Cockers to Newcastle & the ferry to Amsterdam.

• Todays mileage:   9 miles
• Total mileage:     9 miles
• Disasters:       None 😁

The day started the way all cycle trips seem to start – early & in a rush.  The plan was to get the train to Newcastle & then cycle to North Shields for the ferry.  To get the train at Aspatria I used the van to get bikes, luggage and Sarah to the station.  I then drove the van home & Hazel gave us a lift back to Aspatria (via Greggs 😋)

Travelling with bikes in the UK is always stressful and today was no exception.  You can’t book bikes on Northern rail trains so you never really know if you’re going to get on !   

Luck of the God’s was with us today and we were able to cram our bikes in the shitty little space allocated for two bikes.    Don’t get me started on providing an integrated transport system – grrrrrrr….

Once on the Newcastle train we started to relax a little knowing we stood a good chance of making the ferry now.

From Newcastle it was only a short, flat cycle  down the Tyne to the ferry terminal at North Shields on NC72. We stopped at The Cycle Hub, our favorite cycle cafe for a coffee & cake. https://www.thecyclehub.org/  Great cakes 😋

On the ferry we had a cheeky pint to celebrate. At £5.00 a pint for Heineken it was only one !

The food on the ferry was also rip-off prices.  How can you charge over 7 quid for a bag Maltesers !

I’d love to have been in on the meeting where a bunch of greedy accountants decided putting a “duty free” sticker on the Maltesers made it look ok.

Luckly we’d made sandwiches else a full meal may have required a call to the Cumberland to remortgage the house. We ate these and some rather dry falafel on deck while sailing down the Tyne to the sea.

We retired to our cabin for the evening

Soon it became apparent we had a cabin next to a Dutch teenage girls choir who kept singing the same song over and over again – quite amusing really.

…and time for bed 😴