UK Monster Owners Club Forum - View Single Post - Europe by cake

MrsC_772 · 13-07-2016, 08:10 PM

Day 16 - Sunday 10 July

After an airline style boxed breakfast on the train, at 8.30 am I rode off into the thankfully deserted streets of Dusseldorf, heading via the motorways of Holland and Belgium to my last overnight stop in Ieper/Ypres.

If the "better than Tebay" service station near Bologna was the pinnacle of motorway breaks, the Netherlands serves up the nadir. Dutch motorway facilities are not what you'd call holistic. You can have a parking area (predominantly for big lorries), then a few km later a filling station (very like a UK non-motorway one, down to the "Wild Bean Cafe" serving up the same disappointing coffee) and then a little further a restaurant, but very rarely, if ever, all 3 on the same site. The Dutch petrol price was the highest outside Italy. And like in Austria, they charged 0.5 Euros to use the loo! Somehow, the Netherlands, a normally very civilised nation, had managed to combine the worst attributes of motorway services from across the EU. Perhaps it is the influence of the Dutch green lobby, determined to make car travel as tedious or unpleasant as possible, to encourage bicycle use instead.

After 2 more coffee stops in Belgium (marginally less grim services & coffee), and a bit of filtering around the Antwerp ring road, I arrived in Ypres about 3.15 pm, Having checked into my hotel, and feeling it was probably a bit early for a lightweight like me to hit the strong Belgian beer, I asked about cycle hire. Unlike the Alps, the flatter terrain of Flanders didn't seem too daunting for my unfit legs, and after a fortnight of pizza, gelato and cake, I thought a little light exercise would do me some good.

For 9 Euros, the Ambrosia hotel around the corner gave me a sit-up-and-beg bike for a couple of hours. I meandered out of town past a small lake, through potato fields (well, frites have to come from somewhere), cornfields and at an all too regular interval, past the small and immaculately tended Commonwealth War Graves cemeteries of the WWI fallen. The biking gods saw fit to tempt me, by placing a farm shop, with a cone shaped sign advertising home made ice cream, right on the cycle path. I could hardly ride straight past, could I? One scoop each of strawberry and apple tart ice cream and I was on my way back to the town.

After returning the hired bicycle, I was ready for a beer. I can highly recommend the St Arnoldus biercafe: 25 draft beers on tap, and around 6 samplers, each comprising 4 x 150ml glasses of different beers, and allowing even a lightweight to have a chance of drinking one's way along the bar. While enjoying my "light" selection (nothing under 4.5%) I chatted to 3 other British bikers, Army guys, combining a battlefields tour with a trip to the Nurburgring. They left early as they were going to lay a wreath at that evening's Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate.

While I hadn't originally planned to attend, on leaving the cafe at around 7.45, heading to the Menin Gate felt like the appropriate thing to do. Every evening at 8, buglers play the Last Post, and there is a short remembrance ceremony. The crowds are deep. This evening the singing of a Welsh male voice choir accompanied the wreath laying.

Whereas 2 weeks previously, the non-availability of frites in Belgium on a Sunday had been a big disappointment, Ypres put that right. My final continental dinner was a portion of chips, with curry sauce, at the Kattekwaad frituur on the main town square.

13-07-2016, 08:10 PM	#39
MrsC_772 Silver Member Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Farnborough Bike: Multiple Monsters Posts: 712	Services without a smile, Belgian temptation Day 16 - Sunday 10 July After an airline style boxed breakfast on the train, at 8.30 am I rode off into the thankfully deserted streets of Dusseldorf, heading via the motorways of Holland and Belgium to my last overnight stop in Ieper/Ypres. If the "better than Tebay" service station near Bologna was the pinnacle of motorway breaks, the Netherlands serves up the nadir. Dutch motorway facilities are not what you'd call holistic. You can have a parking area (predominantly for big lorries), then a few km later a filling station (very like a UK non-motorway one, down to the "Wild Bean Cafe" serving up the same disappointing coffee) and then a little further a restaurant, but very rarely, if ever, all 3 on the same site. The Dutch petrol price was the highest outside Italy. And like in Austria, they charged 0.5 Euros to use the loo! Somehow, the Netherlands, a normally very civilised nation, had managed to combine the worst attributes of motorway services from across the EU. Perhaps it is the influence of the Dutch green lobby, determined to make car travel as tedious or unpleasant as possible, to encourage bicycle use instead. After 2 more coffee stops in Belgium (marginally less grim services & coffee), and a bit of filtering around the Antwerp ring road, I arrived in Ypres about 3.15 pm, Having checked into my hotel, and feeling it was probably a bit early for a lightweight like me to hit the strong Belgian beer, I asked about cycle hire. Unlike the Alps, the flatter terrain of Flanders didn't seem too daunting for my unfit legs, and after a fortnight of pizza, gelato and cake, I thought a little light exercise would do me some good. For 9 Euros, the Ambrosia hotel around the corner gave me a sit-up-and-beg bike for a couple of hours. I meandered out of town past a small lake, through potato fields (well, frites have to come from somewhere), cornfields and at an all too regular interval, past the small and immaculately tended Commonwealth War Graves cemeteries of the WWI fallen. The biking gods saw fit to tempt me, by placing a farm shop, with a cone shaped sign advertising home made ice cream, right on the cycle path. I could hardly ride straight past, could I? One scoop each of strawberry and apple tart ice cream and I was on my way back to the town. After returning the hired bicycle, I was ready for a beer. I can highly recommend the St Arnoldus biercafe: 25 draft beers on tap, and around 6 samplers, each comprising 4 x 150ml glasses of different beers, and allowing even a lightweight to have a chance of drinking one's way along the bar. While enjoying my "light" selection (nothing under 4.5%) I chatted to 3 other British bikers, Army guys, combining a battlefields tour with a trip to the Nurburgring. They left early as they were going to lay a wreath at that evening's Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate. While I hadn't originally planned to attend, on leaving the cafe at around 7.45, heading to the Menin Gate felt like the appropriate thing to do. Every evening at 8, buglers play the Last Post, and there is a short remembrance ceremony. The crowds are deep. This evening the singing of a Welsh male voice choir accompanied the wreath laying. Whereas 2 weeks previously, the non-availability of frites in Belgium on a Sunday had been a big disappointment, Ypres put that right. My final continental dinner was a portion of chips, with curry sauce, at the Kattekwaad frituur on the main town square.