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Planning a little road-trip: Surrey-Leiden (near Amsterdam)


Cylindric
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So I'm supposed to be going to Leiden in August to meet up with some pals, we try do this once a year or so. Now that I have my grown-up bike, it seems like an ideal opportunity for a little road-trip.

I have two choices really, with the current availability of transport:

Ferry: Dover-Calais

Should cost about £150 in tickets and fuel, about 650 miles of riding in total (half on Friday, half on Sunday)

EuroStar: Dover-Calais

Should cost about £120 in tickets and fuel, about 550 miles of riding in total (half on Friday, half on Sunday)

Those are the direct routes using mostly motorways etc. I'll probably end up ditching that plan and go on more interesting roads.

Basically it looks like this:

dlQs0Kcl.png

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Yeah. Previous longest trip was a London-Hastings thing, about 230 miles in the day. I have been to Leiden many times by air and once by car. Challenge will be to find a nice balance between staying off the motorways and not taking forever to get there. Bit of both, I guess.

Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

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I've done Bristol to the Hague in a day - not a hard ride at all. Once you get to Gent, come off of the motorway and use the trunk roads across the Schelde-Meuse-Rhine Delta and Zeeland - It's far more interesting than using the motorway and doesn't take too much more time. i did this and used the bridges/dykes closest to the sea.

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The default route suggested by Google (the bit after Calais anyway) is 200 miles and takes about 3½ hours.

I'll be getting to Calais at about 09:11, so allowing time to de-train I'm guessing about 09:30.

There's no set time I need to be in Leiden, it's an informal social gathering, but I think I'd like to get there for 2pm at the latest, as that allows a bit of contingency for little diversions. So that gives me about 5 hours. That'll probably mean sticking to the main route most of the way, and popping off it for one or two stretches where it looks more interesting.

I think that puts my options at:

  1. going a bit more coastal to Oostende, then over the Western Scheldt, through Flushing.
  2. going a bit more in-land

The trick will be finding a route that isn't just all hard-core industrial regions :D

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Brugge

Knokke-Heist (what a great name)

Terneuzen

Oude-Tonge (you can't make this kind of stuff up)

Looks like a great route.

Edit - that way takes you past a place called "Numansdorp" and for those people that know me personally on here, that could be seen as a little funny.

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The default route suggested by Google (the bit after Calais anyway) is 200 miles and takes about 3½ hours.

I'll be getting to Calais at about 09:11, so allowing time to de-train I'm guessing about 09:30.

There's no set time I need to be in Leiden, it's an informal social gathering, but I think I'd like to get there for 2pm at the latest, as that allows a bit of contingency for little diversions. So that gives me about 5 hours. That'll probably mean sticking to the main route most of the way, and popping off it for one or two stretches where it looks more interesting.

I think that puts my options at:

  1. going a bit more coastal to Oostende, then over the Western Scheldt, through Flushing.
  2. going a bit more in-land

The trick will be finding a route that isn't just all hard-core industrial regions :D

I'd go more coastal - inland Netherlands is similar to the UK roads-wise; the polderdash across the dykes closest to the coast is very cool. When I did it I really enjoyed. Yes there are industrial zones (the S-M-D delta is one of the most industrialised zones in the world), but the little coastal towns are very picturesque and the coffee is far better than the rubbish sold off the motorways. Do it and come back via the motorways, you'll be able to compare and see what i mean.

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ahhh Holland ehh?

puff puff pass B)

filepicker%2FKglttkF7S4KbN7cYcpAG_blunt.

Been there a few times on holiday, Lovely country and so flat. No wonder we see so many dutch cars around my parts, probably come to see some countryside that is about as opposite from theirs as possible (except for the fact that a huge proportion of this area is also set aside for agricultural proposes, just that we have sheep and they have tomatos! hahahah)

Anyways.....have a great time, lucky bugger!

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I think I'll also have to look into some sort of luggage options, because I don't really fancy spending 2x9 hours or more on the bike riding with a big heavy rucksack on my back.

From what I've seen, hard luggage isn't an option as it looks too expensive, but perhaps some sort of throw-over saddle-bags or even just a bigger tank-bag. Even a top-box requires a mounting plate as the XJ6 doesn't have a rack on the back already.

Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

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I think I'll also have to look into some sort of luggage options, because I don't really fancy spending 2x9 hours or more on the bike riding with a big heavy rucksack on my back.

From what I've seen, hard luggage isn't an option as it looks too expensive, but perhaps some sort of throw-over saddle-bags or even just a bigger tank-bag. Even a top-box requires a mounting plate as the XJ6 doesn't have a rack on the back already.

Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

Riding with a rucksack which is anything more than light is dangerous and should be avoided.

I had hard luggage on my both my XJ6s and it is awesome, over on the XJ6 forum Dan is selling his hard luggage - he is in oxfordshire. A topbox and rack are great investments, there usually some s/hand on ebay too.

But for occasional use tankbags or tailpacks are okay.

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That "proboards" one? I'll go have a look. Not a big fan of the proboards layout, it must be said...

Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

Don't worry it is being upgraded soon, and will look better.

If you think it can be improved please tell me.

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