day 3

The strangest thing about setting out this morning was knowing that we wouldn’t be coming back to Hotel de Harmonie.  Tonight’s stay is at the Hotel Wesseling in a small village called Dwingeloo. 

The route through country roads and forest trails looked confusing ‘till I realised that the map provided (which covered four separate sheets) had been copied from two different maps and reproduced at four different scales with overlap between some and gaps missing on others.  Not a problem, the written notes should sort it out. So I sat down with the written notes and was able to place 28 out of 65 of the waypoints on the map. Those not found included ones that related to entering and leaving village signs which could be any distance from the village marked on the map and those following a particular cycle route which wasn’t marked on any of the maps. 

There are a large number of competing cycling organisations here, and a vast number of cycle paths. Each of these groups publishes maps of suggested cycle tours, and so almost every junction on a cycle path has at least five posts each with at least one of the competing colour coded route markers on it.  There are so many different ways of marking cycle routes.  The ones marked on the maps that we’ve been given are ANWB numbers that may appear on small cream and red mushrooms or on blue and white striped sign posts.  You can tell the difference on the map because one has a Y-ended marker the other has a dot, so you have at least half an idea of what you are looking for.  There are also normal road signs which are red on a white background just for cyclists.  There are green numbers in green circles which appear to be leisure routes and there are also hexagonal signs which seem to be regional interest routes, then there are the coloured post, the painted stones, the…  Our notes seem to use the hexagonal signs and ANWB numbers.  There are distance markings on our notes, but they are in km and our bike computer is in miles.  We won’t change it for reasons that will become apparent in tomorrows post.  Also on two different routes covering the same bit of road, the distance covered is different, not by a lot, but by more than the difference between some of the notes.

By the time you are actually at a point it is usually not too difficult to work out which sign post you are looking at, unless you are at one of the junctions that has the same number as the one at the junction 10m down the road, which also has a road name the same as the junction you are standing at. This happens quite a lot as the cycle route that follows a particular road has the same name as the road it follows, even if they are some distance apart.

If I have made it sound difficult, it hasn’t been that bad.  A few minutes head scratching provides a solution which, when wrong, is easily corrected by turning round and going the other way.

Anyway the ride today was my favourite so far.  The woodland trails were just lovely, both the scenery and the trail itself which was covered with crushed sea shells.  The only down side today is that we have managed to rip a hole in the bottom of one of the panniers.  We haven’t lost anything fortunately but we are having to be careful about how we pack it as the thread that was in the hotel sewing kit may not hold it ‘till we get back to the gaffer tape in the car.