Fuelled by Stroopwafels, facilitated by WarmShowers

Today it's Monday, which means we've been going for a whole week! It's already been so fantastic and it feels like we're settling into a wonderful routine. 

We really enjoyed the rest of our cycle to catch the ferry at Harwich. Highlights included stopping at our old college, Girton, where we met many years ago!  The students looked so young and we reflected on how much time had passed since we'd studied there, and how we were only there for a short time; but what a fun and formative few years they were! At the time, we only ever cycled the two miles into Cambridge, and wouldn't have entertained the thought of multiple long days across Europe! Getting back up Castle Hill after a day of lectures seemed quite enough! 

We had another really great night's stay at our friends, Tom and Laura's new house, complete with lasagne and being loaded up with teabags to help us cope as we got into Europe.

Girton College with a heavy bike

After a few unexciting miles of cycling out of Cambridge along a busy and straight road, we were soon met with some of the nicest cycling of the trip so far, as we reached south Suffolk. It seemed pretty magical as the roads were so small and peaceful, with barely a car in sight! The scenery was beautiful too and we're definitely keen to return with bikes for further exploration.

Perfect weather in Suffolk 

It was somewhat anticlimactic to reach Harwich, despite our satisfaction at getting to the coast after our longest day on the bikes. The weather drew in and Harwich looked as tired as we felt! We cooked food on our stove in a another unassuming park, before heading to the ferry port. It was great fun seeing the pile of bikes grow as more and more cycle tourers pulled up. There was a range of bikes (including lots of ebikes) and people, and we listened with intrigue to snippets of conversation about their plans. Eventually we were given the green light to board the ferry, and with a rush of adrenaline, we set off with the others, as a rather rag-tag peloton, as we swooshed down the ramp onto the ferry. The ferry crossing was pretty smooth and we slept for the majority of it, awaking to the Netherlands in cloud. We were in mainland Europe.

Cycling onto the ferry with a gang!

Raring to go

A smooth transition at the border and a little bit of map checking later, and we were cycling through the Netherlands! We'd had plans to follow the coastal path, but despite being incredibly flat, there was a brutal headwind and we struggled to maintain any forward momentum. After a sad breakfast (running out of gas when cooking porridge and making do with a tepid milky oaty drink) we headed inland to a utopia of cycling infrastructure! It took a little while to get used to the segregated bike lines; they're absolutely fantastic, but working out where you give way, and which directions to look was a little tricky initially!

We found this stretch of the Netherlands to be a mix of rural and urban, with a sprawl of nice houses, and huge agricultural fields. Some of the cycling was a little mundane, and we looked forward to reaching Amsterdam. We treated ourselves to some lovely apple strudel and enjoyed the historic buildings and canals on our arrival.

The next morning, we headed to Parkrun! As seems inevitable for every Parkrun we've ever done, we regretted not leaving just a few minutes earlier, and had a much quicker cycle than we're now used to, getting to the startline. It was bizarre cycling our bikes without the panniers - they were so nippy and the handling was so twitchy! I think we've got used to them as being our trusty tanks. Parkrun itself was lovely- a one lap course through Bos park; though it was funny how British it all was. I don't think we've met any Dutch people that have heard of Parkrun!

Classic Parkrun scenes at Amsterdam Bos 

We stayed with another fantastic WarmShowers host, just outside of Amsterdam, and we are absolutely loving this aspect of our trip! Despite having other friends visiting from France, we were invited to join their delicious meal, with everyone kindly speaking in English so we could be included. The great thing about WarmShowers (or at least, our experience so far) is you turn up with no expectations, and immediately get offered a beer and shown around. It's fantastic meeting locals and seeing inside some of the houses that we'd have otherwise cycled past. After spending all day as a two, with it sometimes being tricky to chat on bikes, it's lovely to have some fresh views and perspectives and hear about different life experiences. It's also incredibly helpful for tips on route plotting and we were  joined yesterday morning by our hosts who accompanied us to a wonderful forest with some lovely singletrack gravel. We think we'll try and stay at more WarmShowers as they've been such an enriching part of the trip so far.

Being welcomed at a WarmShowers host

Being accompanied to some lovely forest riding 

After a couple more days of cycling through the Netherlands, enjoying stroopwafels, sunshine, and expansive landscapes, we joined the Rhine River, picking up the Eurovelo 15 route. 

Hello Rhine!

One week in and we've made it to Germany, and are currently staying in a lovely town, Kalkar. It's got beautiful brick streets, lovely old churches and generally seems so clean! It seems a really nice size too, and after passing through some busier cities, it seems very calm here.

Town Square at Kalkar

Our progress so far

We're currently doing around 100k a day. One of our hosts said you want to be feeling a little stronger each day, rather than weaker. We think this has mostly been the case, but I think we're finding the last 10% of our rides a little tiring, so will try and do some shorter days, with more time off the bike. We are loving the pace of life, and the lack of things on our mental to-do lists! It's mainly enjoying the ride, planning the next day or so of accommodation and lots of Supermarkets! So wonderfully simple.