Bikes on Boats

Roos Eisma said:

As someone requested more cycling related threads....:

Not a question, just a trip-progress-report.
This coming Tuesday we're off on a NL round trip: train to Newcastle,
ferry to IJmuiden, 2 days cycling with a detour to Den Haag, bit of time
with my family, and a couple of days more cycling to Zeebrugge in time to
catch a ferry back to Rosyth. Finally riding back from Rosyth to Dundee.

Bikes on the ferry from Newcastle cost £5 each, booking them on is
straightforward. No instructions about how to check in with them but I
suppose we will find out when we get there. And we're probably early, we
have about 2 hours to cover the 9 miles between Newcastle station and the
ferry terminal. And a good price for a hut with a real window.

Bikes on the ferry back are free, but the booking system only allows you
to book one on per booking. The form also suggests the bike should be
shorter and lower than 1.50m. The 'bents are about 1.80 but can be 1.50 if
we take off the boom.
The customer service phone number got me someone in India who didn't speak
English - I think she said we should just show up with the second bike,
and when I asked about the length thing the conversation got very
confused. We'll see...
The booking form was a bit useless as well: there is a special offer at
the moment with seats for half price, but you have to make sure to select
the right offer option or the system won't tell you. Huts are an insane
amount more than the chair so we'll probably camp on the floor.

Update will follow when we get back!

Roos

I have never had a problem with a bent, even the IOW hovercraft was ok
with one.
--
Three wheels good, two wheels ok

www.catrike.co.uk

"Roos Eisma" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Update will follow when we get back!

Roos

Best of luck!

Roos Eisma said:

As someone requested more cycling related threads....:

Not a question, just a trip-progress-report.
This coming Tuesday we're off on a NL round trip: train to Newcastle,
ferry to IJmuiden, 2 days cycling with a detour to Den Haag, bit of
time with my family, and a couple of days more cycling to Zeebrugge
in time to catch a ferry back to Rosyth. Finally riding back from
Rosyth to Dundee.

I've been on the Newcastle Ijmuiden boat a couple of times and found it to
be comfortable and relaxed. The food is also good and I can recommend the
buffet, especially if you are into seafood and/or fish. The arrival and
departure times are good too, you don't have to arise at the crack of dawn
on arrival. Far superior to the North Sea Ferry offerings IMO.
I've only been on a Superfast ferry to Finland, very luxurious. 18hrs with
only seat accomodation does sound a bit gruelling though.
Will you be following the coast as much as possible?
Weather is looking good, even a northerly wind to help you on your way.
Have a good trip.

--

Geoff

GeoffC said:

Roos Eisma said:

As someone requested more cycling related threads....:

Not a question, just a trip-progress-report.
This coming Tuesday we're off on a NL round trip: train to Newcastle,
ferry to IJmuiden, 2 days cycling with a detour to Den Haag, bit of
time with my family, and a couple of days more cycling to Zeebrugge
in time to catch a ferry back to Rosyth. Finally riding back from
Rosyth to Dundee.

Quoted message said:

I've been on the Newcastle Ijmuiden boat a couple of times and found it to
be comfortable and relaxed. The food is also good and I can recommend the
buffet, especially if you are into seafood and/or fish. The arrival and
departure times are good too, you don't have to arise at the crack of dawn
on arrival. Far superior to the North Sea Ferry offerings IMO.

Yes, I have been on it a couple of times but never with bikes. The food
and the good offer on cabin prices was one of the reasons to start our
trip this way: I have had a couple of very busy months and a luxury cruise
is needed 🙂

Quoted message said:

I've only been on a Superfast ferry to Finland, very luxurious. 18hrs with
only seat accomodation does sound a bit gruelling though.

This is a first time for us on this ferry.... we have sleeping bags etc so
we're hoping to stretch out somewhere. That worked on the ferry to
Shetland. And maybe there are cheap hut upgrades once we are on board.

Quoted message said:

Will you be following the coast as much as possible?

Certainly for the second part down through Zeeland. I don't think I have
been there since I was 10...
First part will be a bit of an inland roundtrip to lengthen the short
day's ride to Den Haag into 2 days.

Quoted message said:

Weather is looking good, even a northerly wind to help you on your way.
Have a good trip.

Thanks!

Roos

Roos Eisma said:

GeoffC said:

Will you be following the coast as much as possible?

Certainly for the second part down through Zeeland. I don't think I have
been there since I was 10...

I'll wave when you pass Zierikzee 🙂

--
Mike
Van Tuyl titanium Dura Ace 10
Fausto Coppi aluminium Ultegra 10
Raleigh Record Sprint mongrel

Roos Eisma said:

"GeoffC" <[email hidden]> writes:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I've only been on a Superfast ferry to Finland, very luxurious. 18hrs with
only seat accomodation does sound a bit gruelling though.

This is a first time for us on this ferry.... we have sleeping bags etc so
we're hoping to stretch out somewhere. That worked on the ferry to
Shetland. And maybe there are cheap hut upgrades once we are on board.

I thought on superfast you had to book some kind of accommodation with
the cheapest being the 'airline seats'. That section is pretty chokka
at peak times, and people kip all over the place - under seats, spanning
seats, in the aisles, you name it...
May be right about a cheap upgrade on board (or at check in) - does no
harm to ask.

been on both the Newcastle-IJmuiden and the Rosyth-Zeebrugge routes.
They are mostly similar, but the Newcastle route has more to do on
board. Food is alright (nothing to write home about).

I tend to use Harwich-Hoek, but when heading to Scotland each august, I
tend to use the Newcastle ferry as the Rosyth one dropped to one sailing
every 2 days and didn't fit in with my work schedule.

--
AndyM

Roos Eisma said:

"GeoffC" <[email hidden]> writes:

Quoted message said:

Yes, I have been on it a couple of times but never with bikes. The food
and the good offer on cabin prices was one of the reasons to start our
trip this way: I have had a couple of very busy months and a luxury cruise
is needed 🙂

The cabin was excellent, and the Scandinavian buffet was... colossal and
/erg lekker/.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I've only been on a Superfast ferry to Finland, very luxurious. 18hrs with
only seat accomodation does sound a bit gruelling though.

This is a first time for us on this ferry.... we have sleeping bags etc so
we're hoping to stretch out somewhere. That worked on the ferry to
Shetland. And maybe there are cheap hut upgrades once we are on board.

There weren't cheap upgrades :-( But it wasn't very crowded so we just
crashed on a sofa in one of the saloon areas. Not anything like as nice
as the DFDS cabin, but worth saving the £140 a cabin upgrade would have
set us back, which is now going to the New Tent Fund (nothing wrong with
the Spacepacker, except Roos being a bit longer than the optimum size
for a Spacepacker...).

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Will you be following the coast as much as possible?

Certainly for the second part down through Zeeland. I don't think I have
been there since I was 10...
First part will be a bit of an inland roundtrip to lengthen the short
day's ride to Den Haag into 2 days.

That was pretty much how it went, with the run through the dunes from
Den Haag to Brielle a wonderful hack with the wind behind us. Decidedly
unflat, the dunes route, but not in a bad way.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Weather is looking good, even a northerly wind to help you on your way.
Have a good trip.

Roos even got a little sunburned at the end. I'll have an online tour
diary up sometime soonish...

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email hidden] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

Peter Clinch said:

Roos even got a little sunburned at the end. I'll have an online tour
diary up sometime soonish...

In the meantime, some more tips for bikes & these ferries:
Coming from the North (Knokke) the quay in Zeebrugge is further than you
can possibly imagine, and then there is a huge loop through the port area
to cross a railway line. Signs from Knokke are not great: at the beginning
of the harbour area there was a sign for car ferries, and then nothing
for a very long time while lots of side roads go to different quays, and
only when I was getting quite worried that we were about to leave
Zeebrugge again and we had missed our turn there was another sign.

The waiting area in Zeebrugge has showers - very useful if you arrive
after a day's ride and haven't booked a cabin on board. For the rest there
isn't much there beyond chairs and some vending machines.
The Zeebrugge-Rosyth ferry does not have a cafeteria: there are dinner &
breakfast buffets, and an alacarte restaurant. One of the bars sells some
snacks.

Both ferries let cyclists go on first (i.e. after the trucks but before
cars) so it is probably a good idea to be early.

Comment from 2 other cyclists when we got off in Rosyth: In Zeebrugge they
treat bikes as cars, and in Rosyth as pedestrians. In Rosyth they made us
walk through the passport control building and come out the pedestrian
exit.

Cycle route from Newcastle station to the North Shields ferry port: we
followed the sustrans route which was nice in places but suffered from
excess gates and silly detours. If we do it again I would probably look
into just getting on the roads in the second half.

And cycling along the boulevard in Knokke on a very nice Easter holiday
takes quite a lot of time. Or basically all along the coast.
When we had a coffee break I calculated that we needed to do 5 kph for
the next 4 hours to catch the ferry and shortly after we were caught
behind a toddler going slower than that 🙂

Roos