Musings

19
Jun
2026

Last week of this big trip

The Randstad is the conurbation in south Netherlands containing almost half the population of the country in its cities and towns, including Rotterdam, Den Haag and Delft and lots of others. I stayed for 3 nights on what I consider to be a stereotypical Dutch place – a peaceful small-holding on a polder feeling very rural, with dykes and windmills, animals and crops, yet within easy 12-15km cycling distance of major urban centres. I didn’t pay for electricity, instead relying successfully on my solar equipment despite quite alot of overcast weather, so all this felt very simple and pared back. I was the guest of a very lively hare which entertained me in its mad jumping and darting way.

The impression I have of the city centre of The Hague was perhaps not done justice given my whistle-stop cycling through, but was unexpectedly quite a contrast with the beautiful Delft, which we had visited 15ish years ago when coming over in a previous campervan to support Luke in a racket tournament nearby. Whilst being a very lively sizeable town with many students, the latter’s historic centre is like a mini version of Amsterdam’s. The main square which banned car parking in 2004 is a cafe-sitting public space heaven. Cycling to this town was across more agricultural/leisure-amenity land and woodland past market gardening & logistics businesses and waterways. Delft photos:

Scheveningen is the ‘seaside’ for this conurbation, beautiful beaches and loads of cafe/relaxing locations.

I used bike + metro for a visit to Rotterdam’s centre which was as expected a bustling modern metropolis, its centre had been completely bombed in WWII. The architecture is an interesting mix.

For the last 4 nights I moved to what is an island just to the south of Rotterdam, although you’d have to really zoom in on the maps to see the water around it. The tourist bumf calls it ‘Voorne Putten’. Another beautiful area – cycling goes without question, waterway leisure provision, lovely little towns and villages and also North Sea beaches and impressive dyke/dam engineering. I chose this based on a youtube vlog of a bikepacking trip which recommended particularly the town of Brielle, and found a 4-star campsite with an ACSI rate of 23eu just a little ferry ride across the water or via the bridge a few kms away. The fortified small town of Brielle is lovely to visit, relax by its canals and watch the world go by. What’s so impressive is that the surrounding area of Rotterdam oil-refining and ports, which would be a hellscape in other countries is just across a beautiful canal from here, and you’d never know it’s there :).

Just across the way

As with Amsterdam, all these really heavy industrial spaces are in reality very close to urban living amongst nature. I think in the UK the equivalents are surrounded by miles of extensive no-access, ruined, unused no-man’s land.

A taste of this area:

So as well as trying to hold off physical aging with the bike and walking to toilet blocks, I have worked hard at building new neural networks to keep the brain plasticity going!! Driving here meant running the gauntlet again of Europe’s largest sea port motorway madness, although this was always needed to get to the Hook of Holland (or P&O Europoort) for my return journey tomorrow. But I have also done the learning curve of understanding the amazing and reliable numbering system of the bikeways here, and used the FietsKnoop app to plan my routes. I count myself no longer a novice at this.

There are 3 observations I want to add – Netherlands is of course missing hills & mountains; I get caught out repeatedly by my autopilot assumption-driven behaviour that I am more or less the only one to be travelling on a bike path, incurring irritation from others :); I have total confidence that any bike path I am on will not abandon me to a fast car road, and finally that much of the waterways are clean.

After about 6 weeks, I am happy to be going back home to family & friends with other good things including campervan stays planned for the Summer. The van has once again been fantastic as well as my bikes, England’s performance against Croatia was a definite improvement, and Andy Burnham’s win to hold off Reform – news in this very morning is great news for me. I am as ever thankful.

Posted by Jackie in Cities-Towns, Musings, Netherlands, 0 comments
17
Jun
2026

Cycling & Its Paradise

Have I given adequate impression of my love of cycling? For my posterity, although the technical challenges of saving my journal to a no cost yet still accessible place remain to be addressed, I thought this warranted a post in its own right.

I have played bike tig, pulled along neighbours on roller skates, cycled to the local tennis club, grabbed a tow from a passing milk float and other such joyful, not including a broken elbow, activity, all before leaving primary school in the 60s/early 70s heyday of childhood freedom in the mostly car-free streets. As a teenager I also regularly walked the 2.5 miles or so to secondary school so that I could spend or save the bus money, and then used the bike to get to sixth form from age 16. One particularly embarrassing moment was tipping into and causing a crash with my co-riders, one of whom Carole from previous posts, whilst riding 3 abreast in front of a school bus and busy traffic at the end of the school day. We were all ok and lived to tell the tale of the denting of our 16/17-year old pride & cred.

The cycling continued through university where I was knocked off my bike by a bus (bus-driver’s fault) whilst cycling across an exit of a large elevated roundabout near the Aston campus in central Birmingham; grabbing my bike’s handlebars whilst it was in the process of being stolen from in front of the sports hall so that the thieves abandoned their attempt; cycling close to the back of a bus for the drag along the Oxford road to university in Manchester, and crashing into it when it stopped, not unexpectedly! at a bus stop; and then the accident driven into by a car whilst cycling to my work in London which did put me into hospital for a short stay to repair a severed tendon in my foot, and monitor the internal bleeding in my knees. The compensation from this event provided our honeymoon to St Lucia. In all cases I have fortunately been able to cycle on.

Continuing as a parent, I, & my ex-hubs who also likes cycling, have gone to much trouble to encourage (impose) the use of bikes by our children, from bringing my eldest home from after-school club sitting on a cushion on the panier rack on my way back from work in London, to child-seats and then trailer bikes, really appreciating dedicated bike routes in holiday areas, and cycling across residential areas in our home town to get to school etc.

I first sought the cycling world of the Netherlands when I brought my daughter and youngest son, less than 10 years old, to Amsterdam via a mini-cruise from Hull to Rotterdam. The most striking thing of this trip I remember was seeing the scale of the above-ground multi-storey-ish bike rack at the central station, which almost 30 years later is the most amazing place and below ground. We hired bikes and it was pretty hair-raising at times keeping tabs of Tim in amongst the bike traffic even then.

For some reason this interest has morphed abit in my later leisure & time/information rich years into what’s now named ‘urbanism’ with a focus on the use of the bike for transport, and all the implications of the reduction of car use for living. Reading commentary from people from all over the world confirms imo that the Netherlands is the global model for this in reality and I feel that what it has achieved over the last 50 years really ‘fits’ me. The ‘Not Just Bikes‘ channel amongst others and the books written by advocates such as Melissa & Chris Bruntlett have led to deeper reflection on how this country and cities in other places such as Copenhagen, Paris & the London heightened culture war battle-space have developed, and their decades-long or relatively recent intentionality regarding the promotion of walking, cycling and public transport for better living and as necessary car alternatives in highly-populated, space-premium, overheating cities.

It’s not just the cycling infrastructure that’s so great here, but also the way nature seems to be right there, in amongst, or easily accessible on the edge of, urban living – trees, waterways, reeds, parks. If only I could transplant the extended family as well as all my friends to this country! Not to mention the regained benefits of being EU citizens, particularly given its chance of a bloc potentially able to resist to a greater extent tech-bro & strongman fascist power.

 

 

Posted by Jackie in Musings, Netherlands, Netherlands, Places, The Good, 1 comment
16
Jun
2026

The Netherlands with Toddler & Baby

The Eurocamp chalet/static caravan was on the Koningshof Vakantiepark between Leiden and the coast at Katwijk, and promised a lovely indoor pool for young children, an indoor play area and nice cafe/reception, and of course flat cycling. We had decided that I should stay in the chalet rather than booking a pitch, and the best bedroom for me given the sleeping shenanigans of the little ones, was the tiny bunk-bed room, smaller than my very small bathroom at home, which I had all to myself! Being an adult in this human environment meant absolute exhaustion by the early evening, so even a narrow, just about long-enough bottom bunk did meet the need. My daughter & family eventually got used to the accommodation after initial disappointment following their second stay at the comparative luxury of a Terhills Centreparc chalet in Belgium.

We’ve had slightly better weather than a British spring, the rain mostly holding off and periods of sunshine between the clouds, but always windy. The location of the chalet within the site was pleasant in the greenery and private, albeit at a good walk to the pool & cafe, with a generous decking. The pool was enjoyed by all, for which another thank goodness, and being able to order meals in the cafe from 5pm was also really helpful. I think we’d all agree the 4-night stay was enough for the assembled individuals in that setting. Meanwhile my son & his partner were happy working in their restored apartment.

Re the fulfillment of the family cycling à la dutch dreams and unlike a year ago, my granddaughter was happy to sit in the Thule bike seat on the e-bike for rides with one or more parents to the Katwijk seaside and the beautiful historic town of Leiden – see last year’s post. I and my grandson spent a couple of hours in the soft play area and cafe. Unfortunately the beach was not able to be endured for very long with the continuous sand-blasting from the north sea wind, reminiscent of my childhood holidays camping in Cornwall. I also cycled to Katwijk, had a slightly better morning of weather, sitting in a cafe 2-wheel usage watching, and it was interesting to see the seals very near on the river estuary.

On the way back to the ferry at Rotterdam (I was staying on for another week), a visit to Peppa Pig World helped spend a couple of hours. Yes, holidaying with very young children provides a change for the parents, but in most cases more work and less sleep! The lure is there, with assumptions of perfect weather, and no sickness etc. All things considered, this holiday went as well as could be expected, and was hard work. Earlier on in the year with that holiday lure, we booked a family-friendly all-inclusive week (to remove the whole food tyrannical ‘work’) in the Algarve for my offspring couples and the combined 3-year old and two babies under 1 in September. Perhaps that was a year too soon, but too late now. On the other hand, it’s another extended weight training activity period for me. 🤣

Posted by Jackie in Musings, Netherlands, Places, 0 comments
09
May
2026

From Paris to the South West

I decided to revisit the Camping Sandaya in the town of Maisons-Lafitte on the banks of the Seine to the west of Paris from which a 5-minute walk/cycle to the station will bring you + bike to the Arc de Trimphe station. Everything worked – it’s a lovely campsite offering an out of season price of 21eu plus tourist tax for the pitch, 2 adults including electricity, with shop cafe/restaurant and swimming pool. Raised a smile about my & friend’s tent stopover in abit of mud on the bikepacking ride at the end of last season!

The next day I enjoyed cycling round some of the main Paris landmarks I’d missed back in September.

On the campsite side of the Seine

Another night beckoned with good weather the next day, so I decided to cycle some of the Dieppe to Paris route along the river before crossing it to get to Versailles.

Suffice to say, this was a somewhat naive plan, slightly offset by the glorious sunlit route of the flat waterside distance in the well-heeled burbs, wooed by the Paris cycling infrastructure, which doesn’t necessarily extend to the hills and dual carriageways up, over and under which (fortunately) my legs had to push my bike. It was some of those ‘where is flippin’ Versailles’ as the climb went on & on, and ‘am I going to end up on a dual carriage/motorway with no way back’ stress-building thoughts. I obviously made it, and collapsed to enjoy the coffee – the prospect with which I had kept myself going.

This was my second lifetime visit to the park area, the first I think when I was a student back in the day. I was struck by how extensive it was. I could see the lovely palaces in their setting, but chose not to go in instead enjoying all the tourist and parisien life of all ages cycling, walking, rowing, picnicking and sightseeing by electric car and little bus.

Knowing that I could get a train to the La Defense station and then change to one to my town, for the sum of 2.55eu gave me the reassuring return journey. Nevertheless following satnav to get to this Versailles station proved somewhat tortuous, so all in all I knew I’d earned a complete do nothingness when I finally got off the train knowing my pad was thankfully just round a few corners.

Now I’m at the end of the next day’s well-judged departure and travel plans. Good weather is forecast for the south west coast near Bordeaux for the next 2-3 days, so it’s been time to move on. Today has reached 24deg but being Saturday, the roads were empty. When was the last time a main road – the free autoroute A10 between Vierzon and Limoges – looked as empty as this in England?  The Creuse Valley region certainly looks worth a visit.

An interesting observation of myself is that if I get used to a site and enjoy being there, I tend to subconsciously assume a more defensive posture and expectation of the next journey and place.  And yet once underway this tends to dissipate.

My thoughts while driving for some of this afternoon went to remembering individual family and friends whose life has ended – at least on this earth -, and how absurd and therefore horrific their death is; all that character, personhood, relationship, love, has just simply disappeared abruptly. It’s a very very deep and expansive ‘missing them’ and plaintiff cry ‘where are you’, which also contributed to some wakefulness last night. Inevitable more frequent thought patterns as I and loved ones get older.

I have stopped half-way in the region between Poitiers and Limoges, following the recommendation of one of my catalogue of Motorhome Monthly Magazine articles from 2018 I think, for the municipal campsite at the little historic town Le Dorat.  This is now being operated on the platform/scheme campercarpark.com, for what appears to be less than 10eu per night, (bit of confusion re having to buy a credit-loading card for re-use as well as the stopover) including electricity, little toilet/shower block, 5 mins walk to the town square with cafe, boulangerie, even a cinema. How lovely is all this.

 

 

Posted by Jackie in France, Musings, Places
06
May
2026

2026 France, Germany, Netherlands

The 2026 trip was officially put into operation a month or so ago with the booking of the ferry to France. The plans were considered in the shadow of the Trump & Netanyahu and their governments’-induced needless loss of hundreds if not thousands of innocent lives from illegal bombings & targeting of civilians in Iran & Lebanon, reciprocal shelling on sites in the Gulf states, shortages of resources with impact for food production across the world, and other significant impact on global economies and the person in the street arising from this and the diesel price instability and hikes and fuel shortages, adding to the continuing Israeli genocide and ethnic cleansing of Gaza and the West Bank, and of course Ukraine still fighting off the other tyrant. I’ll record these unprecedented, at least in my lifetime, sufferings whose responsibility falls according to my study on those 3 war criminals and their sycophantic, greedy and power-addicted enablers, for when I may look back from however my near-future unfolds.

At the moment this minion is fortunate and thankful to be many steps removed from all this. Since last writing, two grandsons have been born to my daughter and youngest son and their partners. I was struck on visiting to give them all a last hug before this grand depart, by how much I will miss the little ones. I am able to enjoy spending alot of time with them, and other little great nieces and nephew who also live locally, which is such a joy despite being knackering. My granddaughter who is now almost 3, loves coming into ‘Nanavan’ and when I opened the bathroom door to remind her of what was behind it, she again caused such a laugh with her main  expression of toilet expertise – namely “is that a soft-close lid?” My little shower room equipment doesn’t thankfully extend to a hand dryer, of which she is pathologically scared.

My choice of day to drive towards the south coast avoiding bank holiday Monday traffic proved wise as once again I entered into a very nostalgia-evoking memory lane with Heart 70s radio. A lovely journey break and stop over with relatives near Oxford and then the ferry with a calm sea and bright day heading for Le Havre, France from Portsmouth. No reservations initially but just target places on my travel list to Carcassone and then upto Germany & the Netherlands.

Off the ferry and we were not put through any Schengen border new requirements. The 2-hour journey to the planned first night stopover at the free motorhome parking provided by Giverny, worked. How fantastic to be on the continent where the philosophy hasn’t been to monetise every blade of grass or parking space. What would have been the overnight cost was able to be spent on the entrance fee for the Monet museum, house and garden. Very busy it has to be said, causing me not to want to join the big queue to get into the house from the gardens, but I got the picture! 🙂 Heavy overnight rain had dissipated and it’s been a really pleasant day. Am so happy in this free setting that I’m staying another night, and then will head to a site closer towards Paris for a day of train plus cycle tomorrow. Just one minor annoyance in that there’s a known problem with my TV aerial which needed fixing and I had forgotten about it. This realisation was prompted by the concept of trying to see if PSG vs Bayern Munich might be available this evening so that I could watch some good football and see who Arsenal will meet in the Champions League final.

Posted by Jackie in France, Musings, Places
07
Oct
2025

Paris à Velo

Cycling the 5km to our Aparthotel Home & Break in the Porte de Choisy, Place d’Italie area south east from our arrival at Notre Dame, was a slightly uphill affair but continued our initial journey on different types of the Paris cycling infrastructure. Our room was on the 6th floor with small kitchenette including sink, fridge, microwave, kettle, very comfy beds, with enough space to take the bikes up to, preferring to do this and seek forgiveness after rather than be reliant on asking for a key from the often busy reception for their official bike store. This cost approx £360 for 4 nights, and absolutely met our needs with the exception of being pretty hot as the windows could only be unlocked by someone from reception on safety grounds, and the cool aircon having been switched off for the whole hotel given the autumn/winter season. Complete luxury nevertheless compared to the toilet requirements during the camping cold nights and deflating (expensive) mat which I forgot to mention previously. The area was a ‘China/East Asia’ town, so we enjoyed some Thai food one evening.

We loved our three days exploring, on now unladen bikes, many of the city’s sights in fantastic weather 🙂 including going into the cathedral, the Jardin des Plantes, the Bastille monument, Place de la Republique, the Bassin de La Villete, the Jardin du Luxembourg.

Bassin de la Villette

Always an enhancement to listen to some quality live music:

 

We even managed to meet up with my brother and cycling buddy who had cycled from Caen to the Mediterranean and training it back to the ferry had a 4 hour transfer time in Paris, so we cycled once again along the Seine and upto the Montmartre area and Sacre Coeur.

So that ticked two off of this trip’s aims – bikepacking with a tent & seeing more of Paris.  Re the latter, we didn’t cycle up the Champs Elysee, or along to the Eiffel Tower, nor the Tuileries or Louvre, and plenty more for next time.

But as for the cycling infrastructure – absolutely amazing.  I think every street or road we needed to use from the outskirts and throughout the centre had some absolutely clear provision or other for bikes. It seemed to me that cars definitely did not have priority, and even though I think their numbers have significantly diminished over the last years since the major push for cycling, walking and public transport, still they were caught in jams and could not compete with the efficiency and effectiveness of travel with 2 wheels. It took us some time to understand what we had to look for when it came to navigating intersections, as there was a variety of different cycle lane approaches, and traffic lights were not as responsive as they could be which imo leads to a significant amount of red-light jumping by cyclists.  One of the principles adopted in the Netherlands for cycling infrastructure design is to keep bikes moving and this was the approach adopted anyway by the majority of cyclists in Paris 🙂

There are loads of bike maps for Paris on the internet and youtube videos of how this really radical, significant change in such a relatively short time has occured, not least https://youtu.be/woFlJx7Rv78?si=JjZF3LBvfMjwcPVO  & Paris en Selle.

After 3 days we were ready for the return journey home getting the bikes on the train and travelling from Gare St Lazare to Rouen, then change to Dieppe. This did involve having to book the bikes onto the Rouen train, then hang them in the allotted place for the journey necessitating the removal of the paniers etc, and then have a somewhat stressful time doing the transfer to the Dieppe train in 10 minutes – the Paris train was thankfully on time. A tick for French trains so far.

We managed it, and arrived to rain in Dieppe and a short ride to the ferry port for the 6pm crossing back to the campervan and the journey to North Yorkshire.

A good ferry crossing again, despite the Storm Amy warnings for the north, and a good non-stop journey in the van. This was despite navigating the one-junction full closure of the M1 around Northampton, but absolutely helped by Greatest Hits 70s radio and additional sing-along by this first mate.

Would I do it again?  Yes for the bikepacking, trains etc, camping with the caveat of being in warmer climes and a mattress that doesn’t deflate in the night.

Last but not least – here’s the star of the show – ie my Brompton. Not particularly liking the field tracks or cobbles but managed the weight of all the stuff and the miles, and responded like a thoroughbred to the city.  The genuine face of delight on the rider trying it out for the first time says it all  🤣 🚴‍.

Posted by admin in Cities-Towns, Equipment, France, Musings, Places