August 29, 2022
Slow Travel: IJmuiden to Amsterdam to Hannover to ....
The ferry was bang on time into IJmuiden the next morning, though it took a little while before it was the cyclists' turn to be released from the boat (last on, last off...). Once we were out in the fresh air, though, a cheery port official waved us all to the front of the queue of cars, and an equally cheery border guard stamped me into the Netherlands, only raising a slightly sceptical eyebrow when I told him (in answer to his question about my intended destination) that I was hoping to get to Hannover today. (What I didn't tell him was how I was planning to get there...)
The first phase was beautifully straightforward: 20 or so kilometres of lovely riding through the flatlands, on roads with cycling provision that could make an English person cry.
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After that, things got a bit more complicated. You might recall me mentioning my feelings of Great Smugness at having planned a holiday that UK Travel Chaos couldn't spoil. What I hadn't accounted for was that Travel Chaos isn't a solely UK phenomenon; more specifically, what I hadn't accounted for was that Dutch Railways -- who I'd been counting on to whisk me and my bike from Amsterdam to Hannover -- would be on strike today.
Fortunately, NS had given advance warning of this, so I'd worked out a Plan B: to take the 'Flixbus' instead; in theory, this would still get me to Hannover in time to make my connection to Austria. This Flixbus route doesn't take complete bikes, but I'd paid a bit extra for 'Special Luggage', and reckoned I could just about smuggle my bagged-up bike in under that rubric, as long as no-one measured it too precisely. That was the plan, at least. I'd then made the mistake of looking at some Flixbus reviews, which are full of tales of buses which don't turn up, or turn up hours late, or turn up without any space, or with everyone's luggage having been stolen. And etc and so on. In other words: I wasn't wholly confident that Plan B would work. And I didn't really have a Plan C.
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Anyway: I made it to the bus station in plenty of time (with time for a good lunch, in fact, at a nearby cafe), bagged up my bike (with the help of some friendly fellow-hangers-around), and then waited anxiously for my bus to appear. (It was coming up from Lille, and I could follow its progress on a map on the Flixbus website...). When it arrived, it was indeed very full, and very chaotic. But the driver accepted my bike with only a slight shrug, and managed to jam it into the luggage space; I found a seat in which I could almost straighten my legs (I'm not a tall person...); and, about five hours later, both bike and I made it to Hannover in one piece. I'm not sure I'd wholly recommend Flixbus as a way to travel, but (on the basis of my one -- perhaps only!-- experience), it's maybe not as awful as the internet says, and certainly better than nothing.
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... and you may not *want* to know.
1 year ago
Grateful to have survived, I unpacked the bike again and rolled round the corner to the train station. There, there was time for a sumptuous dinner of currywurst and beer, before jumping onto the night train. Next stop: Austria!
Today's ride: 24 km (15 miles)
Total: 72 km (45 miles)
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