Hook of Holland – Heemskerk 94km
The day or more accurately the night started well. I slept like a baby on the ferry. Woken by the cheery alarm call 1.5 hrs before docking, we headed to the cafeteria with pretty low expectations. €6.50 bought me yoghurt and granola, which turned out to be huge and very tasty.
A quick disembark from the ferry followed, our progress only slowed by having to complete EES checks at the border
Then after been fingerprinted and a mugshot taken it was off along the North Sea coast route. Up and down the dunes and through seaside towns, unlike last time I was here we didn’t have a fierce headwind, just a gentle by Dutch standards, breeze blowing in from the sea.
The weather was kind to us, with the sun making an appearance for most of the early morning. Warm enough for me to wear just a – shirt. By 11 it was time to search for coffee and pastries, right on cue we found a trendy surf shop that did food. Reclining on bean bags we enjoyed a well earned coffee break.
Then a pretty trouble free ride brought us by early afternoon to the seaside town of Zaandfort, here it was time for lunch ( touring revolves around food) David was abstemious and had a toasted sandwich, but I’d spotted a deal on pasta for €9.50, so a huge bowl was soon sitting in front of me. Sadly I failed to finish it off.
The day really was going well, the only issue was slight pain I had in my knee, probably due to getting hardly any riding in this year. At this point in the day we had to decide how much further to go. Finding hotels was hard, but there was one close by in Haarlem and an alternative 25km or so away. The distant one was based in a 13th century castle, so it made sense to head for that rather than a modern one in town. A few minutes on the internet and I had booked it. So off we went. I took it easy slow and steady, until we finally arrived at the very impressive hotel
It was a bit disconcerting to see hordes of screaming kids hanging out the windows, but this was too good to miss. Strolling inside and banging the passport on the desk and requesting our room, we were met with confused stares. “ I booked it online an hour ago” I confidently said, a second receptionist was called but no sign of the booking. I pulled out the confirmation email – “there we are, it is Monday the 28th today isn’t it ! “ … “er no and we’re fully booked !” So that was it, off we went with our tails between our legs. To add insult to injury it was a non refundable booking.
A little bit of research and another hotel was found nearby. Perfectly ok but not as posh. we tried to book in reception, but it was way more expensive than online, so we had to stand outside the hotel, book online and the go back in to check in. Madness ! but they couldn’t match the internet price. A quick dinner in town and then rest. 94km today, but tomorrow should be shorter as we are heading for Den Helder where we hope to stay 2 nights.
We (my wife and I) were checked in and waiting in the Ryanair departure queue at Stansted on Tuesday 8th September when all the air control systems collapsed. So after the usual Ryanair customer service (=absolutely none at all) we found ourselves trying to book accommodation for the night and discovered that the search engines refuse to tell you that there are no rooms and instead automatically shift their proposed dates to when they have rooms available!
Now, I can see how it might be very easy in a situation like that to miss a “tiny detail” like the proposed date being exactly a week off. Not that I know if that’s what happened to you, but it might’ve been. Jus’sayin.
Us? Everything around Stansted was obviously gone immediately, as was everything in central London. With a flash of inspiration we asked for rooms near Tottenham Hale (on the Stansted Express line) and found one there where we stayed for two nights before crossing straight through London to Gatwick and a Norwegian flight home. Ryanair? They wanted to put us on a red-eye 6AM flight on the Friday, which we declined. In the departure line at Gatwick we spoke to some fellow Swedes who had also had the same adventure. The room they’d eventually found was in Oxford…