Category: Cycle Tours

Thursday 14 June 2018 Following our issues with the battery charger yesterday I sent an email to Velomobiel.nl asking them to send a replacement charger to Alex in Rotterdam (we would be seeing him on Sunday). They said that was no problem but I was still a bit nervous (don’t know how reliable the Dutch… Continue reading NL2018 Day 6: Harlingen to Egmond

Wednesday 13 June 2018 Here was our planned track for the day: We had a good night’s sleep in our caravan but the washing that had been hanging in the bathroom had not dried unfortunately. I put my items in a plastic bag to try to dry them this evening, Klaus put his wet clothes… Continue reading NL2018 Day 5: Groningen to Harlingen

Tuesday 12 June 2018 Here was our planned track for the day: But first, a couple of things I forgot to mention in my blog yesterday. We were lucky enough to see a stork flying overhead as we were on our way to Nordhorn. On our ride today we saw a pole with a stork… Continue reading NL2018 Day 4: Hardenberg to Groningen

Monday 11 June 2018 This was our planned route for the day: But we actually ended up doing this route: As you can see, the route changed to pass south of Enschede (route supplied by Gert) and then we did a unplanned diversion to Nordhorn in Germany. We didn’t sleep brilliantly despite our lovely accommodation… Continue reading NL2018 Day 3: Haaksbergen to Hardenberg

Sunday 10 June 2018 This was our planned route for the day: In fact, even before we set off from Kempen we had adjusted today’s route slightly. This is because cycling chum Gert who lives near Haarksbergen told us that there were roadworks and road closures and sent us an alternative track; this was 2km… Continue reading NL2018 Day 2: Nijmegen to Haaksbergen

Saturday 9 June 2018. Here was our planned route for the day: I had spent quite a while planning this tour, including the track (using suggestions from Dutch friends Roef and Alex) and where we would stay overnight (a mixture of Hotels/B&Bs and Vrienden op de Fiets). The accommodation proved not so easy at times.… Continue reading NL2018 Day 1: Kempen to Nijmegen

Day 3 of the second tour. We had another good night’s sleep at the Vrienden op de fiets house in Roermond and were treated to a very good breakfast. The bikes had spent the night safely in the garden. Our hosts had to leave at 10am so we said goodbye to them at 9:30 and… Continue reading Rhein-Waal-Maas Day 6: Roermond to Kempen

The second day of our second mini-tour. We slept well and as agreed went down for breakfast at 8 o’clock. Anke had provided us a very good spread of breakfast items. She talked to us a little about some of the cycle tours she had done. Anke had to leave at 9 so we were… Continue reading Rhein-Waal-Maas Day 5: Maastricht to Roermond

And so the second part of our Tour began! We had two days at home after the first three touring days, during which we washed our cycling gear and I collected Millie from friend Ralf’s where she had been staying. My initial feeling when riding Millie was “wow, she is so easy and fast!” and… Continue reading Rhein-Waal-Maas Day 4: Kempen to Maastricht

Day 3 of the tour Despite being on holiday I still woke up at 6 am. Oh well, it gave me a chance for a cup of tea and some reading. Our plan this morning was to go to Roef’s for breakfast when he told us he was ready (he had to work a little… Continue reading Rhein-Waal-Maas Day 3: Nijmegen to Kempen

Day 2 of the tour, and another freezing one! We slept really well and enjoyed a very leisurely breakfast in the morning. The day dawned with clear blue skies but it was still very windy and cold. We got our bikes out of the garage and then I checked my seat as I had heard… Continue reading Rhein-Waal-Maas Day 2: Rees am Rhein to Nijmegen

Day 1 of the Tour We had seen the weather forecast and consequently planned a short day (under 60km) for today. My original route had been less direct and 20km more but with lots of snow and ice yesterday, and continuing light snow this morning meant we definitely wanted to limit the distance. It was… Continue reading Rhein-Waal-Maas Day 1: Kempen to Rees am Rhein

On the first weekend in August Klaus and I decided to do a short cycle tour, which ended up having the theme of ‘3’ 3 Days 3 Cities 3 Countries 3 Wheels 300 kilometres The Wednesday before we realised that we had the weekend free of appointments and so thought it would be good to… Continue reading 3 Days, 3 Cities, 3 Countries Tour

Our last day of the tour! This was our planned route, except we would be starting 8km east of Rheine so the total distance would be 152km. The forecast for today was a bit cloudy but otherwise dry. We truly have been incredibly lucky with the weather on this tour! As you can see from… Continue reading Kempen-Usedom-Berlin-Kempen Day 15: Rheine to Kempen

Today was our penultimate day of the tour and the first where the weather forecast suggested some rain might appear. In fact we had rain for one minute over the whole day so our luck held! After a good breakfast we were ready to leave at 08:30, heading out of Steinhude and towards Wunstorf. Here… Continue reading Kempen-Usedom-Berlin-Kempen Day 14: Steinhude to Rheine

Today was a tough one, in fact the only really tough day of the Tour so far. It was not the longest day, we ended up with 133km (the longest day was 156km) It did not have the most climbing, we ended up with 305 metres (the most climbing was 598) It was not on… Continue reading Kempen-Usedom-Berlin-Kempen Day 13: Grafhorst to Steinhude

As suspected, the noise of cars on cobbles outside our room last night was a bit loud so we closed the window and then it was OK. Our experience of Brandenburg is that it is a lovely town but really spoiled by all the cars. And cobbles may slow cars down but they are very… Continue reading Kempen-Usedom-Berlin-Kempen Day 12: Brandenburg an der Havel to Grafhorst

We were super-early out of the door this morning, checking out at 7am. This was to give us time to cycle to Alt-Moabit for breakfast. We had to pay 8€ per night for our Velomobile parking in the Tiefgarage. To leave the garage we had to pull on a rope thingy but it was a… Continue reading Kempen-Usedom-Berlin-Kempen Day 11: Berlin-Spandau to Brandenburg an der Havel

Today is a special day – 200 years since the invention of the bicycle (and in Mannheim where Klaus was born). And to celebrate… we didn’t cycle at all!! Despite being on our rest day we still woke up at 06:30, having settled very much into the routine of cycle touring. Breakfast in our hotel… Continue reading Kempen-Usedom-Berlin-Kempen Day 10: Rest day in Berlin

Another good night’s sleep and then we went down to breakfast, where there was once again a great choice. The croissants were particularly tasty.  After breakfast we paid the bill and then fetched the Velomobiles from the garage. Whilst we were installing our luggage a lady with child came to speak to us. Her accent… Continue reading Kempen-Usedom-Berlin-Kempen Day 9: Waldsee to Berlin-Spandau