Holland - Part 2

HOLLAND - PART 2

To the German Border

From Amsterdam to Assen - Monday 22nd - Wednesday 24th May

 

I found my way out of Amsterdam and started to cycle NE towards the German border through the reclaimed Polders, often below sea level. As I went through agricultural landscapes with moody skies I thought about The Hague School of painters whose work I had seen in the Rijksmuseum, they painted Dutch landscapes and rural life in the late 1800s. They were originally known as the Grey School because of their sombre colours. 

 

I  stopped for the night at Lelystad, which sits on the seabed of the former Zuiderzee where until 1967 the only inhabitants were engineers and construction workers reclaiming the land from the Zee. Today it is a modern town, on a polder below sea level, with some very colourful and original architecture. This is a view of the town as I approached it.

 

I crossed into Noordoost Polder and continued NE for another two days, riding along side canals, crossing over bridges etc all on well marked cycle routes.  As I got further East there were some very expensive looking houses, hotels and campsites with large motor homes. This is a popular tourist area for Dutch and Germans, but I was told that not many English get to this part of Holland.

 

 As I have already said,the cycle routes are fabulous. At one point when they were felling some trees by the path I was directed onto the road where I cycled facing   the oncoming traffic, which had been stopped so that I had the road to myself. This would never happen at home. 

 

That night I found accommodation in a converted thatched barn at a farmhouse near Assen, the home of the Dutch TT. My deal for the room included an evening meal. There was no choice, but she said, "I will cook you something nice, " and she certainly did. It was great to have some good home cooked food. The breakfast was also excellent and I was reluctant to leave. 

Last Full Day Cycling in Holland - Thursday 25th May

Public Holiday (Ascension Day)

 

Once again Lucy got into the swing of a country when we are almost about to leave. She was very relaxed and like me she was reluctant to get pedalling. She sat outside our barn in the sunshine leaving me to pack the bike. All day long she wanted to stop and enjoy the public holiday.

 

When I stopped to take a photo I found her sitting in my helmet. She wanted to stay by the lake and rest. Then, when we reached our destination at a Yoga Centre near Bourtange, she sat in their beautiful garden and indulged in Koffie und cake.

 

A Day in Bourtange - Friday 26th May

 

Bourtange is a border fortress built in 1593 to protect the border between Holland and Germany. As the postcard above shows, the complex forms the shape of a star surrounded by banks and ditches filled with water. It has been totally rebuilt and is now an open air museum town. The photo below shows one of the points of the star.

 The weather was glorious, so I  spent the day exploring and sitting in one of the bars in the central square. Lucy wandered off to do some shopping and bought a pair of clogs. She wanted red ones, but they hadn't got any in her size.

 

There was a very interesting exhibition about the life of Dr Aletta Jacobs, who was the first female doctor in Holland. She was also a political activist, President of the Association for Women's Suffrage, a writer and campaigner who travelled the world giving lectures. She also found time to cycle and toured England by bicycle.

Tomorrow I will cycle my last five km in Holland to cross into Germany. 

The Netherlands

HOLLAND - PART 1

Two Days to Amsterdam -  Thursday & Friday 18th & 19th May

 

Lucy was still sitting up looking out of the port hole when we arrived at  Hoek van Holland. She was very excited as this is her first time out of the UK. After we docked it was easy to find the cycle path (The Noordzee Fietspad) that would take us North following the coast through Den Haag and on to Amsterdam. 

 

While we were on the ferry leaving England behind us, Nathan was on a plane flying back from visiting the family and his new grandson, Alex, in Australia. I was tracking his planes on my phone and when I stopped for a picnic lunch amongst the sand dunes, I saw that he was almost overhead. 

 

I stopped for the night at the seaside town of Noordwijk  and in the morning there was a strong wind so I had to hold Lucy's hand to stop her blowing away when she went to look at the rough, wild sea. 

By the second day I had got used to riding on the right hand side of the road again. The last long trip I did was in 1994, although I also did the 3 day hospice ride to Paris in 2014. I am really enjoying riding on the fabulous Dutch cycle paths which take you on well marked routes away from the traffic. Fabulous. There are hundreds of people of all ages riding a wonderful selection of cycles. It is just so good to see.

 

At one point there were several deer and later a fox was standing in the middle of the cycle path and was reluctant to move and let me through. The cycle path led me straight to the hotel in Amsterdam. Brilliant. At one point I thought, "Those are strange flowers at the back of the flower bed". Then it dawned on me that they were parked bicycles.

 

 A weekend in Amsterdam - 20th & 21st May

 

I bought a two day travel pass which was brilliant as I could hop on and off buses and the tram, and also use the train to get into the centre. I spent my first day getting a feel for the city and soaking up the atmosphere. I went to Mass in St Nicolaskerk, sat in cafes and bars, strolled around the streets and canals, visited the Oude Kerk, stumbled upon a Brompton Pop-Up shop and finished up in Cafe Saarein. It was a brilliant day. As usual Lucy took a while to adjust to a new place and didn't make many appearances.

 The 800 year Oude Kerk is Amsterdam's oldest building and the roof  has the largest medieval wooden vault in Europe. At one time there were 39  altars belonging to different guilds, each with their own priest, pulpit and pews. There are about 2,500 graves under the floor of the church each marked with a floor plaque.

 

Saskia van Uylenburg, Rembrandt’s  wife is among those buried there, but when I visited you were unable to see many of the tombs because the whole floor was covered with yellow thermal blankets.

 

Lucy was very puzzled by these as she had read about some of the people buried there and wanted to find them. The blankets formed part of an art installation by  Sarah van Sonsbeeck. She has used the blankets to to focus on their use as rescue blankets for refugees, to protect those buried beneath them in the church, and to symbolise the fact that the Oude Kerk originally offered protection and shelter.

 

The Brompton shop was interesting and had a huge stock of  Bromptons, including a brightly coloured special for Amsterdam. They are trying to launch them onto the Dutch market. I finished my day chatting to several people at cafe Saarein, an original brown cafe, that is now mainly a woman's bar.

 

 

I made a very leisurely start on Sunday and then spent the rest of the day in the Rijksmuseum, the National Museum devoted to Dutch history and art. It was great to see the actual paintings of works that I knew about such as Rembrandt's 'The Night Watch'. I also loved the gallery devoted to Holland's seafaring history, the Hague School of painters, the stained glass section, and the modern art gallery. (I will write more about The Hague School in the next blog that I post.) 

 

Willems Van der Velde's pen and ink drawings on canvass were fascinating. He drew in the 1600s and depicted different naval battles. I can't imagine how long it took to draw on such large canvasses, they are huge. Below is one of the stained glass windows showing Nebuchadnezzar eating grass among the cows. (c.1560)

 

Once again I finished the day in Cafe Saarein where the woman behind the bar gave  me a couple of free pilsners. As usual, I will donate the equivalent price to my Hospice Charity Appeal page in memory of Ann. The fund now stands at well over £1 for every mile Lucy and I have cycled. 

www.birminghamhospice.org/fundraisers/susan-thorne 

Before I left home I visited the hospice 'Forget Me Not' installation in Brindley Place where Lucy sat by her flower and thought about Ann. 

 

East Anglia

STAGE 1 - EAST ANGLIA

Cambridge - 17th May

 

While she was on the train to Cambridge to start her Grand Tour Lucy spent the time reading about Denmark and Viking settlements in East Anglia. She discovered that Cambridge became an important trading centre under Viking rule. She also read that  Denmark's first female Prime Minister, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, is Neil Kinnock's daughter in law.

Bury St Edmunds  - 14th & 15th May

 

After a relaxing evening in Cambridge I followed cycle route 51 to Bury St Edmunds. This took me out of Cambridge along the banks of the Cam and then on off- road cycle paths and quiet country lanes. I stopped for lunch in New Market which, as the town sign said, is the historic centre of British horse racing. When I arrived in Bury, Lucy spotted the Greene King brewery, she knows that I drink Abbott so she leapt out of the pannier for a photograph. 

 

As I am taking it fairly easy while I cycle my way back to cycling fitness, I decided to stay another night in Bury and Lucy learned about Viking  activity in the area. The Vikings who settled in East Anglia were mainly from Denmark and in 869/70 they defeated and beheaded King Edmund at the battle of Hoxne. The legend goes that while his followers were looking for his head  they heard it cry "Here!, Here!" Guided by the voice, they found it nestling between the paws of a wolf. Edmund became a Saint, he was the patron Saint of England before St George, the abbey was built around his shrine and he gave his name to the town.

 

In the afternoon I went on a tour of the Greene King Brewey, the largest independent brewer of cask ales in the country. They brew 4 of the top selling cask ales and also a lot of speciality ales. The latter are brewed in the original Georgian and Victorian vats. There was a tasting session after the tour with 7 different beers to sample. I stayed chatting to a couple of Canadians and the guide. He found out that I was an Abbott drinker and during the conversation poured me 4 or 5 free glasses. (not pints, but big enough). It was a good session. 

On to the ferry - Tuesday & Wednesday 16th & 17th May

 

I continued on towards the ferry via Lavenham, Colchester and Manningtree. The ancient buildings in Lavenham, pictured above, have been extensively restored since I was there in the 1960s and 70s and it was like walking around a film set. The town prospered from the wool trade and in the late 1500s it was one of the wealthiest towns in Britain, and from the look of it, it might be again.

 

I followed the Stour estuary from Manningtree, a route that I had previously cycled in 2015 when cycling around the coast. While having lunch in Manningtree . I realised that most places seem to include at least one superlative in their description. So far I have visited the town with the first internally illuminated street sign (Bury St Edmunds), Britain's first City with the oldest surviving Roman gateway (Colchester) one of the richest towns (Lavenham) and  the  smallest town in England with the oldest Methodist church in Essex (Colchester). 

 

Lucy sat for a while and looked at the sea in Harwich, but she was anxious to get to the ferry port so I had a meal and cycled the last two or three miles to the boat. By this time it was raining hard, the first of the trip  and I was cold and wet when I got on board. Luckily I had a cabin upgrade as part of my ticket deal so I was able to shower and get warm before we sailed. Lucy loved it and sat up all night looking out of the very large port hole.

 

The Countdown Begins

THE COUNTDOWN BEGINS 

Five Weeks to Go - 5th April 2017

 

Lucy is getting ready for her new adventure but she has started to panic as she hopes to set out in five weeks time and there is still a lot of planning to do. Also she needs to start training and get fit enough to cycle again. 

New Tent and Sleeping Bag - Four weeks to Go

 

 Lucy is very excited about the new tent which we pitched in Dave's garden and she insisted on sleeping in it last night. The tent and sleeping mat are a fraction of the weight of the old ones, and designed for Nordic climates. The bag for the mat also doubles as a sleeping bag for Lucy. She loves it.

Major Problem - Three Weeks to Go - 19th April

 

A crack was discovered in the weld between the top tube and the head and further examination found damage to the forks caused by the bearings. We realised that it was probably still covered by the warranty as it is only just over 3 years old. Evans Cycles in Birmingham were brilliant and contacted Dawes and arranged everything for me. They stripped the bike and stored all the parts before sending the frame and forks off to Dawes. So it was just a mater of waiting to see if it would be fixed in time.

Two Weeks to Go 

 

Still no bike and I I was beginning to panic a bit, but Lucy remained calm and optimistic. She continued to plan, read the guide books and learn Danish. It is amazing how fluent she has become. 

Is it all off? - One Week to Go - Saturday 6th May

I had a message from Evans to say that Dawes wouldn't be able to get the new forks until 17th May, the day that I should be getting the ferry to Holland. Piers at Evans said that he would contact Dawes and stress how important it was to get me on the road in time. So again it was fingers crossed and wait to see what happened.

Result - Two Days to Go - Thursday 11th May

 

The email did the trick, Dawes came up trumps and got the frame and forks back to Evans who reassembled it to my spec with new transmission, block, chain, chain wheel, cranks, head set and brake disks. So I now have a smart new bike which rides beautifully but feels just like the old one. Thank you so much Dawes, Piers, James and everyone else at Evans, I am so grateful for everything you did to get me riding again.

Packing - One day to Go - Friday 12th May

 

 

So it was all on again and I spent the day sorting things and packing. Lucy made herself a Viking helmet and shield and was a bit put out when I said that there wasn't enough room for all her guide books, but thought she would need her Shetland jumper as it might be cold where we are going.

The adventure begins - Saturday 13th May

 

 

I cycled into Birmingham where Dave met me for breakfast then I went to get the train to Cambridge to start the first leg of Lucy's Grand Viking Tour. Details of this leg in East Anglia will follow shortly.