So we were on our last day of our 3 month European motorcycle tour! The months had flown by and we had such a great time exploring on the Bergman. We still had one last day in the Netherlands though to make our way to the ferry at the Hook of Holland. After handing back to the owners for our Wassenaar Housesit in the early afternoon we packed up and had a leisurely drive in the sunshine to the Hague. We picked a random street corner in the middle of town to park the bike, next to another motorcycle before we headed for a wander. We didn't see lots of the Hague as it was very hot in all our gear but wandered around the Binnenhof area near parliament, saw the beautiful Mauritshuis museum building and took a stroll along the waterside looking at the parliament buildings. We also had a quick look around a local antiques and book market that was nearby.
From here we headed a few minutes down the road to the quaint little town of Delft. This was really pretty with lots of small bridges and canals. Once we found somewhere to park we wandered along the main streets where lots of people were in the outside seating areas of bustling restaurants and bars. There were what looked like lovely little shops and it would have been a lovely place for a short city break. As it was later in the day though all the small shops and cafes were just closing. Instead we made our way back to one of the local terraces and joined people sitting outside having a drink having our last beers in the Netherlands (Dave's was non alcoholic though). It was a great chilled way to finish our time here and really summed up the Dutch culture.
As it was getting a bit later on in the day we made the final hour or so trip towards the ferry, with just a stop for fuel on the way. We pulled up to the ferry terminal and were surprised to see there was already a decent queue waiting for it to open and already about 10 bikers in front of us. This was nice as we didn't really have any on our initial way over, it being too early in the year before. Dave had a nice chat with a few of them and they enjoyed asking about the bike. This didn't last long though as check in opened early after about 5 minutes of us being there. After getting our boarding passes we then had to wait on the side of the river in the queue for passport control. The wind had really picked up by this point and was blowing us about horrendously whilst we were waiting. We were both glad we weren't having to ride much more in the wind that day. When finally through passport control we joined the queue with all the other bikers, briefly getting off the bike, only to then have boarding start early. We were not complaining though and we're glad to be out of the wind. One of the crew members helped us to strap up our bike securely whilst also asking us questions about it being really interested in it being a larger scooter.
And just like that we were back on the same ferry that brought us over to Europe a few months earlier. We found our cabin and we're glad it was a much more relaxed journey there than it had been for the ferry over. We grabbed a coffee and a beer from the bar, joining everyone else enjoying being on the boat. Then we made our way to the buffet for some dinner, having some very generic curry to fill up. We went for another beer as the boat finally set off before heading back to the cabin for an early night. The boat was due to arrive at 6.30am so we were expecting to be woken up early by the announcements.
After a decent night's sleep we were woken up just before the announcements for breakfast started. We showered and packed up all our stuff before making our way out to the seating area with it all, waiting to be told we could head down to the bike. It was all very efficient and on time and we found our bike, unstrapping it and packing it all up again. We had less time pressure to do it on this journey as there were lots of bikes in front of us and about 30 more behind us so we didn't need to rush as everyone was faffing about. It was fantastic to see so many people out on bikes. Eventually it was the motorcycles turn to be let off and it was fun to feel like part of a pack all parading through the ferry terminal, up the twisty concrete bridge to passport control. It took us about 30 minutes to get through passport control and then we were back in the UK!!
As the weather was nice and we had gotten off the boat so early we decided to take the back roads and do a very long journey from Harwich to Bournemouth, back to Dave's folks. We headed through some lovely countryside before arriving in Bicester where I met my friend Claire for lunch. It was lovely to catch up and a good way to break up the day. After this was the journey from Oxford to Bournemouth. We managed to wiggle our way through some of the traffic jams on the a34, making the most of being a motorcycle. Then we took a longer route so that we could journey through the new forest. The roads, villages and scenery were fantastic and a brilliant way to end 6 hrs on the road.
And that was the end of this trip. It has been fantastic to have the freedom of the motorcycle to go wherever we want and a completely different way of travelling for us which has been fun and challenging at times, but that's what its all about. We are spending 3 weeks in the UK seeing family, visiting friends and then selling the Bergman before we head off to Thailand. Next blogs will be us returning to backpacking, first stop Thailand for a month!
Thanks
Alex
Comments