The books I loved most in childhood had maps in the front; worlds of mountains, lakes and crinkly coastlines – dotted with cities of unpronounceable names. I would learn to love the characters as story-tellers led them on unexpected journeys through amazing places, and I regularly revisited the maps to figure out where they were, and imagine where they would go next. I don’t know what’s happened to me over the last few years, but since discovering the discipline of Bullet Journals for task management, reflective practice, and for longer term project-planning, I have begun to embrace my artistic / imaginative side too. As I began to plan a summer cycling holiday, I decided I needed a map – and that colouring pencils would be required.
I enjoyed my cycle camping adventure around the West Country in 2024, and decided it would be great to cycle somewhere warm and sunny. I wondered if Europe would be more reliable than the UK. In the Spring of 2025, I called Dean Clementson and asked if he would join me. We discussed ideas based around a ferry to Rotterdam, and Dean discovered the European Sleeper – a night train that runs to Prague. Before long we’d outlined our escapade, and with a very rough map our plan was settled.
If planning is an imaginative exercise, packing is a practical one. Dean and I needed to understand each other’s expectations, and his setup looked lighter than mine, so I ditched the front rack and panniers, and fitted a handlebar bag instead. This also made carrying luggage through cabins on both the ferry and the train much easier. I love the process of choosing what to pack (like a real-world version of choosing a role-playing character’s kit) and seeing it disappear neatly onto the bike. Adventurer’s game: what can you identify in this photograph? Coil of rope, tinderbox, rations, short sword, leather armour…
I met Dean at Paragon Station, and we rode to the ferry terminal along Hull’s cycle paths. P&O have some sort of disagreement with the Port of Hull, so we weren’t allowed to cycle onto the ferry, instead we had to squeeze our loaded touring bikes onto a bus full of foot passengers, then get our bikes up the internal lifts in the ferry.
The experience the following morning in Rotterdam was so much better: riding off the ferry and down the ramp to join a coherent cycle-network along with several other cyclists.
We’d reached Europe, and had a day to explore Rotterdam before our train. A little bit of research uncovered a Parkenroute which would take us around some of the green sites within Rotterdam. We weaved our way through the city, and because my navigation skills are woeful, we zigzagging across the recommended GPS route. There is a cycle tunnel under the Maas which we thoroughly enjoyed, and the parks were such oasis in the city.
We stopped for a beer and chips, and people-watched for a while, loving the cosmopolitan nature of Rotterdam, and the way people on bicycles danced around each other.
I didn’t know that cycle shops don’t open on Mondays in The Netherlands but discovered this when the bolt on my Brooks saddle broke. There we were, about to begin a 700 mile journey and my bicycle saddle was in pieces. I was a bit distressed and anxious, but Dean was a picture of calm as we tried to find a replacement, eventually discovering Zwaan bikes – a specialist in Brompton and Brooks right next to Rotterdam Centraal station. Broken saddle replaced… and we still had time to catch our sleeper.
We loaded ourselves onto the train through the spacious bicycle carriage, and worked our way back to our cabin. The layout was classic, with a corridor on one side of the carriage and doors opening into cabins on the other side. Ours was a standard bunk setup, with a bench seat that folded down to make one bed and the other bed permanently set up in the ceiling space, and accessed by a ladder. We ate and watched the lights of other trains pass by. The bed was so comfortable and the gentle rocking and quiet clackity-clack of the train rocked me to sleep. I woke to see the hills and villages along the Elbe River as the train smoothly rolled by. The Elbe eventually became the Vltava River and we arrived in Praha (Prague).
Unlike flying, the use of a ferry and overnight sleeper train had turned the travel to the start of our cycling holiday into a holiday of its own, and the adventure to the start of our adventure was over… so now let the adventure begin!