A report of a German velomobile-rider's visit to England

[yoav]

He should have cycles to Amsterdam (Ijmuiden) and taken the ferry to Newcastle. I have met many continental cyclists on this route who thoroughly enjoyed their tour or northern England and Scotland.

[Socks]

Never mind tourists (although in the absence of any long term manufacturing development tourism might be our best hope).  Makes you wonder why english people choose to live and travel in the south east - that's where all the jobs and investment goes, but it doesn't make it a nice place to live.

[Canardly]

I often wonder how, given the last 30 or so years of north sea oil and gas revenue, our infrastructure is so bloody awful.

[yoav]

Because it was all wasted on tax cuts and corporate welfare, not invested in infrastructure.

[Pancho]

Norwegians saved theirs in a wealth fund with a law prohibiting spending more than 4% of the fund in any year. Our govts (of all flavours) have proved to be financially incontinent and chuck money out left, right, and centre. Now, of course, it's all gone and not only have we spent the wonga on election winning bungs, but we're in debt as well.

[arabella]

Back to OP, once uo a time I arrived back in Harwich without a map and so took the A120.  I got as far as Colchester and got a train (it would have been cheaper to buy a map instead).  It wasn't fun even back then (1990 or 1991).
I've also been remiss about booking ahead and ended up with nowhere, were it not for random householder providing a bed (and evening meal and brekky) when no official lodging could be found.  Probably helped by being in the middle of not very much wehere rather than in a large metropolis.  I put it down to lack of forethought/planning in both cases.  Y (and that of original writer) MMV.

[Auntie Helen]

I've ridden the A120 a couple of times and it's not fun but it does get  you there - and for a velomobile I would think it works better than the alternative hilly winding route.

He seems to be a rather under-prepared chap. His whole report (which I haven't read but my chum has) contains everlasting stories of punctures - he seems to have had more on this 14 day trip than most people have in a lifetime. Mind you, he set out on the tour with tyres that had already done 3000km. With velomobiles which can eat tyres a bit more due to the weight, and with 20" tyres that aren't always available, that seemed rather short-sighted.

Whatever, he had a bad experience and I have had some good experiences cycling on these roads but I can fully understand why he got so fed up and the traffic and lack of good cycle paths (which he will be mostly used to in Germany) are no fun at all. Even in a Go One.

[adenough]

Well I've ridden out of Munich airport at 9pm at night and found it to be a complete nightmare. Not helped by the fact that, as I was informed. "All the local road lights have been turned off due to Merkel shutting down the Nuclear power stations."
I found the German drivers out of town to be as bad as our own, or maybe worse as they seem to drive a lot faster.  Don't get me started on some of the terrible breakfasts in their B&Bs. Oh and they almost always demand cash only.
So we all have our experiences. I did stay touring for two weeks though.

[Jurek]

I mentioned the war in an earlier post, but I think I got away with it.

[Morat]

He took the wrong ferry. Had he sailed to Hull, he'd have had a good night's sleep and been dropped off in God's County with cycling Nirvana ahead of him. Although Hull itself is a bit... forbidding.

[Auntie Helen]

Don't think you can sail to Hull from HvH though!

[rachel t]

Don't think you can sail to Hull from HvH though!

No Hull ferries go to Rotterdam Europort or Zeebrugge