Holland by bike - 1

By the time you are reading this post our leg muscles will have strengthened, the soreness in our bottoms will have eased and our faces will be tanned from exposure to the wind and sun. Riding on the right will have become second nature to us, looking to the left first when crossing a road will have become automatic, we will have learnt some essential Dutch words and we will be feeling confident about deciding to go on this big adventure. But let us backtrack a little to summarise the days leading up to our arrival on Dutch soil.

After weeks of dry days, so many that the smoke from local wildfires can be seen from the windows at home, there is a sudden change in the weather. It is significantly cooler and the rain showers seem to arrive from nowhere just as we are preparing to leave home for the first leg of our journey to the ferry terminal in Newcastle. We realise that we must dress in warm clothes, ones that we might have thought would be packed away in our panniers, and keep our waterproof outer layers handy for the next rain shower. The journey to Newcastle is complex since it involves catching two ferries, three trains and cycling up a very big hill. The final train journey is the one that whizzes us to the centre of Newcastle and from here we have a nice bike ride along the banks of the River Tyne towards the ship that will carry us across the North Sea to Holland. What can possibly go wrong.

By mid afternoon on the day of departure our panniers were loaded with everything from our checklists and the bikes themselves are lashed to the rack on back of our van as this is our strategy to avoid cycling along the dangerously busy main road. By the time we board ferry No.1, crossing Kilbrannan Sound to the Isle of Arran, we are both exhausted.

The stress of  weeks of preparation is taking its toll but despite a minor unpredicted setback (the absence of a bus service I could use to return to the ferry after taking our van back home) the sun is shining and here we are walking on board.

Our first night away from home was uneventful and the cycle ride to Brodick the following day passed smoothly, despite the massive mountain we had to climb over. 

Once in sight of Brodick the local seals waved their tails at us as we rode by, which was nice, then ferry No.2 took us to Troon where train No.1 scooted us off to night No.2 in Glasgow's youth hostel. This turned out to be a sleepless night thanks to a squadron of noisy young ladies in the adjoining room but we arose early and tried to exact payback by making as much noise as we could before cycling to the station for train No.2 to Edinburgh.

Whilst waiting for this a pigeon seemed very interested in our bikes but we were soon on train No.3 which took us south to Newcastle. Here we joined the Hadrian's Way cycle path along the River Tyne which led us to the ferry terminal although again, a slight unpredicted difficulty arose when the path's signage went awry close to the port. Thankfully this did not prevent us from boarding the ship on time and after an excellent meal on board we bedded down for the night.

There really is little more to say about the journey to Holland. Soon after having breakfast on board we found ourselves deep in the bowels of the ship where we loaded our panniers then walked the bikes off the ship. The customs official seemed pleased to see us and waved us away from the Ijmuiden terminal onto our first Dutch road. Not that we needed roads for long, for just around the corner my pre-planned route would direct us onto a wide, smooth-surfaced cycle path which meandered through a National Park. We could not have asked for more.