Travels with Claud

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Day 6

20160822

Makkum to Groningen



Today I covered the 135km from Makkum to Groningen. I’d like to say I rode all the way, but I didn’t. I covered the 45km from Makkum to Leeuwarden on my bike, then caught the train from Leeuwarden to Groningen for the last 90km. I reckon the ride would have been about 10 hours, in the rain, across the pancake flat polder; which becomes a kind of desert slog after a while. Anyway, the 45km ride was very pleasant, especially as the tower blocks of Leeuwarden loomed through the misty rain at ‘knoop 56’. The knoop system is brilliant, we need it. Someone start a campaign!

When I was in the south I showed the folk I was staying with the Fietsknoop app, and to be honest they were a bit sniffy. It lacked the romance of the road, the camaraderie of fellowship, the joy of human contact as you cheerfully ask for directions from the locals. Well, all I can say is when you’re crossing south west Friesland on a wet Monday morning and there is not a soul to be seen, I fall on my knees to Satellite Navigation! Thanks again Bim. The technophobe analogy that comes to mind is getting on a plane bound for Australia, with the expectation that every now and then the Captain will land the plane to ask for directions. I think that’s what Amy Johnson did in 1930.

The train fare for me + bike was €17.50, which I think is pretty fair. That works out at about €0.20 per kilometre. That’s possibly cheaper than the bananas I would have paid for to keep me going for ten hours. The journey took about 45 minutes, and the rain didn’t let up at all. It was still pouring when I got to Groningen so I didn’t hang about, I made straight for the Mercure, where I’m staying for a couple nights. I opted to stay in a hotel so that I could wash my socks and small stuff in the sink, and get my tee-shirts laundered. I hate being smelly!

Top tip. If you’re on a bike in the Netherlands, and use Google maps to find your way, use the ‘walk’ option, not the ‘drive’ option. Walk will take you along the cycle paths, or on more benign routes in any case. Drive will take you onto the Motorway and get you shouted at, if not eventually escorted off by the local Police, (so I’m told).

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed staying with Vrienden op de Fiets, but I’d certainly file last nights stop under ‘U’ for unusual. My experience so far has been of fellow cyclists offering like minded souls a low cost B&B. This seemed to be the case when I arrived in Makkum, and the window was flung open and my host greeted me, and I was shown where to put my bike. Things started to get a little uncomfortable when my host realised that British bikes don’t tend to come with a side stand. “Oh, you have no stand!”. I mean what are walls for? So room was cleared in the triple locked garage so that I could lean my bike against the pristine white garage wall.

We advanced into the kitchen lobby where I was invited to remove my shoes and place them into the fumigation unit (not really!). I was just asked to put them in a special area where they would not contaminate the rest of the house. As if! I was then given the key to my room, with a special bonus of the back door/garage door key. I was then given specific instructions to observe the street before using the keys, and to make sure everything was triple locked before retiring with minimum noise. I slept well.

Breakfast was the most meagre fare I’ve been offered so far, but completely offset by meeting Ryan the young Canadian doctorate musician. Hey, I wanted that last piece of cheese!

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