Back on our own again…
By the time we woke up the Du Randts were already on the train back to Holland, in fact they may have already been in Holland – We were back in our old routine and lying in! We had a short ride up to Cologne when we finally got going and found a lovely campsite by the river a few kms south of the city. We had a great pitch right on the waters edge and met another touring cycle couple over a bottle of wine who were cycling to Vienna for a great evening. We had planned to go into Cologne the next day but woke to signs on the shower block saying please contact reception because of the...
Read MoreHealth n Safety, my Arse!
Cycling around Holland in the sun is much like being in a real life St Trinians holiday camp. If there’s a canal then there’s dozens of kids swimming unsupervised from age 6 or 7 up, kids desperately trying to touch the side of passing 3000 tonne ships by belly boarding at them sideways like torpedoes and if there’s a bridge over the canal then the kids are jumping off it playing their own version of pooh sticks scaring the hell out of the passing holiday cruisers. In the boats the kids stand and lie about and even get towed behind them clinging on to a rope, and sometimes...
Read MoreOf Cricket, Americans and God
Holland are one of the better non test match playing teams and Ireland are the best. As they were due to play an international in Amstelveen we headed north to just outside Amsterdam to have a day with our feet up, drinking wine and commenting “Good shot old chap” in between naps and sandwiches. The game itself was entertaining – and live on the Internet with a full crew of cameramen etc and live commentary, the around 100 spectators barely outnumbered the ICC Officials and TV crew. Ireland eventually won comfortably and we returned to taffy via a lovely cycle through the...
Read MoreSaddle sore and sunburnt…
When we usually set off instead of the excitement of getting on our way we usually have a couple of days of being absolutely exhausted, so we’ve learnt to allow for this (3 days this year as we’re grandparents) and head from the Hook of Holland straight to Klein Amerika car park in the centre of Gouda and chill out on cheese fondue, champagne sundaes and chips ( not together, though that does sound scrummy) We happily filled up with diesel en route at the bargain price of £1.10 and navigated the roadworks in Gouda to arrive at a disaster zone reminiscent of a world war 2 bomb...
Read MoreThey think it’s all over….
1000 km for the trip Lubbenau Spreewald Festival And in the knick of time Potsdam Malbork – the largest castle in the world Welcome home from Tilly! I always feel a bit of anti climax when we return to the EU, whereas Linda feels relief but I have to say I wasn’t sorry to see the back of Kaliningrad. After a smooth border crossing we headed to Malbork in Poland, another UNESCO World heritage site and allegedly the largest castle in the world. It’s remarkable and the camp site was on the river bank opposite – perfect for a couple of days R&R. We seemed to have caught the culture bug...
Read MoreLast year it was strimmers, this it’s festivals!
Last year we seemed to be followed around by a man with a strimmer who, at about 7am every morning would start strimming right outside the van. We’re not sure if it was the same man and we had somehow acquired the weirdest stalker of all time or we were unlucky, but this year we seem to be following the hippy trail! You may recall that we had decided to head to Gorinchem to repack and have a rest as it really is a lovely small town and the camperplaats is right on the Harbour. Well the weekend we arrived the place was full of VW camper vans – not the camperplaats but the whole town. There...
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