Its been over 2 years since we stashed our bikes in a garage in London, we dusted off the cobwebs and mountains of leaves and managed to ride them down to Fettle bike servicing in Putney. Unbelievably they managed to give them a full strip down and returned to us as good as new in 4 days, even tricky parts were sourced.This gave us 2 days to do some trial check out rides , one to Richmond park which if youd substituted the deer for kangaroos would be just like Oz the grass was brown.London has turned into a super cycle friendly city , you no longer have to look out for cars its other cyclists tearing past.

Tuesday we left our airbnb and set off for liverpool St station.Past the houses of parliament cyclists are channelled into the middle of the roundabout you have to join the throngs of cyclists and holding your breathe somehow get around to the other side surrounded by cars.The delights of london cycling included a whole wide tunnel just to ourselves and historic Threadneedle st only is for cyclists now.We arrived at liverpool st station to see big signs on departure board all bicycles must haveva reservation….We had tickets to Harwich Station but our bikes didnt.Fortune was on our side we got the last 2 bike reservations for our train. Only 6 bikes per train and even a mid morning train had its full quota of bikes on it!

So a pleasant afternoon perusing the sights of Harwich and a great pub lunch, at the alma arms a snooze by the beach and an afternoon at the harwich museum well entertained by the ladies there and cheapest afternoon tea we’d yet had in Uk.

Down to the ferry with a few hours to wait but plenty of entertainment chatting to other touring cyclists. One Martin from Belgium had just covered 1200kms in 2 weeks , impressive maybe Id have legs like him if I upped the speed…

At last it was time to board Tim and I were stupidly at the front of the queue of cyclists waiting to board. It was past my bedtime and i had to speed up this massive ramp so as not to get overtaken by the 18 cyclists behind us.Mick who had joined us on our Danube trip had met up with us at the ferry but sensibly had now a very nice ebike. Wise..

Soon we were fast asleep soothed by the gentle rock of the sea.Rude awaking by the tannoy, we had lost an hour aswell going to Europe so no time for breakfast so had to quickly pack our panniers and head down to our bikes.

Holland gave us a drizzly welcome after a few minutes of which way we headed to the beach for the cycle paths going north. No sign of any open cafes so on we went, we pulled into a cafe by the beach aftervan hour but no 9am was too early they werent going to open up for us.By 10am Tim was getting a bit desperate for coffee and food I had given up hope.So,imagreed to come away from dunes and sea and turn inland. This of course was a little risky as id taken notes from the map but left it behind as who wants to carry a map you are only using for one day….I had decided to start trying using navigation on your phone but have yet to work out how you do this when its raining.

We headed inland towards a town called Schevingen. As we entered we saw cafes closed down plus 3 infamous coffieshops with no minors allowed and that aroma of the forbidden weed. Maybe all normal cafes had closed down and everyone had taken to smoking weed during covid in the Netherlands. Finally I spotted a cafe which said lebanese breakfast, by this stage we all would have eaten anything.

We were warmly welcomed and given all the options for a lebanese breakfast including fava beans, omelet, stuffed mini eggplant it was wonderful food served with pitta bread. I was well carered for with a huge selection of teas.The owner came out and chatted to us encouraging us to stay as the rain started to beat harder. We ordered more teas and coffees and would have stayed all day except we had booked accommodation in Amsterdam.We were treated to a special cocunut and walnut cake normally reserved for ramadam, delicious.

We donned raincoats and setnoff again making our way north to den Haag and then luckily managed to pick up the cycle route we should have been on through beautiful woodlands.

Signposting was not always clear to us in our tired state so this meant peddling through flooded subways and then back again…not great when youve congratulated yourself on getting through once with enough speed with your feet lifted up so they dont get wet and then you have to do it again. The lack of being with it found us cycling down a very busy road and having to turn round, then crossing 4 lanes of busy roads and returning 2 mins later before finding the cycle path down a side road.!!Maybe the map would have helped.

Finally we reached Leiden supposedly a walled town but it was just fortified buildings from 18th century so not as impressive as i thought it would be. We took train rest of the way to Amsterdam as time was getting on and we needed sleep after a late night getting on the ferry.

The train to Amsterdam was easy however lifts in Amsterdam had big red stickers on with the words defunct on them. So it was portage down the steps.

Amsterdam was a bustling mass of crowds but luckily Tim and I had booked City hotel on prinzhendrikstade only 300m away, easy. Mick had a few kms further to negotiate. Bike parking at our hotel was very secure in an unused hallway .

A good room overlooking the canal and we had lugged our panniers up the 3 flights of steep stairs beforevwe realised there was a lift.!!

The streets of Amsterdam were alive maybe 2 masks in sight the whole evening we were out (ok 2 hours we were tired) so great to see.

Bed was very welcome.