top of page
  • Instagram

Phase 2: East with a friend

Day 6


I met Hannah as she got off the ferry, now if Kike is my club riding roadie friend, Ella my tough determined rugby coaching friend, Hannah is my touring friend, we have covered thousands of miles together, she is tough, funny and endlessly patient of my oddness.



We quickly fell into riding together. Hannah like me was a little nervous of what two years of Covid living would have done to her fitness levels, not to mention looking after her two kids which understandably occupies much of her non-work hours (and thanks to endless covid test and nursery closures, some of the work hours too). But we easily got back into a rhythm and after a short stretch north on the coast, we headed inland, north east, past more farms, a mixture of glasses houses and open fields.



It was flat, the wind was light and the travelling was smooth. We even found a bagel cafe for lunch! Where thanks to Hannah not being a total wimp at talking to people, we successfully ordered and paid for food.


People often say to me "you're so brave to travel alone". I'm not, in many ways I’m socially awkward, I know everyone in the Netherlands, at least in the hospitality Industry speaks some/fluent English but speaking to people and not knowing the process scares me. So alone, I mostly shop in grocery stores, take-aways but not restaurants, Hannah is luckily scared of other things, so she can talk to people.


We stayed at a campsite, south of Amsterdam, which was supposed to be by a lake but you couldn't get to the lake because of a music festival. We tried multiple-approaches but were blocked at every turn. I felt a bit bad because unlike on most of our trips I'd picked the campsites this time but at least we hadn't arrived a day later when the campsite would have been shut!


Thanks again to Hannah’s communication skills we also had an fantastic dinner at Yemaya's Vegan corner, which was amazing! If you ever find. yourself in Southern Amsterdam eat here, this African inspired cuisine is the best thing I’ve eaten in a long time.


Then it was back to the campsite, though there was a lot less room in the tent with both of us in it. A small price to pay for good company.

• • •

15 views

Recent Posts

See All

Commentaires


bottom of page