Fyne Tyne to Rhine - 3

By day three of our cycling adventure we decided that we required a pause, a day with no cycling at all, to let our bodies recover.

To do this we booked a two night hotel stay in Rotterdam, a difficult thing to do online when an important requirement for us was to have secure bike storage, not something that is generally publicised as a feature. Our random choice turned out to be in an industrial area close to Rotterdam's ring road, comfortable enough but lacking easy access to the city or even easy walking to find a place to eat after we had exhausted the single vegetarian option on the hotel restaurant menu. It did, however, enable us to meet up with Maartje, our 'Dutch daughter', who we have known since she was very young, and we were delighted to see her again. She picked us up in her car and took us for lunch to a place we would never have found without her. 

So how do we navigate our way around this amazingly cycle friendly country? How do we find a route which takes us to our destination following cycle paths (fietspads) rather than roads with cars roaring along them? The answer to this lies in the powerful technologies packed inside a modern day mobile phone which links to mapping services such as Google. These apps allow one to select cycling as a means of travel so that the offered routing shifts to something cycle friendly. The phone itself knows where it is and which direction we are moving (global positioning satellite technology) so it can display a map with pointers indicating the next section of the route. Then there is verbal guidance as well, we get an American accented woman's voice, which warns of approaching changes of direction although this can often add confusion if it conflicts with what is shown on the screen. It is often simpler to mute the voice.

Naturally all this clever stuff only works if the phone screen can be seen from the riding position and so long as one can hear the voice instructions clearly above all the wind noises and the rumble of traffic coming from the environment we are moving through. On my bike crossbar I have a waterproof phone case which I can glance down at and the voice instructions can be sent to my hearing aids via a Bluetooth connection if I want them. The system is not perfect and it can be very confusing in a busy city environment when there will be many twists and turns, roundabouts and crossroads, pedestrians with young children, not to mention the speeding electric bikes coming from behind to overtake without warning. All across Holland there are several different cycle path signposting schemes and these can be used outside of the cities when the riding is more relaxed and it is easier to stop and check you are still en route.

Dutch roads rely heavily upon painted markings on the road itself to show motorists and cyclists where to go and who has priority at every crossing point and these are generally well maintained. A shot from our hotel window illustrates this. Thankfully Dutch drivers are familiar with these markings and generally obey the rules, particularly when it comes to watching out for cyclists - they must know that 'it could be me' on the bike.

Our next day of riding took us out of Rotterdam's busy heart, a place we were glad to have survived safely. The weather seemed to have improved a little although it was still quite cool and it had some rain in store for us as we neared our next destination.

The route bridged across several wide waterways but in the main we were riding on cycle paths alongside wide motorways which were heaving with traffic all day, despite it being a Sunday. The constant noise from this was quite wearing and there was another unexpected hazard... sheep on our path grazing the grass beside the track and leaving their droppings everywhere as they wondered about. Strangely sheep do not react at all to a bike passing them. It is only when we humans stop and dismount that they realise what we are and they will then run away.

Our overnight accomodation this time was at the end of a garden in a perfectly appointed hideaway, a place where we slept well after a meal out with the parents of our 'Dutch daughter'. And we needed our rest since the next day was a big one, the day we would finally arrive alongside our prime target for this holiday, the Rhine river.

This picture hardly does it justice since the land is still very flat and the ships moving along the waterway are almost invisible as they are low above the water so that they can pass beneath the bridges. This is an important thoroughfare for moving goods right across Europe and it carries massive cargoes in both directions. Our plan now was to follow its course upstream for as long as we fancied.

This part of the Rhine is bordered by dykes on each side on top of which was a smooth fietspad designed specially for us. It gave us views across the river and every so often there was a seat with an information board telling us all about the area we are in and often supported by an artwork of some kind. It was relaxing riding, almost effortless with no worries about getting lost, no conflict with cars with decisions to make about who has priority because there were only cyclists on the path. All we had to do was pedal on and pause when we needed a rest or to eat one of the snacks we carry with us. We were tired when we arrived at our next Vrienden's house in Nijmegen and ready for our night's rest, this time at the top of a tall building, part of a community complex close to the river.