The trip officially started last night when we boarded the ferry at 6pm, the cabins were pretty basic so we dropped the bags off and hit the bar (to use up the last of our sterling). After five pints we thought it would be agood idea to call it a night.
We arrived in Rotterdam at about 8am local time. First impressions of Holland - Flat, friendly and frankly rather lovely. Networks of cycling lanes hug the roads so 99% of the cycling we did today was using these excellent facilities. We didn't have a target mileage or any particular route planned, just to stay away from the cities.
The morning few by, the bike felt great and it was easy miles. The wind picked up in the afternoon so it was a bit more of a challenge. We did also get lost and ended up in Dordrecht after we hit a moterway, the map just isn't detailed enough to navigate through a city so we were struggling to get back en route to find a campsite. At this point it was 4pm and we had cycled 45 miles, we assessed our options and felt it best to find a hotel and escape the possibility of roughing it on the first night. The one we found was posher than we wanted, but we checked in and cooked some pasta on our gas cooker!
So lesson learnt - do some basic planning. But a good start to the trip!
We arrived in Rotterdam at about 8am local time. First impressions of Holland - Flat, friendly and frankly rather lovely. Networks of cycling lanes hug the roads so 99% of the cycling we did today was using these excellent facilities. We didn't have a target mileage or any particular route planned, just to stay away from the cities.
The morning few by, the bike felt great and it was easy miles. The wind picked up in the afternoon so it was a bit more of a challenge. We did also get lost and ended up in Dordrecht after we hit a moterway, the map just isn't detailed enough to navigate through a city so we were struggling to get back en route to find a campsite. At this point it was 4pm and we had cycled 45 miles, we assessed our options and felt it best to find a hotel and escape the possibility of roughing it on the first night. The one we found was posher than we wanted, but we checked in and cooked some pasta on our gas cooker!
So lesson learnt - do some basic planning. But a good start to the trip!
