Amos road club in the Netherlands

It’s an annual tradition to join the Amos road club cycle ride over the late May bank holiday. My first was London to Paris in 2010, and I’ve cycled with them in Scotland, Isle of Wight, Wales, Belgium, along the Way of the Roses, and on some very wet days through Buxton in Derbyshire. This year we got the ferry from Harwich to the Hook of Holland and spent four delightful days cycling to Utrecht, then down to Dordrecht, looping through the national park, and then back to the Hook of Holland for the ferry home. We stayed in hostels – in the city centre in Utrecht, and by a river in Dordrecht on the edge of the national park with swimming and paddleboarding thrown in.

I love how cycling is prioritised in the Netherlands with cycle lanes everywhere, which means so many people cycle, from parents with young children on seats in the front protected by windshields to older people on ebikes. It’s truly cycling heaven. Last time I cycled in the Netherlands was just before cancer treatment in 2015, when Jonny and I made a solo trip back from Amsterdam so I could start chemotherapy. This year was much more joyful.

The highlight of the trip was discovering the ferry wasn’t running across a river on the final day, when we were making our way back to the Hook of Holland. Fortunately there was a bus replacement service, and we managed, somehow, to fit 24 bikes on a bus with much laughter. One speedy detour later and we all made it onto the ferry home.

I’m so grateful to those who make the Amos cycle trips possible, from Chris who has the ideas to Nive and Mike who make it happen. I’m also grateful to Iain who fixed my dodgy mudguard at the start of the ride. The plan for 2024 is to do the Coast to Coast route from Whitehaven to Tyneside which I did in 2011 – really looking forward to tackling it again!