Email from SDB to Phil 17/3/22
An exciting new development
… but not if you are a P&O employee.
P&O have just tried to sack all their staff. They have discontinued operating the Hull-Rotterdam ferry until they sort themselves out.
Wasn’t that the ferry you were going to take?
Yes
What are you going to do?
Sail Newcastle-Amsterdam by DFDS.
Suppose they sack all their staff as well
There will be even more hungry sailors and cleaning staff and their families.
This is becoming more of a challenge than expected. I still hope to be in Amsterdam for next weekend, though.
Day -3
It’s not like me to be confused, but I can’t find the recipients of emails in times past. Where has Alison disappeared to? And Marci? And Katy?
The run up to the tour was certainly exciting. They fired the P&O staff who were looking forward to taking me from Hull to Rotterdam, so I showed great enterprise in immediately booking the last berth on the Newcastle to Amsterdam ferry. Newcastle? It never is. I am looking out of the window of the ferry in North Shields waiting for the crew to splice the main brace. What to do with the booking when they renegotiated the date was going to be a problem. If I rebooked for a later crossing it would only encourage them. Fortunately they are going to refund the fare.
North Shields isn’t a bad place to sail from, but getting here entails 2 or 3 trains and a 10 mile ride. Not the least problem on a beautiful spring day like today, but in wet windy weather would be more of a challenge.
I’m a bit confused about not being able to get the news, either. It says “No internet connection”. Well, there isn’t on the allotment either, but that doesn’t stop me from looking up recommended planting distances for onions.
I will sleep well, tonight. No 12:00 dinner today and no after dinner sleep. They start serving what they call dinner at 18:00. That’s good, I’m starving.
Day -2
Phil is coming today. Latest report: “train broken down “. Tomorrow we explore the respectable bits of Amsterdam, and some time on Monday I make my way to the starting point of the tour. Then up North.
Breakfast on the ferry this morning was excellent. Almost worth coming for that.
Once again I met a cycling couple admiring my Rohloff gears. They talked enthusiastically about some of the finer points of cycle construction on the assumption that I knew what they were talking about. It would be a pity to disillusion them as they seemed to be delighted to have come across a fellow enthusiast. A trucker gave me some useful information about getting a lift to Amsterdam if I make it to Prague in the autumn. Just make it back to Dresden and this man he knows will break all the rules and get me to Amsterdam. Hmm. It all sounds pretty illegal
Then on the road past Amsterdam, round Haarlem (where there is a magnificent 17th (?) century Church Organ and past Schipol Airport.
I worried about what was going on in the Ukraine all day, but didn’t look at the news until I had clocked in at my room
It was none of it encouraging
Day -1
Sunday. Day of rest and gladness. But we must sometimes operate within the limits we are given. It was another various day.
I will cycle in from Amstelveen to Amsterdam, and meet Phil at tonight’s hotel.
He will get the bus. Not much rest, but plenty of gladness.
“But what is happening to all the seedlings that have germinated on the allotment?“
Ah, I’m glad you asked that. Sometimes I do wonder whether you are really all that excited about the allotment. It’s good to know that you are so interested.
The really good news from Bridlington in 2022 is that allotment neighbour Dave and I have found a ready source of free horse manure from the Woldsway Trekking Centre
“All the manure you can carry“. We went up with a trailer 3 weeks running, and I now have a hot enough bed dug 1′ into the ground and 2′ above the surface on which rests 1′ of compost. The seedlings are in trays on top of the compost and covered by fleece. Between the trays are sown rows of carrots. Dave will wave a watering can over them every so often so with the heat coming up from the hot bed, and the fleece keeping off the frost from the air, they will blossom and flourish.
Maybe
Back at home Jeff has offered (sort of) to water the seedlings not yet sturdy enough to be transferred to the allotment
Thank you for asking.
After all that Phil turned up about 15 minutes after I arrived and we both checked in to our 3-bed room. The 3rd one presumably for any companions we may pick up.
We had a happy afternoon talking and talking and solving each other’s problems. During the course of wandering through the city centre I called in to the Centraal Station (they are very keen on the letter ‘a’ here) and established that you can book space for a bike on the train from Prague to Berlin and from Berlin to Amsterdam. Now that’s a good idea.
Day 0
Last night was excellent. I slept soundly for over 8 hours and woke up full of life. Almost too full as the breakfast room didn’t open until 07:30, but what was on offer was very acceptable.
Phil emerged at about 08:30
Now for the best news of the year so far… he is willing to act as tour manager for Amsterdam-Prague (or vice versa) this autumn. He stands a good chance of outshining Dutch biketours. I am so pleased with that development. He knows what I am like- the important things and the unimportant ones. The requirements are simple – book accommodation on a next day to next day basis, taking account of energy (mine) and weather (the good Lord’s as revealed by the Met Office)
We spent the morning finding the tickets on my mobile that I had ordered online, then looking round the Rembrandt section in the museum and reading what they said about the paintings. Other people see a lot more than me.
By 12:00 I was pleased to have had a go and was exhausted.
Conversation between Phil and the man that stood at the gate: “I’ve got to take my father to the station and put him on the bus to his hotel. Can I come back in?” “No.”
But he did take me, put me on the right bus and told me which stop to get off at. Yet another sign of the times
The cycle ride to the starting point of the tour was straightforward enough. Allowing for getting lost negotiating back streets the route obliged me to follow
Dutch biketours had promised to send me details of the journey to the hotel
Ah, they sent them to the wrong hotel. Later in the evening they arrived with a grovelling letter. Hey, Phil could do better than that. Well, there’s a decent chance.
Day 1
Spend the first hour tracing out today’s route from the information sent from Dutch biketours yesterday. It is much longer than the “hotel to hotel” route I had previously constructed. Will give it a go. For this to be successful I need to have copied the route correctly, to be able to follow it, and to still have the stamina of yesteryear. What can go wrong?
It was only 3/4 of the way through yesterday’s route that I remembered Alison’s instruction about drinking regularly. I have marked drinking stops. The weather forecast for the day indicates light rain every now and then.
The journey turned out to be relatively trouble free. There was a short section where the cycle path was out of action while they repaired a canal crossing, and you had to risk your life taking the main road to the accompaniment of lorry horns, and times when you couldn’t see the satnav display for the sun, but the rain held off. There was a strong North wind blowing all the way, but that only required determination. I arrived at Hoorn just about ahead of schedule when the battery ran out. An hour later I was in my room. I had only found the hotel through the kindness of strangers. There was a notice on the door to ring either of 2 numbers. My phone couldn’t do it. I asked a passing lady if she could help. She read the notice and said “It’s OK the hotel is part of the restaurant next door.” It isn’t, but the lady in the restaurant rang a number on her phone, said to me whatever is Dutch for “He’s an idle bugger“, and all problems were solved.
The room is small and excellent.
Rain is forecast for tomorrow and I will try out my new cycling padded long trousers.
When we were in Amsterdam I said once to Phil “This year your mother has left“. Since then I have thought a lot about it. It isn’t entirely true, but things are now different. I still think a lot about her and us – all good things- but I can now do things that she wouldn’t have liked
Like spend money unnecessarily.
My mother wouldn’t have liked that either
Day 2
It’s 10:30 and I’m already halfway to tonight’s accommodation, sat in a superior station cafe
There were going to be 3 problems about this trip: premature exhaustion, rain, and wind. Well, I may be older, but am still enjoying the challenge. The forecast rain has decided to wait until Friday, but this morning a cold north wind did its best to make life difficult. I have averaged less than 8 mph all morning. At this point (Enkhuizen) I keep going North to Medemblik, defying the wind.
So sometime yesterday I left Holland for Friesland. This morning I traced out the route which skirts the Zuider Zee. It did not really matter that within minutes of starting the screen went dark. An hour into the ride I thought “Perhaps it’s a device setting.” It was. All the shaking along cobbled streets must have upset it. I had not turned inland when I should. It only meant that I had cycled along the top of the dyke bordering the sea (or zee) instead of along more sheltered lanes inland. The sight of the zee up there and the fields down there is a celebration of human ingenuity. Bit scary as well, I would think.
So back on the road, warmed up by a hot chocolate, and off to tonight’s hotel …
I’m now getting reasonably proficient at knowing what information to accept and what to ignore on the satnav system. It took me through a network of back streets today. It is still pretty approximate in its estimate of where we actually are, but when it says “Turn right” you get to add “sooner or later” and become fearless about going down the narrowest of snicķets.
More good news .
I did not fall off my bike once today, so must be improving my starting and stopping technique.
Snow is forecast for this evening. The west of here is forecast to be dry, so as long as I can get off tomorrow all should be well.
Day 3
I have already started this report once. It has gone missing. Here goes again from a warm hotel room in den Helder with the rough sea (or zee) roaring below, and the island of Texel nowhere to be seen for fog.
The original message started with the observation that some of you may have seen further than me about the likely hazards … exhaustion, wind and rain. Omitting snow. 2″ of snow is expected tonight before I cross the raging zee to Texel tomorrow. They expect it to rain all morning, but sun is forecast for the afternoon. I will therefore book a ferry crossing for late morning then pedal furiously through the sludge to catch a return ferry.
Today’s journey was not without its complications either. Light rain then sun then heavy rain. I shortened the route by leaving out a planned diversion. The last few miles were a bit of a challenge. The wind blew beyond reason. However I made it to the warm Land’s End hotel where I am staying for 2 nights.
One good thing about my lack of competence in planning is that I have a day to spare before getting the ferry back. That was a surprise and was not intentional. But it gives me the opportunity to pay my respects to John Comenius, or Jan Komensky (with any number of diacritics) as Marci thinks he is called. He was an extraordinary polymath and educationist. Driven from his home in Moravia by religious mad men he wandered Europe in the 17th century writing crazy stuff about giving all children an education. Including girls of all things. Ignorance is the brother (or sister) of intolerance. Oliver Cromwell invited him to stay in England but he probably didn’t like the food so ended up in Amsterdam. Look him up in Wikipedia and give thanks for him.
Day 4
It has happened again. I started today’s report before breakfast, added to it on the ferry … and it’s gone. I did find the beginning of yesterday’s report, though, in saved emails no sign of today’s, though.
So from the top…
The weather people exaggerated the snow. It was blowing hard, but the streets were clear. Today it will be (they say) dry this morning and wet this afternoon. I will therefore set off immediately after breakfast and pedal hard.
On the ferry was a large screen displaying 4°c, a dark cloud, a flag with the legend N, and another flag with the legend 6Bft.
I asked a fellow passenger what 6Bft meant. “6 on the Beaufort scale“. That is pretty ridiculous. 6 on the Beaufort scale is only something like a stiff breeze. Fellow passengers on the ferry noticed my cycle helmet and said “It’s going to be a hard ride today“. They probably also thought it was a gale.
The plan for the day was to follow the route around the island until I reached half way round, or it started raining uncomfortably hard, when I would find the next cafe and then go back home.
The cycling was tough against the wind. 2 miles in it started to snow heavily. I gave in. Didn’t even keep going until a cafe.
Looking on the bright side… I’m cycling South tomorrow. If the North wind (gale) keeps up I will just have to sit upright in the saddle, and probably won’t even have to pedal.
Back in a warm room I changed my cycling clothes for my Sunday suit, went into Den Helder and had a life enhancing death inducing hot chocolate and cream bun.
Other incidents on the journey…
A significant part of a tooth has fallen out trying to defeat a very hard bread roll. It hasn’t caused any discomfort yet, and I hope to keep going until I get home. On the way, though, to second childishness and mere oblivion “sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything“
My tablet has stopped recharging reliably. I took it into a tablet shop in Medemblik, and the man plugged it into his connector when it started charging again. He sold me another connector. Which still doesn’t recharge necessarily. However, if I surprise it, it will often restart. I don’t need it for anything important, but it is useful to read the papers. I have a subscription for the Independent and the Guardian, and do the puzzles obsessively.
Day 4 + 5
At 17:00 yesterday I thought “Come, come, this is no way to spend a cycling holiday” so set off in the teeth of a breeze to check out the start of the next day’s route
It was as I had hoped. As soon as I turned South the ride was easy.
The cycling track was a bit scary. It ran immediately along the side of the sea, which was 20 yards away down a steep surfaced bank. If the breeze had been blowing towards the sea it would have felt dangerous.
So I travelled easily for about 5 miles and then turned round. It was just like Texel in the morning. Even in a low gear it was foot to foot fighting. The way back felt twice the distance of the way there so 5 miles South and 10 miles North. A good evening run.
Next morning:
Quite contrary to all that is right and good I didn’t wake until 06:40. No matter. I leapt out of bed, brushed all the teeth that were left, and went straight for breakfast. The breakfast room was locked. Another guest joined me, hammered on the door, said something in foreign and went away. I went back to my room, packed, and read the small print. Unknown to me, they had decided to celebrate Saturday today, when the world does not start until 08:00. The sea was only wrinkled, so the wind must have gone down.
After a hearty enough breakfast I checked out then started to get the bike ready. The room for cycles was OK, but the door out of the hotel was narrow so I put the superior Ortlieb panniers down in the corridor, and negotiated my way out.
It was a beautiful morning. Black clouds here and there but bright sunshine for the journey.
The route was pretty easy. South. After a few miles it went a bit inland, but that was OK as it provided shelter from the wind.
On with a glad heart and free until I guessed it was nearly a third 😅 of the way. I stopped to find a cafe and recharge the mobile battery.
Then I realised the bit that I had left out.
You were probably with your hands up saying “Sir, sir” ages ago. You were quite right. What had I left out? “Yes, Alison?“
Quite right. The panniers.
Ah.
It was still a lovely day, but the North wind was blowing hard. The wrinkles on the water had acquired foam. One good thing was that I had remembered not remembering the panniers. It was only stuff, but the stuff included my passport.
So back up the coast. Into the wind.
There they were, just where I had left them.
I set the mobile to recharge and ran through my options. After drinking a hot chocolate I felt quite capable of starting off again right from the beginning. There is a station at Alkmaar, and a regular train service South. I could get a train part way to Alkmaar, then finish the journey from there. The battery was still only 80% full. It would need to be fully recharged before setting out.
So I took the easy option and found the train station. The only ticket on offer was all the way to Alkmaar. So I took it.
There is still a lot of snow on the ground in Alkmaar and it is cold.
Not in my hotel room.
Tomorrow Naarden and John Comenius. I definitely will not forget anything.
Day 6 (fully illustrated)
It has been another excellent day. With its own challenges, but none the worse for that.
It started with snow on the ground. Blue sky, white and black clouds and a cold wind. No matter. I dressed appropriately for the day, superimposing on my long cycling trousers my Sunday trousers, white shirt, and Sunday tie.
The strategy for the day was to arrive in Naarden by 15:00, pay my respects to John Comenius, and clock in to my accommodation by 17:00.
The ride started well enough and I made good progress for about 15 miles when it rained. Then snowed. I reached a town (Koog an de Zaan) and looked for a cafe. None open. The Coop opened at 10:00 and I half hoped they might have a cafe
Outside a man admired my bike. He was, he said, a very happy man. He had spent his life making bicycle wheels, and specialised in spokes. “How old do you think I am?“. Always a difficult question. “70“. “No, 76″.”How old are you?“. “78“. This disappointed him a bit. “You seem very happy.”
It’s always seems odd to me that strangers talk to me unbidden. Do I looked like a sociable chap? Really?
By this time the Coop had opened. There was no cafe, but I bought a fruit and yoghurt plastic dish.
It seemed increasingly stupid to keep on with the Sunday trousers as they were going to be soaked by the time I reached Naarden, so I took them off to the surprise of passers by, and continued in my perfectly adequate cycling trousers. Then on. It was still raining when I reached the 2nd ferry of the day, where I waited for about 20 minutes with some authentic cyclists. Someone said that they get rid of their excess liquid discreetly. They Don’t.
By the time the ferry reached the other side the rain had stopped.
Then wriggled through the back streets of Amsterdam until I was in the centre. Then off by the side of a canal for miles until I was clear of the city and on my way to Naarden, about 15 miles out.
I pedalled energetically, realising that my mobile battery must be running low. 5 miles out from Naarden a little town, Herengracht, sported an open restaurant. I started recharging the battery, and ordered a decent flammkuchen without knowing what it was until it arrived. It was €9 – the right sort of price for something that included salmon and asparagus in the list of ingredients. It was a thin pizza sort of dish.
By the time I started off the battery was over 50% full, so I cycled on to Naarden without anxiety. I clocked in at the accommodation at 15:10, wanting to leave my damp trousers on the radiator a bit before going out.
Then to find the Comenius museum. It is housed in an old Moravian/Walloon/Lutheran Church founded by religious exiles. Here Comenius was buried. A hero clinging on to a belief that all people want to learn and to be better. In spite of all the evidence. I love him. As does the lady who locks the museum up after 17:00. She assured me that it was quite OK for me to stay while she completed whatever administrative tasks are on her check list.
What’s all this about a “hearty enough” breakfast?
Wait a bit and I will tell you. It is all to do with this year’s Lent stunt.
Last Challenge
Since I am now on board ship and in my cabin you may correctly infer that all unpredicted crises have been faced and overcome
The weather forecast for today was that it would be dry enough until 10:00 then rain heavily for the rest of the day.
They got half of it right
The plan was to cycle hard for 2 hours and then get a train in the general direction of the ferry. Then cycle in the pouring rain the final 5 miles. The ship would be warm and dry. It is. So after a hearty enough breakfast I set off at about 07:45 towards Amsterdam. By 08:00 it was raining hard. The route was the reverse one that I had taken yesterday. Then I saw the reassuring sight of a train. Hey, I’m not stupid.
The fragmentary map on my sat nav did not show stations, but did show railway tracks.
So right along a cycle track in the general direction of Amsterdam and towards the trains. Then the cycle track degenerated into the sort of off road challenge that some people enjoy. It was not muddy, but wet sand. Wet sand is at least as difficult as mud. I gave in, and pushed my bike to the start of the cycle track. Then towards a town. I hailed a passing lady. “Where is the train station?” She replied in impeccable English. I should go straight through the housing estate and keep going. The train station would be directly in front of me.
It had stopped raining and to my complete surprise I came to the station. Yippee! Almost.
To get into the station you need to buy a ticket. All the instructions were in Dutch. To buy a ticket you select “one way“, a picture of a bicycle, and “pay“. It did not like my Visa debit card. A helpful man came up, did the same as I did, and it didn’t work for him either. “The machine is broken. This is a friendly town. When you see someone with a ticket go in, go in with them.” So I did. The next train to Amsterdam left in 10 minutes
I asked a lady on the platform “is this the side for trains to Amsterdam?” “Yes“
So I got on the train when it arrived
It was going to Utrecht. In the other direction.
I got off at the next station. Naarden.
Perversely this pleased me no end.
I got a ticket from a machine to Santpoort Noord, which is near enough to the ferry terminal. The machine had no problem at all with my Visa card. For the first time I got on a train going in the right direction with a valid ticket
The rest was comparatively easy. I asked an official at the Centraal station about trains to Santpoort Noord, he told me correctly, and I ended up within easy cycling distance from the ferry. In the pouring rain. In good heart. By the time I reached the ferry I was cold and wet, but thankful.
Once I got on board I went straight to my cabin, put on my dry socks, and got into bed. 15 minutes later I woke up warm and happy
Tomorrow the forecast for the 10 mile ride into Newcastle is heavy rain. I don’t care
Back in England
When we set sail (sail?) yesterday, the captain announced that the breeze force winds were strength 6, and that there would be some pitching and rolling until midnight. I would be fast asleep.
07:00 breakfast.
Now, about these hearty-ish breakfasts. I had decided that going off caffeine for Lent was getting too easy. A mild headache for a couple of days, then it just got boring. I considered going Vegan, but I’m not over keen on nuts or beans. Vegetarian was more realistic, but the follow up to Sunday Yorkshire Pudding would be a bit flat. So it would be “meat free”. I have been using Delia’s “fish” recipe book to good effect.
By definition a hearty breakfast includes bacon egg tomato and mushrooms, so it has been impossible to begin the day on a high. Some of you may not be able to understand.
What you can understand, though, is the dilemma of being served with ham in all kinds of meals which did not include it on the menu. This happened a lot in the Netherlands. Two of the big principles of living well, taught in childhood were …
- Don’t waste
- Eat up everything on your plate
(Oddly, Judy espoused the same principles. We used to amuse restaurateurs by leaving 2 clean plates when eating out)
So it was not possible to leave the ham, even in Lent.
We are approaching North Shields, masquerading as Newcastle. It is not raining. The railway station is less than 10 miles away from the ferry terminal. Yippee.
At the station some excellent LNER staff sorted out my bike reservation on the train to Doncaster. The system LNER work is that you buy a ticket through their app and having bought it, you say “and I’ve got a bike”
They then tell you whether there’s room for one. There wasn’t. The lady looked, found there wasn’t room on the next train either, but there was room on the one just about to come in. She gave me some pieces of paper, and I just managed to get on the right carriage. No one seemed to mind that I was not on the train for which I had a ticket. People smiled and said words to the effect of “Do not worry your pretty little head about things like that “. I can’t be the only person to think “There must be a better way of doing this“.
But here I am on the train to Doncaster.
The ticket collector on the Northern train wasn’t bothered that I was on the wrong train either.
So was the trip a success?
A bit.
I am definitely less strong than 5 years ago even. I could not lift my heavy touring bike up to the rack to store it on the train. This was not the first time
I will know whether the long journey to Prague is on once I’ve cycled to York and back in a day.
But did you enjoy the challenge?
Of course.
Are you glad you went?
Certainly
Would you do it again?
Maybe. But it will be better to check the weather first.
jbrip 