 90s C&A was also pretty cool for affordable ski wear, which if you were going on a school skiing holiday (as I was) then a trip to C&A ski shop for the latest ski jacket and sallpettes was de-rigour. Being the 80s most of it was bright neon colours – goodness knows what we must have looked like!
We’re back on the road proper today after leaving base camp Maastricht. The ride is about 120 miles so we set off at 8.30 with the aim of getting to Tournai before 7pm. The Tour finishes in Tournai this afternoon after taking a slightly longer route than we’re taking. We didn’t expect to reach there to see the end today so have stopped in Halle just west of Brussels to watch the finish on TV before we complete our final leg to Tournai. We’re staying with another Warm Showers host this evening and again tomorrow night (in Ghent) before a night in a hotel in Brugges on Wednesday.
As if the poor roads and bad driving weren’t enough to put us off Belgium, we can now add ‘victim of crime’ to the list. When we got to Seraing to watch the finish yesterday, we locked our bikes to a rack next to the Medical Centre. We took all the valuables and bags off the bikes – well so we thought. The only thing left was Mike’s bike pump, we thought – who’d want to steal a bike pump? The answer to that is ‘some Belgian tyke’. It’s not that it’s really valuable, but its theft is just annoying. Fortunately we didn’t have any punctures on our ride back to Maastricht and Mike has decided it was probably time to upgrade anyway (there’s probably a titanium pump he’s got his eye on), but he’s buying it in the Netherlands, certainly not Belgium. I shall also be suppressing any future urge to vote for Belgium in Eurovision, not that it’s likely they’ll even qualify – good, that’s what I say!
As we’ve ridden along today we’ve passed through corn fields speckled with bright red poppies. They remind me of my mum who loved poppies – she’d have liked pictures like this one. The poppy also makes me think of the First World War. We’re not quite far west enough to be in Flanders’ fields, but it isn’t so far away. We’ve passed lots of war memorials as we’ve cycled along, each very poignant. Ninety years ago people had little inkling of the carnage that the first mechanical war was about to unleash. My grandfather (my mum’s dad) fought in the First World War, but had the fortune (in other circumstances it would have been misfortune) to break his ankle the week before the Battle of the Somme. He was lucky to be in hospital rather than fighting in the blood-bath of the Somme. If it hadn’t been for that broken ankle, who knows I might not even be here.
More blatant product placement for the Strada bidon! This video alone has got to be worth an extra discount from @stradacycles http://t.co/TvGcQVx
Our video of TDF stage one http://t.co/pyCSomX
When it comes to all things cycling, the Belgians are simply not a patch on the Dutch. They might be able to produce a fine waffle, fritte and beer – but they could take some lessons on how to treat cyclists from their continental neighbours. Maastricht, (our base for the past few days) is in the Netherlands – although only just. As soon as you head out of the city heading west or south you cross into Belgium and that’s where the contrast in cycling provision becomes very stark. Gone are the excellent separate cycle lanes on virtually every route; cycle signage becomes patchy and less clear; road surfaces are not so good and worst of all, the drivers don’t show cyclists as much respect as they do in Holland. In the Netherlands cyclists are pretty much the top of the transport tree – even pedestrians give way to cyclists, (given that most pedestrians are cyclists, this maybe isn’t so surprising). I took this picture on our way back from Floriade, I love that it shows a ‘peloton of female pensioners’ (+ Mike), demonstrating that everyone cycles in Holland. Drivers in the Netherlands ALWAYS stop for cyclists at road junctions, crossings, roundabouts and even at their own private driveways. In the Netherlands if you’re cycling along a cycle path that crosses in front of someone’s drive that they have pulled out of to turn onto the road, then the driver will always reverse back onto their drive to give the cyclist a clear run – could that ever happ in the UK? It’s a pity that for the next few days we’ll be cycling in Belgium and not the Netherlands, but the return on Thursday to ‘cycling utopia’ is something to look forward to.
Following comments from one of our blog followers, we are attempting to improve the ‘product placement’ opportunities for our Strada bidon (drinking water bottle) with the faint hope of an increase to our 10% discount at Strada Cycles on North Street. Alas, Bradley and Cav were both busy today, but we did get a couple of shots that were an improvement of the one of ‘grumpy Mike with a bidon on a train’, and of course we’ll keep trying!
If you think the Tour de France is just about cycling – think again. Like most major sporting events these days, there is plenty of product placement. “How do you do product place in a cycle race”, you may ask? Each stage of the race is preceded by a ‘caravan’ where sponsors’ floats are accompanied by loud music, advertisements and the sight of grown adults scrabbling like refugees at a feeding station to catch the ‘tat’ being thrown into the crowd from the caravan. Amongst the tat on offer today were pens, key-rings, shopping bags, sun hats and spectacle cloths – all emblazoned with the sponsors’ logos. Alas all we managed to catch today was a packet of ‘Madeleines’ (small buttery cakes) and as Mike won’t eat them I guess I’d better eat them all with a cup of tea!
So the Tour de France has begun, and although the Brits didn’t quite conquer, they certainly put up a good fight with a taste of what’s to come. Chris Froome, Stephen Cummings and David Millar were all fantastic securing 11th, 14th and 15th place respectively. Clearly the star of the day was Bradley Wiggins who was narrowly pipped into second place in the Prologue time trial by Fabian Cancellara, (although only by 7 seconds). Hopes were high for Bradley and he didn’t disappoint, putting in a storming performance. There were plenty of Brits and Union flags in the crowds, (which were very large). We cycled to Liège straight after breakfast to make sure we secured a good spot, which we did right next to the 450 meter marker with a view up and down the course. There was also a good view of a giant tv screen until – rather annoyingly – some staff from FranceTV Sport decided to inflate a giant pink microphone, obscuring most of the screen. Nevertheless, if we craned our necks we could just about make out the leader board. Tomorrow the Tour leaves Liège for the first proper stage from Liège to Seraing – we’ll be up early so we can get a good spot to cheer on our boys!
Finding vegan food on the continent is not that easy – thank goodness for the Chinese restaurant!
After a delicious tofu-rich dinner, we took a walk around Maastricht taking in the city walls, the bastions, (large pre-Napoleonic earth and stone battlements), a catholic shrine, a Synagogue, the chiming town hall clock (If you’d like to hear that you can watch a short video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JobCvmPP9E0
We also saw lots of bikes at night and a flaming statue. When I say flaming, I don’t mean an annoying statue, but one that is literally on fire. It commemorates one of Maastricht’s famous sons – Jean-Pierre Minckelers. Jean Pierre was a local philosopher and scientist who is credited as the inventor of illuminating gas. As with most of these things he was trying to find something else – which gas would be best for getting hot air balloons to float. It sounds like science has a long history of attempting to find out the ‘things that are not very useful for many people’, a bit like the recent research to find out how long you can dunk a biscuit before it drops into your cup. Anyway Mr Jean-Pierre Minckelers struck lucky and found out the best way to illuminate gas and to thank him for it – his home town gave him a flaming statue.
We’re coming across an interesting phenomena in the Netherlands – the inability to pay by credit card. In the UK we’re used to buying anything with our flexible friend – cinema tickets, weekly shop or even a car park ticket, but not here. Almost everywhere we have tried to pay by credit card, we’re declined. Only cash or debit cards seem to be acceptable. In some ways this is very admirable, living within your means is a lesson that the David Cameron would like the British to follow (unless you’re a banker that is!).
While the Dutch may avoid payment by plastic, they certainly excel in plastic table coverings. I must confess to a small ‘obsessive-compulsive disorder’ when it comes to wipe-able fabric, so while Mike will make a bee-line for a bike shop, I can sniff out a plastic covered fabric retailer at fifty paces. The continental market is rich pickings for someone with such an addiction, and thankfully fairly safe – since luggage restrictions prevent me actually purchasing anything. Not that I need to purchase, as I’ve recently OD’d on some lovely new plastic fabric from Marrimeko – lovely but eye-wateringly expensive, so for the time being the plastic credit card is under lock and key as its ‘look but no buying’ on plastic fabrics for a while!
Deciding what to do with churches that no longer have a congregation to serve is an ongoing dilemma facing many places in the UK. In Bristol, several have been put to new uses, including sports clubs and a climbing centre. Here in Maastricht an ingenious new use has been found for a redundant Dominican church. Pews have been replaced by bookshelves and in place of the altar is a café. The space still retains a reverential air, which seems appropriate for those of us who still love books and are saddened to see the demise of bookshops as the rise of philistinism and tablet reading device moves ever forward.
The Guardian newspaper described this place as the best bookshop in Europe, and in terms of atmosphere they are not wrong. Perhaps this could be glimpse into the future where the bookshop becomes a place of pilgrimage in the way places of worship once were, with the ringing of cash tills replacing the ringing of bells.
It is now a pre-requisite of any new development that there is a contribution to a local art project or installation. In Cabot Circus, Bristol’s most recent shopping development among the art (of which there are many including some fine glass by Susanna Herron and some etched stone by Timorous Beasties), is a crushed car by Neville Gable encased into a concrete pillar in the car park. The registration of the said car is embossed into the side of the pillar. I may be wrong, but I don’t think that crowds of shoppers gather round this installation in awe at its cultural contribution to the local art landscape.
In Maastricht, however, the art installation in the recently opened Mosae Forum shopping centre certainly seems to draw in the crowds. One floor below ground and at the entrance to the car park, is a large collection of Citröen model cars. Displayed behind glass, but clear for all to see are hundreds (if not thousands) of toy Citröen cars and related objects of every shape and size. We particularly like the ‘Rapha’ style sag-waggon. I could easily have left Mike here for a couple of hours, but there’s plenty more to explore in Maastricht so we pootled off to explore further.
Some of the readers of this blog may be familiar with the experience of continental ’boutique’ hotels. We are more used to the Travel Lodge-standard, or if we’re pushing the boat out, a Premier Inn! However, for four nights we’re staying in Hotel d’Orangerie, a very smart and ‘chi, chi’ little establishment tucked between the old town of Maastricht and the Mass river. There is a stone set into the wall in our room that has ‘1783’ engraved into it – I’m pleased to report that the room has been upgraded since then, with nice fluffy towels, plump bedding and stylish decor. We have a glimpse of the little courtyard garden from our window and as we descend the two flights to reception we pass lovely stained glass windows and tall dishes filled with various sweets. Unfortunately, I picked what I thought was a chocolate sweet last night – only to discover it has the unusua,l (and rather disgusting) flavour combination of salted aniseed – I think I’ll go easy on those!
We finally made it to Liége – but missed the presentation of the teams completely. We just had time for a quick wander round the start and finish lines before we headed back to the rather amazing station in Liége (like something out of a Star Trek film), to catch the train back to Maastricht. Off to bed now, hoping to wake up to a more successful day tomorrow.
Well today started well – lovely breakfast and a pleasant departure from Venlo. Unfortunately following the cycle route took us on a very windy and not very direct course. By lunch time we’d barely covered a quarter of the journey to Maastricht. We decided to go on the more direct road route and did manage to make up time – but the temperature was rising and we were getting hotter and hotter. We eventually touched down in Maastricht just after 5 but by the time we had checked into the hotel and got ourselves sorted it was gone 6 and the presentation of the teams started at 6.30 in Liege (30 mins away by train). We decided to risk it and walked to the station. The next train wasn’t until 7.20 but we thought we’d at least get there to see the end of the presentation. What we didn’t bank on was the unscheduled 30 minute stop at Vise to deal with some kind of incident that happened elsewhere on the train. Still don’t really know what it was, but it involved the police and lots of unsavoury looking characters. The train has now set off again and we’re nearing Liege – over an hour after we left Maastricht. We’ll probably just have time to turn round and catch a train straight back again :0(
We’ve had a lovely couple of nights in Venlo with our fab hosts Wendy and Tim. It’s a bit sad we have to move on, but exciting to be heading for Maastrict today and then Liége this evening for the presentation of the Tour de France teams. I’ve had my gardening fun and it’s now Mike’s turn to have some cycling treats – lets hope Bradley and Cav don’t disappoint!
Floriade certainly lived up to its name – a festival of flowers and horticulture. We got to the expo about lunchtime and stayed until the close at 8pm. We managed to see pretty much everything but were bushed by the end. Here are a few photos of my highlights. I’m off to bed now… to dream of flowers!
To find our way to Floriade today we decided to follow the Dutch version (much better version) of the national cycle network. The knooppunt network (roughly translates as number point) consists of a whole series of numbered map points, each signed to the next nearest ones. So to get to a certain destination you simply work out which number knooppunts you need to pass through, follow those numbers and bingo, you’ll never get lost! To get from central venue (number 10) we followed (legs) number 11, (one click) number 6, 83 (I don’t think bingo numbers go that high, but if they did it could be ‘a fat knee – 83’) and finally number 1 (Kelly’s eye). As you’d expect in the Netherlands it was mainly segregated cycle route, beautifully signed and as you arrived at Floriade you’re greeted by beautiful wild flower verges and a secure staffed cycle park – a bit like the equivalent of winning a bingo line and a house all in one go!
The train to Venlo took about two hours – well it did when we finally managed to catch it. On our first attempt we discovered no bike are allowed between 4.30-6 peak time (it was 5.15), on our second attempt the train was too crowded, so we decided to wait for the next one; we finally caught the train at 6.48 arriving in Venlo just before 9pm. The numerous attempts meant we had extra time to enjoy the building work at Rotterdam Central. It’s going to be a beautiful station when it’s complete, we’ll have to pay a return visit to see it.
We arrived at our Warm Showers host several hours later than we’d expected, but nevertheless Wendy, Tim and their daughter Hannah made us very welcome with a lovely vegan meal and good company. After a good night’s rest we’re going to spend today visiting Floriade – the once a decade Dutch horticultural expo.
Now I know that the Dutch are pretty liberal. They’re well known for allowing cannabis to be smoked in cafés and certain areas of Amsterdam have a very explicit nature. However, even I was surprised to confronted by this sculpture of a 20 foot gnome carrying what appears to be a giant dildo. There must be a new Dutch version of Snow White as I don’t recall this one in the version I read!
Also a Rodin (no dildo)
According to our carefully arranged plans we should be about half way to Venlo by now. Alas the ‘spoke gods’ had other plans, so instead we’re having a nice drink 112 meters up the Euromast. It’s a fab view, just not quite so fab if, like Mike, you’re a little bit queasy with heights. I should point out that it wasn’t even my idea to come up hear, it was his! A nice glass of orange juice seems to have calmed his nerves a bit, let’s just hope we get to the bottom in one piece.
A video of the view from the ‘Euroscoop’ on top of the ‘Euromast’ Rotterdam http://t.co/lulrvR3
The silver lining to our mechanical malfunction is the discovery of Café Lungo, where they are having a ‘pop-up’ Tour Café – we could forget the rest of our holiday all together and just stay here!
Well it turns out that the annoying squeak on my bike is being caused by three broken spokes on the rear wheel. This isn’t great news when you’re planning to cycle about 125 miles today! On a more positive note, at least we discovered this whilst in Rotterdam and not stranded in the middle of nowhere. The Tourist Office directed us to a nearby workshop, but unfortunately it won’t be fixed until 2pm, so cycling to Venlo has turned into a train journey. A quick trip to Rotterdam Central Station (currently being rebuilt – it looks like its going to be fab when it’s finished) and our tickets are purchased. Mike commented that he couldn’t imaging a Dutch person going to Bristol Temple Meads Station to ask for a ticket to somewhere like Leicester to be greeted by a member of staff fluent in Dutch. They would however be met with lots of cycle parking, a bit like this picture of the cycle park at Rotterdam Central – except this is just the overflow cycle park!
Or as we say in English, good morning Rotterdam. It looks like it’s going to be another nice cycling day as we head to our first destination – Venlo, which is on the Dutch/German border. We’re currently on the ferry but will be docking shortly, looking forward to cycling again in one of the most cycle-friendly countries in the world. If you haven’t tried it yet, I’d thoroughly recommend it.
There are quite a few cyclists on the overnight crossing today. Last time we travelled on this route there was us and a couple more, this time there must be over twenty. I think we win the prize for carrying the least luggage – one small pannier each. I like to take the idea of a Gok Wan compact capsule wardrobe to its limits – it’s amazing how many combinations you can get with a bit of clever accessorising.
We’ve arrived in Harwich, which is a bit like East Street, Bedminster-on-Sea. Not a lot to hang around for, just as well really as we’re heading off to the lovely Netherlands on the 11pm ferry. We’ve stocked up in Morrison’s (yep, that’s as good as it gets in Harwich) and are just waiting to be let on board. We did have a nice cycle along to the (sort of) sea front before hitting the aisles, here’s the picture to prove it.
Third time lucky! We finally made it to Beth Chatto’s Garden just outside Elmstead Market. Well worth waiting for, very informal but lush… and a nice cream tea in the cafe too.
The offending noise turned out to be a loose nut on the rear mud-guard rubbing against the tyre, (sounds more painful that it was). The nice man in the Spokes’ shop in Epping changed it and we had a smooth (and peaceful) run to Chelmsford in time for lunch. The Recess cafe is our refreshment stop, nice coffee and soya milk too, although nothing vegan for Mike to eat – but nothing a quick detour into the M&S food hall can’t solve.
After yesterday’s rest day spent seeing the sights of Potters Bar, (Sainsbury’s and Tesco’s), we’re on the road again and – I’m afraid – to get to Harwich, ‘the only way is Essex’. Fortunately, being a Monday, the roads have been quieter than the last time we cycled this way (it was Sunday – driver hell then). Alas it’s not all going smoothly though, Mike’s bike has developed an intermittent small ‘clank’ coming from the wheels somewhere. So we’ve stopped in Epping to get it looked at in Spokes’ bike shop. Fingers crossed it isn’t anything serious as I’d hate a spanner to get in the way of my THIRD attempt to visit the Beth Chatto Gardens – our pre-ferry rest stop. The first time we tried to get there it was closed and the second time we took a wrong turn in Ongar and ended up in Brentford and Billericay!
Fingers crossed this will be third time lucky!
O2 have decided to be particularly rubbish, just when we need to arrange to minimise our data roaming charges while we’re away. From 1 July the new EU laws come into effect that cap the outrageous charges phone companies have been charging people for accessing the Internet on their mobile devices when on holiday. Unfortunately we have a week in the Netherlands and Belgium before 1 July. Unhelpfully, O2 have decided to end their European bolt-on a week before the new limits come into effect, which means a potentially large bill – or no internet for us. First prize to O2 for crap customer service. We’re now hunting for a cheap sim for this week – hence a trip to Tesco Phone Shop Potters Bar, oh the glamour!
We’re on our cycling travels again – but this time only for two weeks. Our first stage was from Bristol to Potters Bar, 111 miles in just under nine hours. We thought we were setting a good pace until we passed a couple of cyclist as we approached our destination (Mike’s sister’s house). We asked how far they’d come, the reply was that ‘they’d covered 220 miles that day – It somewhat took the wind out of our sails! Today is a rest day, we’re cycling to Harwich tomorrow (about 70 miles) to catch the ferry to Rotterdam before cycling to Floriade in Venlo (the once a decade Dutch horticultural expo) then onto Liege for the start of the Tour de France 2012.
Our blog about our trip to the Netherlands, Belgium and Northern France to see the start of the 2012 Tour de France and the Floriade Flower Festival starts here!
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Canada to Mexico 26 August – 17 September 2011
So that’s it. We did it. We cycled all the way from Canada to Mexico. We couldn’t have done it without lots of help and encouragement, so this post is to say “thanks” to all those people.
Thank you to our amazing Warm Showers’ hosts: Matthew (Vancouver), Aaron (Seattle), Roberto and Larry (Portland), Sophia and Bob (Sea Ranch), Heidi and Martin (San Francisco), Nick and Katie (Seaside), Joe and Carol (Buellton) and Ann and Brad (San Diego). If you’re ever passing through Bristol we’d love to host you!
Thanks to the people we’ve met along the way who gave us such insight into America, (and other places in the world). Bud the ‘union man’ in Longview, the young gay lovers who took our photo for us in the Japanese garden in Portland’s Washington Park, Judy the Portland hill-climber and then Lisa – just two of the many cyclist we met in Portland; Ruth and her husband on their vacation in Neskowin; Perry and Gary, the proprieters of the Ravenwood Hotel in Klamath, (most definitely our favourite hotel of the trip). Christie, who is cycling the length of California to mark her 30th birthday; Klaus and Barbara from Sweden travelling on their tandem who we met in Eureka; the un-named and heavily-laden cyclist who passed us several times on our trip; Sarah on her 3,000 mile School Food Cycling Tour; the lady – (whose name we didn’t get) – campaigning to save her local library in Manchester, California from closure. Pablo, Alex, Luciano and Mario – the four touring Mexican students we met at Heidi and Martin’s in San Francisco; Everett the hairdresser in the Castro. Roy and Melissa the former mortgage-lenders turned artists in Ventura. Eduardo and Roberto at E&R bikes in Los Angeles, who replaced Mike’s broken bottle cage free of charge,
Finally a big thank you to our blog readers, (whoever you are!). Being able to share our extraordinary trip with others has also meant we have created a wonderful record to remember it all ourselves. For those of you who sent us comments, thank you very much – we’ve liked reading them a lot.
So that really is it from me on this blog, … but we’re already thinking about other cycling trips we could take, so there may be more in not too distant future.
Happy pedalling everyone. Remember to keep the rubber down!
1664.44 miles
20 days cycling
4 non-cycling days
2 ferries – to and from Vashon Island
0 days rain
5 days with fog
1 haircut
2 bike services
2 cats (Brenda and Cecil)
4 dogs (Tender, Max, Maggie and Lucy)
1 rooster (and countless chickens)
5 visits to Safeway’s supermarkets, (2 to Fred Mayer, 1 each to Wal Mart, Harvest Market and Sprouts)
4 ice creams (3 for Matthew and 1 for Mike)
Countless cakes! (At least one a day each).
11 punctures – mostly on the van Nicolas – they stopped when we changed the tyre
13 nights in hotels
12 nights with 8 Warm Showers hosts
71 ‘on the road’ blog entries, (including this one)
185 highest number of blog hits in a single day
30 lowest number of blog hits in a single day
2 tired, but very happy, cyclists
Monday 19 September, San Diego
Posted by Matthew
Our final day of the trip, our flight back to England departs from San Diego at 20.05. Following a bit of tweaking of our packed bike bags, (just to make sure that nothing untoward might happen to them on the plane), we spent most of the day in downtown (centre) San Diego, around the old Gas Lamp Quarter.
Matthew wanted to mooch around the shops, (having purchased virtually nothing except food for over three weeks). Mike was keen to visit the retired US Navy aircraft carrier, Midway, which is now a floating museum and moored at a specially built pier on the San Diego waterfront.
We decided to split up for the morning and then meet up for lunch. Following a nice veggie lunch I persuaded, (a rather reluctant) Mike to take a bus to visit more shops at Fashion Valley – an outdoor mall, about half an hour’s bus ride north of San Diego, with the promise that we’d be back at Ann and Brad’s by 4.30.
I had been longing to visit one particular shop when we reached our final destination – Crate & Barrel. It’s a bit like Habitat, (now sadly almost all gone in the UK) – but with a very American feel to it. Think Ralph Lauren meets Oprah and Martha Stewart. Off we went on a bus. It was hot there and going in to the stores was a bit of a relief from the bright sunshine and heat! I only purchased a few things and so we weren’t there long. Apart from Crate & Barrel I gave my custom to one other store – those of you who know me well, will appreciate how restrained of me this is. I went to Old Navy – the low-cost member of the Gap family. Old Navy is only available in the USA. I acquired a lovely set of compression running clothing and what very good value it was too. I have said to Mike that I will give running a go when we get back to the UK and now I have the perfect outfit. Who knows, perhaps we’ll run on the USA west coast next time! We caught the tram (or trolley as they call them here), back from Fashion Valley to downtown – Mike enjoyed this a lot.
After picking up a thank-you bunch of flowers for Ann and one chocolate brownie for Brad (he’s rationing himself), we caught the bus back to their house. Ann and Brad both took us to the airport. This was immensely kind and helpful. Mike and the bagged bikes travelled in Brad’s pickup and me with Ann in her car. After bidding our farewells to Ann and Brad, Mike bid farewell to the bikes until we reached London.
Off we went for our final Starbucks’ of the holiday and then found a spot to sit close to a electricity socket, so we could charge our iPhones while catching up with the latest few Archers’ podcasts. The plane left thirty minutes later than scheduled and as we took off we were able to watch through the window as the lights of San Diego lit the city. A very poignant sight.
Ok, I win the prize for the most stupid competition – not realising that Mike had already blogged the answer, duh!
We’re comprising a list of our trip in numbers, so here are some of the things we’ve counted along the way. There’s a small prize to the person who gets closest to the numbers for each of theses.
Deadline – end of Tuesday.
Number of rainy days we had:
Number of dogs we met:
Number of cats we met:
Number of Safeway’s stores we visited:
Number of ice creams we ate, (between us):
San Diego, Sunday 18 September
Posted by Mike
It’s a beautiful warm and sunny day in San Diego. It seems strange to think that in just over 24 hours we’ll be back in the UK – and in the autumn!
Making the most of the summer sun while we can, we spent most of the day in Balboa Park, the largest art and culture park in the world. It was created as part of two international exhibitions in 1915-16 and 1935-36.
Today Balboa Park has beautiful gardens, fountains and amazing lath botanical house (to keep it cool – an extraordinary idea for northern Europeans!
Balboa Park has 25 museums and galleries, including the San Diego Air and Space Museum, (with the Apollo 9 command [landing] module and moon rocks), and the San Diego Model Railroad Museum, (Mike is more than a little excited with these last two venues!).
Among the buildings in Balboa Park is a collection of cottages known as the ‘Houses of Pacific Relations’. Each cottage attempts to represent the culture, (as decided by each cottages’ society) of a different nation – many of them European – including France, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Lithuania, Eire, Scotland and, of course, England.
Each Sunday on a rotating basis, one of the cottage societies puts on a day of celebrations to represent their country. Today was the turn of the Austrian cottage. Austria, (through the interpretation of the USA) includes lots of people wearing national costumes: the men wore woollen knee-length ‘socks’, which had been adapted with a separate section for the calf. I assume this made them a little more comfortable in the sweltering San Diego heat. Food was, of course wurst and apple strudel (not eaten together). Entertainment first consisted of lots of men doing a sort of wood-chopping dance whilst yodelling and slapping their leather leiderhosen-clad buttocks; then a women singing, (if you could call it singing), an Austrian love song; then a couple, (further from Christopher Plumber and Julie Andrews you could not find), re-enacting the scene from the Sound of Music where Captain von Trap dances the ländler with Maria. Mike, who is not very keen on Austria (largely based on its role in both WW1 and WW2), muttered something about how he thought that the people staffing the Polish cottage were beginning to look a little nervous and strode off, (Hitler was Austrian).
We finished out tour of the House of Pacific Relations/Cottages by visiting the England cottage. My oh my, what a vision of England we found! Almost every wall of the cottage was decorated with royal family memorabilia! Flags of Will and Kate adorned the archway, while a spooky doll of Princess Diana (Princess Barbie-Di … Darbie?!), was encased in a glass dome, along with numerous magazines with pictures of Lady Di on the cover arranged around the doll in the dome. The few exhibits that didn’t involve the royal family included a cricket bat, a picture of a pearly king and queen, a picture of a penny-farthing made from a pre-decimal penny and half-penny. There were also, perhaps inevitably, tea and some cucumber sandwiches offer. We suggested that more up-to-date additions to the cottage could include a jar of Marmite! The (fairly young) guy staffing the cottage was married to a British women, which is why he was involved in helping out there. He was quite keen to try and update the exhibit as well, suggesting they should play God Save the Queen by the Sex Pistols. I think our suggestion of a jar of Marmite is more likely to be approved by the England Cottage Society – but only just, it might still be a bit too modern!
Matthew and Mike Travel from Bristol 