Notes from first bike tour!

My wife and I have just got back from our first bike touring trip. Here’s some notes. I’m sure for the more experienced or purists our shambolic adventures will seem twee and our failings obvious. But this community seems like a forgiving lot, so spare us the lectures, I hope these notes inspire and help anyone else lurking around this sub to take a bike tour idea out from their head into the real world!

Our trip only included two nights of accommodation (plus two overnight ferry journeys). We didn’t camp (Mrs Apricot will take some convincing of self sufficient touring) and stayed in hotels.

We decided to go to Holland from the UK. That’s an obvious first choice for novice bike tourers and worked out fabulously. Dear god how I wished the rest of the world treated cyclists as equal human beings like the Dutch do! Not only is the infrastructure sublime, when we got to a hotel, of course there was somewhere to park a bike.

The ferry was a joy. First on, quick off. Check-in we probably rushed (arrived early and sat around outside for a bit) and next time we’ll turn up a bit later and take advantage of the fact that the staff in the UK and Holland wave you to the front of every queue.

Harwich btw, not great. Don’t turn up early and expect to find a day of activities. Just don’t.

What could we have done better or thought about more:

1. As we only had a couple of nights and never more than 45km of riding, we took backpacks. I was OK with that, but my wife now has a set of panniers and a rack that we bought from a second hand bike shop in Holland for €50. Bargain and so much better for her. So next time, panniers!

2. We didn’t really pack properly for wet weather. We’d been careful with checking the forecast, but we did hit some rain. Luckily, as a short trip, we’d not got tight deadlines, long days etc planned and we just pulled in at a cafe and watched the rain for a couple of hours whilst drinking great beer and eating nice chips. However, if doing a more time sensitive trip, a poncho would be on the cards.

3. Cleats. I ride in SPD all the time. I wish I’d switched to flats because it would have made my bike shoes my off the bike shoes and made life less precarious when stopping with a heavy load. No calamities, but next time, flats!

4. Time. I think this is more a feature than a bug, but I’m a cyclist who races and loves a bit of speed. Touring, well it’s so much more sedate. I don’t know whether it’s the heavier loads or just a general sense of chill that you get from touring but damn, 30km doesn’t take 90 mins, it takes about 4 hrs because you chill, you stop for cake and beer, you enjoy the scenery, you take the pretty route not the fastest line etc. I loved that about the last few days and it was so great to pootle about.