Cycling 4 countries in 1 weekend

If you had 48 hours and a bike, where would you go? This was a quick whizz to visit France, Belgium, the Netherlands and back to London again. Could you squeeze in any more countries?

hello thank you for clicking on London sentury the human power Journey Channel let’s say you have 48 hours a weekend or something like that maybe a an extra tiny little bit of the Friday evening or something and you fancy a bike ride well what could you do with that eh well this is the kind of question we like to ask here at London Sentry what could you do where could you go fancy going somewhere different remember 48 Hours well maybe 50 but not much more than that okay how many places could you go how many countries could you get around obviously it depends where you start but assuming London what’s it going to be two 3 4 5 could you get round five I say get round I mean you know visit and not just cross the border these are the questions we like to ask here at London centuries I suppose what I’m saying is I should call this ride how many countries can you visit in a weekend well I’m going to shoot for fall cuz that seems fairly safe if that goes well maybe I’ll come back and have a go for five but for the moment they’re same for four seems like the most obvious thing to do is to start off by heading for a channel Port get a ferry so DOA here I come oh yeah I forgot a couple of other rules no trains only public transport allowed is fairies it’s why Dove is a good one to start for me cuz there’s two Ferry companies and two destinations Cal and D Kirk so I don’t have a booking I’ll just get there and take the first sailing available see where it’s going ride from wherever they’re so close together anyway some of the fairies are 25 quid some of them are 30 37 I think one way of stopping it costing it’s by not taking any night stops I just sleep on the ferry crossing the mway and I just realized that I haven’t said yet which countries it is that I’m planning to try to tick off or although I would have thought it’s fairly obvious should be uh France Belgium Holland back to the UK again if you want to get it up to 5 remember it’s in 48 hours then you probably from my looking at the map I probably want to throw in either Germany or Luxembourg both of which are a longish loop starts getting really difficult as it is I think this one should be pretty chill plenty of time for stopping for a a nice cup of coffee or two along the way nice and relaxed holiday Pace because I plan to get the ferry back from Holland from near rodam hook of Holland fantastic May evening for the ride to DOA really very nice got to the ferry port and I’ve got a ticket for the 2:00 in the morning Ferry oh well that took ages first of all I got to DOA before midnight but but couldn’t get on a sailing until 2: a.m. then the boat was delayed getting into DOA then it was delayed getting across the channel as well so it’s now half 5: in the morning and um I think I’m in France so country number two France okay correction first mistake well first mistake was uh the ferry being delayed second mistake it’s not halfast 5 in the morning it’s halfast 6: in the morning cuz it’s French time isn’t it I got an hour less than I thought I’d have but refusing to be put off by all of this I’m going to head to Brugge cuz I’ve heard that it’s nice so maybe I could get a cup of coffee there or lunch or something and then head up towards Rotterdam to get the ferry back from Hook of Holland tonight at least I have a nice morning for it really very beautiful here well France turned into Belgium and I got to be approaching bru now can’t be more than 10 15 mil away and it’s barely 10:00 in the morning local time not UK time so I’m doing pretty well you know I never thought I’d say it about Belgium but it’s quite beautiful maybe I just got lucky and found the one beautiful Road in the country I don’t know but it’s really nice see what I mean well I never knew that there was a smart part of [Music] Belgium Bru oh yeah get over of this [Music] [Music] a freaky botom bracket haven’t they fix that when I get home I’m loving this place what a hit just goes on and on there’s loads of it well so that was Brugge and I’m very glad that’s on my radar now cost me 30 quid to get here on the ferry leave London in the uh evening and arrive uh a late breakfast I think that’s well worth having on the radar actually about 100 kmet from Dunkirk it was a really easy ride and the cheap way of getting home from here is back the same way from either Cal or D Floor in my plan is that the crossing I’m going to use tonight from hookah Holland to Har carage it’s really expensive I’ve obviously been really unfair About Belgium in the past it’s a completely unexpected bonus of this ride to discover all of this I mean it’s really very nice oh hang on another mistake it’s Holland now it was Belgium it’s now turned into Holland yes this is definitely Holland so I’m going to follow the coast pretty much all the way to Rotterdam now in Hook of Holland and as I remember there are various islands along the route that are joined either by causeways or Bridges and stuff so there’ll be lots and lots of water and sky to the next bit I think well as it turns out it’s not a Causeway or a bridge this bit’s linked uh because it’s Holland this bit is linked by a special bicycle and pedestrian Ferry which um Holland land of windmills got it even through the rain they’re all over the place cuz I’m in Holland gosh this looks industrial doesn’t it that’s the North Sea to the left another Island up ahead I suppose so it’s Causeway after Causeway after Causeway straight into the headwind and the rain really heavy going now well the rain just kept on raining so I didn’t get the camera out and here I am pulling into uh hook of Holland oh there’s the ship over there somewhere uh or you can see some trees now there you go great big ship that’s what I want to be on one of them I think well that was the ferry thanks so next step harage to London I feel as though I got a bit unlucky with that weather yesterday afternoon in the Netherlands I’ve been hoping for some nice shots for the video of beaches and the causeways between the islands was absolutely hideous I think Holland’s loss was Belgium’s gain yesterday I think that’s going to come out looking quite nice I would have thought certainly felt that way anyway what time was it I left London the day before yesterday it was either 5 or half past wasn’t it I know it’s before 6 cuz I’m going to be back loads before 48 hours is up I’m thinking that I should have gone for five countries not four should have tried to get to Germany as well shouldn’t I I wasn’t ambitious enough I know a lot of you watching this we have been out to enjoy ride London which is being held today and it looks like you’ve got a really good day for it and it’s not just Holland that has windmills cuz SX is looking good today I’m not so far to go now I came back over the willage ferry to make a change back via grage and black East same way I went down may have it the end of a really nice 48 hour Chun point is squeezes nicely into a weekend so that was a bit of France Belgium the Netherlands back to the UK again I’ll be back with another human power Journey pretty soon thanks every so much for watching happy riding