Cycling route from London - Amsterdam - Brussels

luketearall

Hello,

After completing the popular London - Paris bike ride in 2011, I want to challenge myself on another long weekend trip to Europe over the double bank holiday this May 2013. I've noticed another popular charity bike ride route is London - Amsterdam - Brussels, however all the charity bike rides seem to involve a large financial commitment of raising over £1000+.

Therefore I am in the process of organising a ride with a group of 8 riders and are planning on following the charity routes itinerary. My current problem is I cannot find any detailed maps or blogs of this route. Can anyone direct me or advise me where I might find a detailed cycling route/ itinerary, keeping clear of the major roads?

Once we have our route planned, ideally I would like to use my iPhone as a detailed map. The issue I have had on day rides is the battery dying after around 4 hours due to the active GPS. Can these maps be downloaded onto iPhones? Can anyone advise me on suitable applications which don't use GPS but you can load detailed maps too as a reference? Alternatively, I if the iPhone fails, I plan to get details maps - can anyone recommend suitable maps to but for this route?

I look forwards to hearing anyone's comments.

Thanks
Luke

simon7007

Luke

Saw your message last week, but thought I would wait until we completed the challenge to post our views.... Just back from this challenge today and can share the route we took etc. All arranged ourselves and not through an organised ride (carried our own rucksacks)

Day 1: Surrey to Harwich, with overnight ferry to Hook of Holland. Route: http://ridewithgps.com/routes/2369643
Day 2: Holland to Amsterdam. http://ridewithgps.com/routes/2369645
Day 3: Amsterdam to Brussels. http://ridewithgps.com/routes/2369650
Day 4: Eurostar back to London

Route to Harwich was nice, good route through London and out past the Olympic stadium. Arrived in Harwich around 7pm, with the ferry departing around 11pm. Booked cabins on board ferry and arrived refreshed in Hook of Holland around 8am

Challenge with the route is having to stick to cycle lanes in Holland as drivers not very friendly to bikes being on roads. However there are cycle lanes everywhere, but not known to us in advance you share these cycle lanes with mopeds! Weather was horrible with a strong headwind on day 2 to Amsterdam, so I would probably try to plan an alternative route that is away from the coast just in case. However on a good day the route will be fine (a bit stop/start in The Hague), as relatively short day. Stayed overnight in http://www.boutiquehotelview.nl/?lang=en, with storage of bikes in a secure backyard. It wasn't easy finding hotels that would offer storage but this place was great, and in the centre for a good night out.

Due to time pressures we then did Amsterdam to Brussels in one day (circa 145 mies). As the country is so flat, it's a long day cycling but doable. Route could probably be improved in Dordecht, but the rest of the route were the equivalent of A and B roads in the UK (but using cycle lanes by the side of these roads). When the roads were quiet we did jump onto the road at times to pick up the pace! Arriving into Brussels at night was a bit painful and slow, but hotel was great (http://www.madeinlouise.com/). Recently refurbished and secure strange for bikes in garage.

Would probably be better to split this last day into 2, but we didn't want he hassle of having to cycle into Brussels on day 4 as we needed to catch an early Eurostar home.

Hope this helps, let me know if you need any more info. Can't help with the iPhone query as we used Garmins.