UK-NL summer cycle tour

We went on a two-week bike tour last summer (we had wanted to do it before it was cool of course). We started by riding from Utrecht to Ijmuiden, taking the ferry from there to Newcastle. After a brief stop in Newcastle to pick up some maps, we set off to get as far as we could towards Shropshire via the Pennines and Yorkshire Dales…we didn’t get very far. The tiring triple whammy of big hills (a culture shock coming from the Netherlands); full panniers; and the tail-end of the UK’s coronavirus lockdown (i.e. fewer accommodation options) meant we bailed in Darlington for a couple of days exploring York.

I took disappointingly few photos during the riding portions of each day because my camera was mostly left in my pannier: I’ll be looking to use a handlebar bag or adapted camera strap to have it more easily to hand for the next trip.

You can see the route we took on my komoot. It was really beautiful and the climbs were fun (I promise).