The Home Straight - Rotterdam to the Hook of Holland

Last day of the tour in mainland Europe started off with a savagely steep ramp out of the campsite and up onto the dyke. It doesn’t look much in the photo, but it was a low-gear, standing up off the saddle affair!

In a fantastic quirk of luck, the prevailing westerly winds have switched to easterly, so we were blown towards Rotterdam at top speed and with very little effort on our part.



Past lots of windmills!



Although we had given ourselves plenty of time to get to the ferry, there was still an underlying pressure to make sure we got there! Typically, bstacles seem to present themselves today like no other day of the tour! Firstly, the ferry we were due to catch to cross the Rhine, was no longer running! 



A new route was quickly worked out and we took a different ferry for a euro each onto the northern side of the river.



A few kilometres later, we found our new route was still under construction! Another detour was required!



When Rotterdam appeared, it felt like we were entering a completely different world to the quiet flat countryside that we’d become used to living in. Buildings rose up everywhere in all shapes and sizes with some impressive architecture.





A cafe by the water eventually materialised and we were glad to slump into a chair and enjoy the new views.



The buildings got even more creative as we meandered through the city suburbs towards the main city park.



Here we stopped for lunch.

Onward into the afternoon past more interesting buildings…



On the western side of Rotterdam, we found ourselves in a beautiful area, which seems to be famous for its Gin making! 



It was super pretty and really quiet. 



After seeing another cyclist conk out and another ambulance crew called (that’s two in two days!), we stopped at a delightful cafe that turned out to be a library too.



Over a restful drink, we pondered over why in Holland, having witnessed two cyclists fall off and bang their heads, why we were probably the only cyclists wearing helmets. 



Things turned more industrial on the way out of the city…



But bit by bit, we got closer to the goal…







The final straight literally seemed to go on forever!



But just before 6pm, we made it to the ferry port, with one hour to spare before check in opened. 

It wasn’t just us that was tired… my gloves, now several tours old, were feeing the strain…



And my favourite short are now not only oil stained, but literally threadbare and worn through!



No wonder really - the GPS was giving a very respectable tour total of 1024km from the last three weeks! At least our bodies and bikes are in better shape!



In the queue for the ferry, we pulled up next to one of our neighbours on his way back to Wales from the Alps!

Total Days Ride: 60km

Heading for Rotterdam

With just shy of 1000km now travelled on our bikes this summer, we’re heading into the final few days of the tour. We’ve got two days to get to the Hook of Holland and todays ride has put us on the outskirts of Rotterdam, so things are looking promising. It was a good but gentle pace to start us off until we reached the end of the road.

Happily, a ferry soon turned up for us and for 0.95€ we were granted passage across the River Waal.





The river turned out to be a major defensive weak spot during Napoleonic times, as we later found out at nearby Fort Vuren. It’s an enormous old fort built into the river bank, with walls over 3m thick! Happily for us, these days it’s less effective as a fort (as discovered when German planes just flew over the top of it!), but is a fine site for a cafe!



After a cup of coffee in the sun, we had a look around the inside, which can be rented for parties or you can even stay the night.





Having seen some other customers being handed good looking plates of food, we abandoned our plan to go and get something from a supermarket and got stuck into a very fulfilling lunch!



We left feeling rested, well fed and ready for a bit more peddling…





There’s been no mistaking which country we’re in. There are windmills everywhere. 

Mid-afternoon, after a quick sleep on a park bench, we picked up some food to cook for dinner later.



We also stopped for an ice cream at a farm shop, but it wasn’t very restful as a lady fell off her bike and had to be taken away in an ambulance! 



The last leg was into a stiff headwind and I tucked in behind Clare for most of it to make use of her slipstream. A steep bridge over a waterway gave us the days ‘high point’ just before we reached our last camp of the expedition. If all goes according to plan, tomorrow night, we’ll be in a cabin on the ferry to Harwich!….



But tonight’s a tent night!



Total Ride: 55km

Heading West

With 200km still to go before reaching our ferry and three days to get there, we set out into the cool of the morning feeing refresh and psyched to be back on the road.

We had 65km to travel today, so there was no time for stopping for any of these!



The town of Cuijk was a well kept one, but we passed through before any of the cafes were open, so kept a good pace on.



After the bright start, we soon found ourselves heading towards some dark skies. We took refuge under the porch of a library while the worst of the rain passed, but it wasn’t much of a rest. 



We carried on through some light drizzle rather than hanging around, conscious that we still had a way to go.



The route took us through some nice woodlands and thankfully on decent paths after a few rough tracks earlier in the day.

Near the town of Oss, we chanced upon a splendid cafe right on the side of the trail. We’d just been saying how we could do with a rest so it seemed remiss to pass it by! Because we are off any ‘known’ long distance route, we are a bit of a novelty and another couple at the cafe were very interested to hear where we were going and how we managed to have enough things with us to survive! Full of coffee (and apple cake, thanks to a persuasive waitress), we set back out on the trail full of joy and rearing to go!







As lunch time drew near, the skies darkened and rain was clearly imminent. As luck would have it, the tour provided a sheltered bench! Perfect!



Then, once the showers had passed, we had another extraordinary stroke of luck. We needed to buy some gas for our stove and literally just around the corner, from where we had had lunch, an outdoor shop had opened this week! Legendary!

And as well as Gas, Clare also found some new sandals in the opening sale!



I considered a rain hat…



Further rains were ducked by nipping into a supermarket to source dinner.



I was beginning to flag in the final few kilometres, but picked up when we arrived at the campsite to find a kitchen and lounge that we could hang out in - and by being given a tasty protein drink and a huge dinner!



Total Ride: 65km