8 August 2007

Amsterdam - Homeward Bound

After a late night on Saturday after the football at the ArenA, we had a late morning and a leisurely breakfast before packing up for the ride back.

At this time we had no idea that by some stroke of luck we had missed the entire closed section of the motorway south of Utrecht on the way up or that it was going to be even hotter than the previous two days.

Is it possible to get sunstroke through your clothes and helmet?

Escaping from Amsterdam was easier said than done. We thought we had retraced our steps back to S108 and the A10 Ring but in fact had gone towards the Centre! I guessed as the Heineken Brewery came into view. A quick ride round the block brought us on the way out, eventually meeting the Ring at S110. Not too bad. Just loads of sitting at traffic lights in the burning sun.

Once on the A10 the A2 wasn't far off and we started to up the pace. Even at 80mph the wind was still warm coming through the top vents of my helmet. As we approached Utrecht there were signs in Dutch that meant very little to us but from the pictographs it looked like motorway closed. We were right as it happens. We followed the detour, that helpfully kept us on the A2 and added 25 miles to the journey to Breda.

Once there we re-joined the original route and we were soon into Belgium. As it was so hot we ended up stopping every 50 miles or so for a drink and a stand in the shade. As my phone wasn't working, Vodafone had put the international bar on (!) I couldn't contact our friends John and Inge to say we were in the area, so instead me went back to the Shuttle. By now it wasn't as hot as it was getting on for 1700 local time.

The trip under the Channel was the usual 35 minutes following ages sitting about, firstly by the big car park and then again alongside the train as they load cars on so that they can stuff us in the last carriage. Does anyone have any idea why we can't be loaded as and when we arrive?

Anyway, all in all a good trip, hot and uncomfortable and not without some niggles. At least the GS ran perfectly the entire trip!

1 comment:

Shireen Rose Rodrigues said...

Wow.. I so wish I could ride.. :(