It was a fine winter's day, one of the shortest of the year, which dawned frosty and cold. One of the features of living amongst the hills is that the sun takes longer to rise above them to begin warming things up. On this day it was nearly ten o'clock before the sun first hit our house and there was very little heat in it when it did. Despite this, I was tempted, by the clear blue sky and the almost total absence of any wind, to go for a walk on the hill opposite our home, the one that faces away from the sun and receives almost no direct sunlight at all at this time of year.
The ground was frozen solid, a thin layer of frost covering what little grass there was on the twisty path going up and then, on the descent, this frozen surface posed a real risk of slipping on the steeper parts. The cold air penetrated my lungs but the effort of walking up hill was more than enough to keep my body warm and encouraged me to keep going. Was it all worth it? Well yes, and this view is the reason...
At some point on my journey up or down I began reminiscing on our cycling tour of Holland in 2025 and wondering what the coming year, 2026, might have in store. We love our electric bikes and the Dutch adventure had taught us that they are perfect for long distance touring. We have decided that 'bikepacking' as it is known (carrying camping gear along with everything else and staying at campsites) is a step too far for us but finding a place to stay overnight is what we did before and is not necessarily a problem. We learnt so much from last year's trip that by now even the thought of leaving Holland for somewhere a little hillier doesn't scare us at all. We rarely used the electric assistance on our bikes in Holland but we know that the boost it gives us going up hill means we can tackle almost anything.
For example, just supposing there was a cycle route that started in Holland at the mouth of a river where it flowed into the North Sea and then followed that river inland, eventually to its source. Well it just so happens that there is such a river, the Rhine, that begins its journey in the Swiss Alps, passes through Germany then into Holland passing through Rotterdam to reach the North Sea at the Hook of Holland and rather conveniently there is a marked cycle route that follows this river. It even has a name; EuroVelo 15.
But let us be realistic. The entire route is 1,450 kilometres long and the source of the Rhine is 2,345 metres above sea level so the chances of us riding the whole thing in one go are slim, to say the least. But who says we have to; there are no rules here. We could decide at any point that we have done enough then turn around to head down river for home (all downhill?) or else maybe jump on a train to travel back to our starting point. Hardly surprisingly, now that this crazy idea has entered our heads it will not go away and it has kick started the long process of planning: Where do we leave from? How do we get to the port of departure (something that was quite convoluted when we did it last year)? What time of year should we go? Do we need to learn to speak German?
Our tour of Holland last year began in Ijmuiden, the ferry port that serves Amsterdam, and our English port of departure was at North Shields, the mouth of the Tyne near Newcastle. Ferries for the Hook of Holland sail from Harwich in the south of England so Plan A involves us driving there carrying our bikes and making use of long term parking while we sail away on the ferry with just the bikes. Questions about how safe our van would be, left on its own whilst we are away, come to mind and the long drive to and from Harwich does not sound appealing but it could work nevertheless. Then suddenly another idea comes to mind. Why not start the 2026 tour as we did in 2025 by sailing to Ijmuiden from Newcastle then cycling down the Dutch coast from there to Rotterdam; Plan B. We talk this through with a dear friend who, amazingly, would be willing to transport us with our bikes from home to a train station so we can travel from there to Newcastle as we did before. This would relieve us of the burden of getting to our nearest station, some eighty miles away from home. In our minds we are transported back to the start of our 2025 tour, to the moment of our arrival in Holland, when within ten minutes of leaving the port we joined a beautiful fietspad (cycle path) that ran through wooded coastal sand dunes and we spent the whole day marvelling at the cycle friendly infrastructure that surrounded us. Plan B is beginning to look quite attractive. It is inevitable, of course, that there will be more versions to come and these will be documented fully, for those interested.
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