Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 582 total)
  • Tjs recovery ride 5. The low countries and France
  • tjagain
    Full Member

    I have had my R&R in Amsterdam stsying with my sis and hubby

    Ive plucked up the courage to head south. Bilbao is the destination. Another 5 weeks riding

    I can get a ferry from there back to the uk

    Aiming to set off again on Tuesday

    northshoreniall
    Full Member

    Woohoo, part 5.

    leffeboy
    Full Member

    Woohoo, part 5.

    Exactly.  It also appears to be somewhat of a long way and weather is set to be rather toasty next week

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    Ambrose
    Full Member

    Fancy joining us in Les Gets at the end of August?

    jodafett
    Full Member

    Arrrgghhhh

    tjagain
    Full Member

    😀

    tthew
    Full Member

    Wow, that is a long stretch! Love it TJ, looking forward to the updates.

    matt_outandabout
    Full Member

    Ace!
    Enjoy the ride tj, and thanks for this. I’m really enjoying the updates! (Mainly as I’m jealous, I can live vicariously!)

    Bruce
    Full Member

    Bonne voyage!
    (Not sure that’s spelt right)
    I am quite jealous I have always wanted to cycle to Spain.
    May be I will pluck up courage.

    tjagain
    Full Member

    I haven’t tracked miles on this ride but i must have done 1500 or more. Bilbao is another 1100.

    Im going to head down the coastline roughly. Eurovelo has a coastal route marked. The coast should be cooler as well.

    boblo
    Free Member

    Mrs Boblo and I did that Eurovelo 1 a couple of years ago on the tandem.

    It’s not hilly.

    It’ll be hot.

    It’s very family friendly; lots of cycle paths.

    It’s quite near (aka ‘in the middle’) of a lot of the recent fires.

    It goes through a nudist beach so that might suit you 😊

    South of Hendaye ‘the corniche’ is really beautiful.

    Enjoy.

    Watty
    Full Member

    Safe trip Teej. I’ve just put Amsterdam > Bilbao (cycling) into googly-maps, and it routes you through Paris 😂 Coastal route sounds a safer bet.

    molgrips
    Free Member

    Coastline? Presumably that means heading towards Normandy then cutting across to the Atlantic coast of France?

    boblo
    Free Member

    @molgrips That’s it. Eurovelo 1 goes from Roscoff to Hendaye or Brittany to Spanish border if you prefer. 👍

    matt_outandabout
    Full Member

    Eurovelo has a coastal route marked. The coast should be cooler as well

    It was v hilly through the Basque Country.

    It goes through a nudist beach so that might suit you 😊

    It appeared that *all* the beaches we visited on North coast were pretty free for all… 😳

    dangeourbrain
    Free Member

    a nudist beach

    were pretty

    Not often you hear those phrases together

    duncancallum
    Full Member

    You should go n see Chipps

    dangeourbrain
    Free Member

    a nudist beach

    were pretty

    You should go n see Chipps

    That took a dark turn

    ElShalimo
    Full Member

    Bonne chance et bonne courage

    slowol
    Full Member

    The Dutch do beach life and bars on the sand quite well (cycle paths taken for granted). About a mile S. of Europoort it becomes sand dunes and holiday places, flat but pretty and chilled with bars and beaches. San Sebastian to Santander was great (if hilly) when I rode it a long time ago as a student. Bit in between has ample wine and croissants. Enjoy the summer beach life 🏝️
    Sounds a great plan.

    dc1988
    Full Member

    There can’t be any complaints about hills for a while, but I predict they will be replaced by complaints about wind!

    thepurist
    Full Member

    complaints about wind!

    ample wine and croissants

    Looking highly likely 🙂

    dyna-ti
    Full Member

    Have I missed a section ?. It was Wales, now its suddenly mainland Europe 😕

    matt_outandabout
    Full Member

    Have I missed a section ?

    You will get to catch up when then make the budget Brit-film on Netflix of the journey.

    kayak23
    Full Member

    Excellent. A handy phrase for you.

    Je voudrais donner un coup de pied à votre chien dans la tête s’il vous plaît
    👍

    dangeourbrain
    Free Member

    donner

    Erm, saucisson surely? No one ever heard of a kebab dog

    tjagain
    Full Member

    🙄🤣

    matt_outandabout
    Full Member

    Je voudrais une tranche de ton cochon d’inde

    Hedgehopper
    Full Member

    Good luck! I’m inspired by your travels and it got me to researching routes and ferries etc. One thing I noticed when I had a brief look at the price of Bilbao to Portsmouth ferries this September is that there looks to be no bookings available for cycle passengers. I hope I’m wrong or you’ve already got a ticket because that might be a nasty sting in the tail of a long journey.

    tthew
    Full Member

    If that’s the case, I can highly recommend European train travel, although you need to check bike availability before rocking up at the station.

    tjagain
    Full Member

    There is a ferry from Santander to uk as well. I did spot that with Bilbao

    chickenman
    Full Member

    Bear in mind the forest fires that have devastated areas of Gascony, particularly in the Arcachon area. We had to upsticks, middle of the night in our van from somewhere near Bazas when we smelt the approaching forest fires. This was two weeks ago.

    aide
    Full Member

    YAY! Have been waiting on your next episode of travels TJ. Just wanted to come on and say how much I have enjoyed the previous threads (and putting faces to STWers). Happy travels, enjoy the continent

    matt_outandabout
    Full Member

    One thing I noticed when I had a brief look at the price of Bilbao to Portsmouth ferries this September is that there looks to be no bookings available for cycle passengers.

    We have just been on Santander/Plymouth ferry.
    You can’t currently book as pedestrian only. You can phone up or turn up as cyclist. One couple took bikes on their annual whale watching trip – so as not to pay for car – and did the return journey back to back just buy wheeling bikes on, off, back on and then off…

    tjagain
    Full Member

    All packed up for the off. Totally shitting myself. Hopefully it passes once im turning the pedals

    Heading for the coast this moning then down the coastal route

    Bazz
    Full Member

    Best of luck TJ, i’m sure you’ll have an awesome time.

    leffeboy
    Full Member

    Totally shitting myself

    That’s partly why we love this thread. If you had been ‘stoked’ it would be zero fun.   Hope the wind is behind you all day

    thestabiliser
    Free Member

    Bon voyage, the gravity of Belgian beer and frites may prove hard to escape

    nbt
    Full Member

    This sounds brilliant, apart from the camping bits – I like a nice comfortable B&B, me. Riding through Belgium is lovely, worth considering a trip to one of the WWII cemeteries on your way through – an awesome and sobering sight. We had a lovely trip round there staying int Ghent, Bruges and Ypres – all lovely, each in a different way. If you can overnight in Ypres and catch the Menin Gate ceremony at 8pm then I’d strongly suggest trying to do that, it’s quite overwhelming (they close the main road through while they play The Last Post. I fill up whenever I hear that so how I didn’t just collapse in a bucket of tears during the ceremony, I have no idea)

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