Joanna and David's Travels: 2016/1 On the Road Again

The big excitement this year on arrival at Heathrow was to be picked in a real London taxi by a real London taxi driver. Maureen was at the Chelsea Garden Show so organised Jonathon’s brother Paul to collect us and drive us down to Hastings. Had our usual few days recommissioning Stan, eating lots of seafood, pubs, walks along the seafront etc. A great seafood meal at Webbe’s – the flash restaurant in the Old Town – with Maureen, Simon and Helen. Wonderful weather – Hastings really turned it on.

Set off for Calais with dire warnings of fuel strikes and trouble with would-be illegal immigrants. However the strike hadn’t reached Calais and the only sight of the immigrants was in The Jungle – the refugee camp at the side of the motorway. We had far more trouble with the weather which was shocking. Wild winds, rain, freezing!! Out with the winter woollies. Stan was buffeted by the gale force winds and sandblasted whenever we got near the sea. Even though it was windy they managed to turn on serious fog as well, so fog horns blasted mournfully all night. Spent a couple of days, restocking, new water pump, then off to Holland.

Holland is living up well to our expectations. It is inundated by water and by bicycles. Water means boats of all sorts from dinghies to ocean going ships, with many of the old sailing barges with lee boards still in evidence. Canals and inlets etc every where, great sight to see a yacht on a high level canal appearing to sail across the fields. Canals because its flat and bicycles because its flat and there are cycle paths everywhere including through towns with their priority over cars. At least our 7 only gear bikes are fine here if you can hold your breath and not wobble as others flash past with inches to spare. Well dressed ladies (& gents) ride past even texting, mainly ladies says David but Joanna notes that’s because that’s the only ones he looks at. We entered Holland in Zeeland and after a night near Ghent we made for Middleburg for a few days with bike rides out to the coast on a fine sunny weekend – the first sunshine since since crossing the Channel, so lots of holiday folk making a friendly scene.

A visit to the Delta Project Park gave us a insight into the flooding in 1953 with over 1800 drowned, and the resultant huge project damming the inlets and the major project with its 65 sluice gates all founded on sand – amazing project. As a distraction (and included in the ticket, there also a seal and a sea lion show(would be most un-pc in NZ), aquarium and whale exhibition. All well organised but made a expensive day, since us scrooges had been staying in campervan stops for nothing up to then.

We did try and stop in The Hague but no parking to be had and anyway. Next two stops are of the classic Holland – Delft and Gouda. Both lived up to their reputations as pretty little towns surrounded by canals and we dutifully bought the cheese and a small piece of the china.

Heading North we skirted Rotterdam on a maze of hellish motorways past a a sea of chemical and other industrial plant in a concentration never before beholden, negotiated thank to our TomTom and determined changing of lanes in amongst the trucks etc. Now here we are near Leiden not so far from our next stop Amsterdam, in fact under the landing flight path! Last two days staying on a farm campervan stop. The cycling past the canals, windmills and with cycle only ferries has been great. Beautiful scenes everywhere and we were surprised how enjoyable we found the city of Leiden with its network of canals, university and animated street and cafe life.

We are really enjoying getting the bikes out again, but are acutely aware of our lack of fitness and cycling prowess. Mind you we have seen lots of electric bikes – two seen today must be the Rolls Royce of touring bikes with pedal hub motors, hub dynamo lights, front and saddle suspension with fitted and lockable pannier arrangement. Dutch are pros on bikes. Everyone, even the old doddery ones are quick and agile. They can recognise us a mile off and all joggle to get past us at the lights. It can be quite intimidating at times. They often have these high, imposing town bikes and tower over us as they whisk past or hurtle towards us. All this while looking like they are putting in no effort at all, unlike us who are sweating and gasping for breath. However we have got a handle on navigating the cycling routes of which there are many. 35 kilometres yesterday and David’s all keen to do the same today.

As always food is a big part of our travels and we are enjoying tucking into the local delicacies. Quickly discovered kipperlings or kibberlings – delicious fried fish pieces often bought from street stalls. There has been a lot of seafood so far probably because we are close to the coast. We enjoy exploring the supermarkets and food markets and best of all for David is that he has continued to find good bread – well what we call good bread – French style. Even had it delivered to our campsite this morning. Today David had to try the local lunch made for hearty cyclists – 3 eggs, ham and cheese on bread – although cheap it did not measure up to his Sunday breakfast. However the coffees are just what we want – no need to find words such as ‘long black, cafe alonge, cafe lungo, cafe americano. etc just two coffees please”.