Epsom to Brugge - a road trip

mtb-idle

Well, I had a great start to the Bank Holiday w/e.

I rode from Epsom to Dover on Saturday morning, ferry to Dunkirk and then rode to Brugge Saturday evening.

A great evening out in www.ribsnbeer.com and then rode to Oudenaarde on Sunday before getting a train and the Eurostar back to Londres.

Unfortunately, Eurostar decided to leave my bike on the train and send it back to Brussels but I'm sitting at home now waiting for them to courier my bike to me.

So I used the time well to produce a quick n dirty, no frills edit of Saturday afternoon's ride from Dunkirk to Belgium across the flatlands of Flanders

Let Me Go

Hope you like it and let me know if you want any more details of the trip/itinerary.

itboffin

cool but you didnt stop at the fair ...?

itboffin

did you need to pre book the eurostar?

mtb-idle

itboffin wrote:

did you need to pre book the eurostar?

yes, pre-booked the return trip plus the bike. Paid £30 to ensure the bike travelled back on the same train as me but err... they put it on an earlier train and forgot to take it off so it went back to Brussels. No problem, they couriered it to my house today.

itboffin

And the fair?

mtb-idle

I'd just completed a 150 mile joyride, I didn't need any more action.

bigmat

MTB-Idle wrote:

Well, I had a great start to the Bank Holiday w/e.

I rode from Epsom to Dover on Saturday morning, ferry to Dunkirk and then rode to Brugge Saturday evening.

A great evening out in http://www.ribsnbeer.com and then rode to Oudenaarde on Sunday before getting a train and the Eurostar back to Londres.

Unfortunately, Eurostar decided to leave my bike on the train and send it back to Brussels but I'm sitting at home now waiting for them to courier my bike to me.

So I used the time well to produce a quick n dirty, no frills edit of Saturday afternoon's ride from Dunkirk to Belgium across the flatlands of Flanders

Let Me Go

You mean you missed the best bits?! :shock:

Well done, sounds like a great weekend.

mtb-idle

BigMat wrote:

MTB-Idle wrote:

So I used the time well to produce a quick n dirty, no frills edit of Saturday afternoon's ride from Dunkirk to Belgium across the flatlands of Flanders

You mean you missed the best bits?! :shock:

Well done, sounds like a great weekend.

The flatlands was Saturday PM and was the conclusion of the days riding just to get us to Brugge.

We had planned to ride the Muur van Geraardsbergen on Sunday but unfortunately a Garmin/map reading error and a slower pace than expected meant that we had to cut that out and divert to the station.

Koncordski

Good stuff but you can do about 80% on the wide & smooth canal towpaths all the way into the centre of Brugge which in many cases runs paralell with the roads you were on but is IMHO a nicer ride. Did you choose the on-road route or was it the best one your sat nav came up with? 8)

mtb-idle

cheers Konkordski,

I was just following someone else. I can't recall if he routed it that way deliberately or whether he just got it off the web.

We had a mechanical on the way down to Dover (broken spoke on a wheel with not many spokes meaning it was a really bad wobble). We limped on but then a stop at an LBS to get it fixed lost us another 45 minutes which meant we missed the midday ferry by ten minutes.

We got the next one but that was at 14:00 GMT which meant we arrived in Dunkirk at 17:00 CET. So we were more interested in just hammering it along a straight road to get to Brugge rather than deciding what was the nicest, prettiest, easiest route etc.

All three of us are seasoned cycle commuters into London so a bit of Belgian traffic didn't trouble us.

Koncordski

I get you, well good effort getting there before it got dark, if the wind is against you it can take an age. Missed the ferry on the way there and the way back last year. Funniest was the girl at the check in booth coming home, she looked at my missed booking and said i'd have to wait in the terminal until the ferry was loaded in case there was no space left. I looked at the size of the ferry and then pointed out the size of my bike and just laughed at her. I don't think this helped me board any faster! Got home and there was a rail replacement bus which of course doesn't take bikes so had to ride on to Folkstone to pick up a train. Belgian roads are largely deserted though which is a pleasant change. Lille is also well within riding distance in an afternoon from Dunkirk, although the beer when you get there is not in the same league. :roll:

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/558444072

That's the return track, ignore the last couple of miles to the ferry as I took the main road to the port hoping not to miss the boat (missed it anyway!) and it was horrid, trucks and broken glass on a dual carriageway. Better to go through Loon Plage and hug the coast. Average speed heavily affected by the 9% beer and headwind. I have many more excuses if you want them.

mtb-idle

thanks again.

EDIT: this was my route Saturday PM

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1149989028

On Sunday we got back to Brussels about 3 hours before Eurostar due. We dropped off our bikes (which we had paid £30 in advance to guarantee would accompany us on the same train) and went for something to eat/drink.

Boarded Eurostar home and went to pick up our bikes. Nil, nada, nein, nothing. They had obviously thought oi, oi, we'll put these on an earlier train and get them out of the way but didn't tell London they were coming. because there was no manifest London sent them straight back to Brussels.

So we demanded they courier them to us on BH Monday which in fairness they duly did. My mate is a director of the courier company they used and told me that cost them £300 for the courier!

Next trip planned is Ferry to Caen and then do the D-Day beaches.