“What’s the time?” I asked Pete, after waking up and seeing
it was light.
“7am” he replied.
Fantastic. Another
good night’s sleep so up we got to hit the solitary shower before any of the
other campers woke up. Once Pete had
washed the sleep out of his eyes we discovered it had actually only been 6am
when we woke up. Never mind, meant we
were on the road by 8am after our pathetic showers (glad we didn’t have to pay
extra for those!), a pre-breakfast snack of a cup of tea and a cheese bun, as
well as managing to dry the tent off to some degree.
 |
| Typical house and garden on this morning's ride |
This morning’s cycling was nothing less than idyllic. First off we had sunshine – a bit of a rarity
lately. But we also had a lovely cycle
track running alongside a small canal with houses either side and the most
beautifully tended gardens. We took a
few photos but I don’t know if a few photos could do this area justice. This was km after km of properties that
looked like they had come straight off the pages of a fairy story. I imagine you would have to go through some
sort of vigorous vetting process by a stern committee who would thoroughly
check your gardening credentials before you would be allowed to buy a property
here. Bart, you wouldn’t make the
grade. Yes you can grow raspberries, but
while they grow, they have to look good.
All leaning to the same angle and the raspberries spread evenly along
each stalk. No over-ripe fruit would be
allowed in this setting. I think
Christine would make the grade but Pete and I sure wouldn’t!
There was virtually no traffic on this cycle lane and as
well as the flowers we had goats sharing a meadow with swans, a peacock
strutting on the immaculate front lawn of a small cottage, we had a big brown
eyed puppy sitting obediently by the canal, probably with murderous intentions
towards the ducklings floating past, but none of this was revealed on his
angelic face. We had geese and ducks,
spotted sheep and black sheep with curled horns, herons and moorhens. And because we were cycling in between
houses, no wind! And because we’re in
Holland, it was all flat. Just
lovely. To top it off we found an
idyllic setting to have our actual breakfast while we spread out the tent, fly
and groundsheet to dry in the sun.
 |
| Idyllic breakfast spot |
We had just guessed our way when we left the campground this
morning, using the compass, so when we emerged into a town we were curious to
know how far we were from Rotterdam and in which direction we should go. Straight off we found a sign saying
‘Rotterdam – 28 km’ and it was only 10.30am.
So we stuck to the main road which took us alongside a grid of canals
and fields with a lot of waterbirds to keep us distracted. Found our way easily to Rotterdam Railway
Station where I managed to buy a map from Tourist Info at one sixth of it’s
normal price because it was torn, but we didn’t really need it as the way to
Hoek of Holland was well-signposted. But
we just didn’t want to risk getting lost and not making the ferry.
Took a few photos of the inner city before starting the 30
km trek out to Hoek of Holland.
 |
| Schiedam |
Took a
few diversions around Schiedam, which we’re glad we did as it was a lovely
little town built on a canal. Not long
after that we found a park bench and table where we had our lunch and then kept
cruising along the cycle track in a westerly direction.
 |
| Lunch stop |
Apart from being blown about when we were in
exposed areas, it was a really nice ride with lots of typical Dutch houses,
windmills and bridges. We also took a
few photos in the town of Maassluis which was a vibrant little fishing harbour
town.
We arrived at the Hoek of Holland about 4.30pm and went
straight to Stena Lines to book our passage for the 10.00pm ferry. That done (175 Euro!), we went into town to
see if we could find a Macca’s for some free wifi, but no luck. So we went to the supermarket and bought a
At 7pm we cycled down to the boarding queue which was
already boarding very efficiently. We
got through passport control easily and cycled down to wait behind the queue of
cars to board the ship, glad it wasn’t raining.
 |
| Maassluis |
 |
| Waiting for a boat to pass through on the canal so we cyclists can get back to touring. |
 |
| An interesting block of apartments on the ride to the Hoek |
We stopped behind some motorcyclists who encouraged us to go to the
front of the queue. We could see other
cyclists by the back of the ship so we went to the front of the queue and
walked our bike over to where they were.
Nobody seemed to mind – in fact the boarding official seemed pleased we
had taken the initiative so he didn’t have to cycle over to us to tell us what
to do. Tied our bikes up then had a bit
of fun trying to find our way out of the stairwell onto the actual ship but
eventually figured it out. Found our
room with a bunk bed and a couch, a toilet and shower and numerous power points
– yippee!! Unloaded our contraband from
the supermarket and immediately checked to see if we have wifi in our room –
which we don’t. So then we went for a
walk around the ship, trying to find wifi. To catch the 9.10am ferry tomorrow from
Harwich to Felixstowe, we have to give them twelve hours notice. So we need to get that done and upload the
blog as well as find directions to my Auntie Mary’s place in Halesworth,
Suffolk, not to mention letting her know exactly when we’re coming!
No comments:
Post a Comment