London to Amsterdam

By Andrew Cornwell

You can pay silly money to tour organisers (charitable and otherwise) for the simple pleasure of a bike ride to Amsterdam, so we thought, why not organise our own trip?

Setting off in mid-August 2006, we endured one tough wet day getting out to Harwich port, then enjoyed a very gentle three day jaunt up to Amsterdam. On the way we sampled a little of the Dutch capital Den Haag (pictured below), coastal resort Noordwijk, and the historic city of Haarlem.

Three days in cycle-friendly Amsterdam, followed by an easy train and ferry combination back to London, rounded off a perfect week's holiday.



TOUR DIARY

Day 1: Monday 14 August 2006
London - Epping - Great Dunmow - Finchingfield - Sible Hedingham - Bures - Boxted - Dedham - Manningtree - Harwich (145 km)

It began to rain just as we reached the end of our own north London street - hardly the best start to the tour. Rachel and I were in for a wet morning, leaving the capital through Epping Forest and Essex villages familar from the Dunwich Dynamo and other events. We made a quick stop at the aptly-named Euro Cafe in Epping (24 km) for a fortifying coffee and cake, but otherwise it was eyes down in concentration through The Rodings and Great Dunmow.

Our chosen lunch stop was the much photographed village of Finchingfield (73 km), where we should have been admiring picture postcard views across the duckpond from an outside cafe table. Instead it was up the steep hill to try and dry out a little inside the Red Lion. On a quiet Monday lunchtime we enjoyed swift and welcoming service.

Back on the road we reached Sible Hedingham and then headed into the confusing patchwork of lanes around Pebmarsh. As so often in this area there was head scratching and map consultation at some junctions, but we managed to find our way through to the long descent to Bures. Here we joined the pretty Stour valley, with the rain beginning to lift.

Just at this point a truck swept by in the opposite direction, too large for the narrow lane, bringing down a sizeable tree branch. I was lucky not to be directly hit, but grateful for the protection of my helmet as I took a glancing blow.

More problems were to come as Rachel punctured badly on the road to Dedham. Unable to shift the excessively tightened front wheel bolts, I cycled ahead to the village garage to obtain a suitable long spanner. Once off, it quickly became clear that the front tyre was shredded beyond use, and given that it was now approaching 6 pm, we were contemplating a taxi ride to Harwich. However we were saved by the amazing generosity of a cycling resident of Dedham, who took us into his barn, where he rummaged among an amazing collection of old bikes and parts to produce a suitable replacement.

Back on the road, we were now well behind schedule and had scarcely time to enjoy the views of Constable's Dedham vale or across the Stour estuary at Manningtree (127 km), as we pushed on to our hotel.

At least the run into town was trouble-free, but we still pitched up stressed and bedraggled, well in need of the comforts of the cute Pier Hotel.


Day 2: Tuesday 15 August 2006
Ferry from Harwich to Hook van Holland. Hook van Holland - Den Haag (26 km approximately)

Having worked hard on the first day (145 km on laden city bikes) we could now relax and enjoy three days of the gentlest meandering along. The bad weather was gone as we eased the 4 km down to the Harwich ferry port from our hotel. A motley collection of a dozen riders was waiting to board, including a family in for hard work with a combination of luggage trailors and children's seats. Numerous Dutch cyclists exited the incoming ferries, usually kitted out with Koga bikes and butterfly bars.

Having secured our bikes, we settled back to enjoy the four hour crossing, pulling into Hook of Holland in mid-afternoon. The North Sea Cycle Route begin immediately outside the port gates, and soon we were riding out towards the point where the Maas river meets the sea, with the giant Europort docks visible to our left.

At the beach we faced a little confusion trying to pick up the coastal route northwards, but we were soon on our way to The Hague (Den Haag) and the first of three spent riding on national cycle route 1, or the LF1. Even though South Holland is the most densely populated region in Europe, it is easy to forget that the edge of major urban agglomerations are just a couple of kilometres from this route, as it winds its way through protected sand dunes, watery meadows and occasional wooded sections.

The continuous traffic-free nature of the route, with its distinctive 'toadstool' distance signs, was a refreshing contrast to the UK's miserable attempts at creating a long-distance cycle network. However we also got a taste of some of the downsides of the north sea route that afternoon. In places it was rough and sand-strewn, and also crowded with groups of leisure riders, making for slow progress especially on some of the small inclines in the dunes. A surprising number of road riders out training swept by at speeds that could be hazardous on the narrow paths. And despite using robust 35 section tyres, I managed to puncture within 20 km.

Where the dune path ran out at the point where the suburbs of the Dutch capital extended to the coast, we were left confused about the way into the centre of Den Haag. However by following our noses along a main canal artery - on wide cycle tracks of course - we found our way to the pedestrianised area. We were delighted with the location of our hotel in the historic heart of the city.


Day 3: Wednesday 16 August 2006
Den Haag - Scheveningen - Katwijk - Noordwijk aan Zee - Noordwijk (32 km approximately)

After a leisurely morning looking around the city, we set off towards the coast around lunch time. It was a fiddly business reaching the coastal suburb of Schevengen, but from there we found ourselves once again on the dune path northwards.

Katwijk was the next coastal resort, where we made a timely refreshment stop to dodge a sharp shower. (We also noticed that following the recent storms swimming was banned along sections of this coast because of sewage and debris being washed up.)

Thereafter the weather improved for our second leg to Noordwijk-aan-Zee, another resort located high on the coastal dyke. The end of the afternoon had bought fine weather and we enjoyed a beer at a cafe located directly on the sands.

Our final destination, though, was the charming old town of Noordwijk, a couple more kilometres inland and below sea level. There we were booked into what was claimed to be the Netherlands' oldest hotel, the Hof van Holland, with its excellent restaurant.

Day 4: Thursday 17 August 2006
Noordwijk - Noordwijk aan Zee - Zandvoort - Haarlem - Amsterdam (60 km approximately)

For the third day we took the coastal trail, and after a wooded section just to the north of Noordwijk we found ourselves once again bouncing up and down sand dunes on a path of varying quality.

We had promised ourselves some time on the beach and so we snapped up the opportunity presented to us after a mere 10 km when the dunes parted to reveal a steep drop to an undeveloped stretch of sand. After a couple of enjoyable hours sunbathing, and a nibble at the lone beach hut cafe, it was time to push on northwards. This time we were skirting the 'Waterleidung Duinen', a nature conservation area inland from the coast where a network of watercourses has traditionally provided the water supply for Amsterdam.

At the next coastal town of Zandvoort, it was time to turn inland for the few short kilometres to the historic city of Haarlem. The old centre there was jammed with tourists, shoppers and bikes, and we were lucky to find an outside cafe table in the shadow of the famous Grote Kerk, the main church.

After lunch and a brief look inside, we were underway again, this time on national cycle route 20 towards Amsterdam. It was not the most picturesque section of our journey. Although adequately protected from heavy motor traffic, the LF20 runs parallel to the A200 motorway through a landscape of industrial units, warehouses and port installations. As in Den Haag, we struggled to find our way through the outer suburbs, but the route became clearer as the city centre was reached.

Hitting Amsterdam central station after three days on rural cycle tracks was a shock to the system: especially as Rachel and I had never ridden in this bike-obsessed city before. The sheer number of cyclists darting about and passing each other with millimetres to spare was scary, as we pottered along weighed down both by panniers and lack of local knowledge. It was good to reach our hotel and celebrate our arrival with a beer in the courtyard bar.

Although we were left asking ourselves how we had taken so long to cover so little distance, this had certainly been a highly civilised way to get to Amsterdam and complete our first international tour.


PRACTICAL INFORMATION

In Harwich, we stayed at the pretty Pier Hotel on The Quay - in the heart of the oldest part of Harwich and with a harbour view. The hotel has a restaurant and bar/bistro. Telephone 01255-241212.

We travelled on the Stena Lines fast catamaran ferry. Unfortunately this service, taking about three and a half hours, has now been discontinued, but slower ferries still travel the route.

In Den Haag, we stayed at the Corona Hotel in the heart of the city, ideally placed for visiting the sights (Buitenhof 39-42, 2513 AH Den Haag, telephone 070-363 7930).

In Noordwijk, we treated ourselves to a night at the Hof van Holland, the Netherlands oldest hotel and restaurant. Situated in the old town of Noordwijk, it was a very romantic spot (Voorstraat 79, 2201 HP Noordwijk, telephone 071-361 2255).

In Amsterdam, we stayed four nights at the Hotel Arena, a trendy conversion of an historic orphanage building with an in-house club (s'Gravesandestraat 51, 1092 AA Amsterdam, telephone 020-850 2400).

The Netherlands has a comprehensive network of traffic-free cycle routes which are extremely well signposted. We followed the North Sea Cycle Route, numbered LF1, from Hook of Holland to Haarlem. There we switched onto the LF20 route which delivered us to Amsterdam's central rail station.

While we rarely needed to refer to it, we took a national map of Dutch cycle routes, the ANWB Fietsroutekarte.

We returned by train and ferry (a day's travel). You will need to pay for bike reservations when travelling with bicycles on Dutch railways: these are not cheap. For example our single fares cost 15 Euros per person from Amsterdam to Hoek van Holland in August 2006, with an additional 6 Euros per bike.  On the English side, a direct train links Harwich port with London's Liverpool Street station, timed to meet arriving ferries. No bike reservations are needed.


Loaded bikes outside our hotel in Amsterdam.

EQUIPMENT

We used our regular city / hybrid bikes - both Ridgebacks. These were slow on the open roads from London to Harwich, but proved ideal for the Dutch coastal cycle route. Sections of this can be very rough and /or sandy, and here the fatter tyres and sturdier frames of these hybrids came into their own. Urban Dutch cycle routes, while excellently planned, also have numerous brick or blockwork sections, which can be uncomfortable on thinner tyres.

We travelled with two rear Ortleib panniers each, plus front bar bags - sufficient capacity for a week away.


Andrew and Rachel about to set off home for London.