Thur-Fri, Sept 15-16

My first riding day was what I was most nervous about, with biking thru London followed by some hills and an unknown level of bike friendliness in rural England. However, nearly everything worked quite well. I started early enough that north London was pretty calm, mostly families going to school and good bike signage.

After London the hills started, and they took their toll. The roads were nearly all quiet and winding around hilly farms, with a couple roads requiring me to walk up. While I packed very light, the extra 15 pounds and lack of any hill training around Chicago made it rough at times, but overall I managed. I was also biking into the wind most of the time.

I didn’t plan my meals well and ran out of decent chances until I got to Cambridge after 55 miles, stopping for a healthy bowl on the way to the city center. I had a couple hours to kill and biked around Cambridge’s historic buildings before checking in at my AirBnB outside the center, leaving my bike & stuff, and walking back to Cambridge for pizza and relaxation. The weather was chilly but great, and I couldn’t help but imagine Noah doing a study abroad someplace like Cambridge. Incredible!

After a warm AirBnB experience including pastries, I headed out for day two – and even though much of the plan looked like the first day, Friday ended up being the most harrowing of the trip. The ride started nicely from Newmarket, the birthplace of horse racing, and followed hilly farm roads in the wind thru Bury St. Edmonds (lunch) when the weather got a lot worse.

I ended up biking on some heavy-trafficked roads, eventually getting used to biking on the left edge and being passed by cars and trucks on my right. Hundreds of vehicles passed me but no close calls, and I arrived in Ipswich pretty drained and ready to take the train the last 20 miles to Harwich. Instead, downed train power lines led to train cancellations out of Ipswich, so after exploring multiple bus options, I jumped back on my bike and rode 10 stressful miles, mostly in heavy rain, arriving in Manningtree to catch a train to Harwich with a couple minutes to spare.

The harrowing day wasn’t over. The train dropped me near the overnight ferry to the Netherlands with a few hours to spare, so I camped out at a McDonald’s, repaired my glasses with superglue, waited in line to board the ferry with my bike on a cool windy night, and eventually boarded and got to my front-facing cabin. The ferry, the largest in the world, was modern and even lavish (wasn’t expecting so much from a ferry!), but my main memory is feeling some first-ever motion sickness that cut my sleep down to a couple hours.