‘Holiday of a Lifetime’ is a rather hackneyed expression and one I never thought I would use. However – it is the only description that does justice to the Wheel2Wheel trip we did from Amsterdam around North Holland in September 2016.
There were 10 of us in the party – all retired but still youthful and regular cyclists who do a ride together each month. We chose September for two reasons – the School holidays are over and as most of us had worked in schools or colleges we knew all too well that the weather always takes a turn for the better once term has started!
We all live in the north of England and all preferred to use our own bikes on this venture so we explored the possibility of getting our own bikes to Amsterdam. This proved very simple – the DFDS Ferry from Newcastle sails to Ijmuiden which is only around 18 miles from the Amsterdam Centraal Station where we embarked on the MS Serena for our trip.
We left cars at the Ferry terminal at Newcastle. This is quite pricey at £12 per day but Hobson made the choices! We were classified as ‘Foot Passengers’ which reduced the cost – the Ferry accommodates bikes and you just have to get on with securing them with the r...