The short version - Happy, happy, sad, sad...
After a bit of a muddle finalising the date, June 6th was collection date. With a small manufacturer I find this understandable. My ability to grab a holiday from work is also variable so aiming for 'Jubilee Week' also worked well for me. Getting a flight to Amsterdam that week was a little tricky so the excursion was finally set for the Wednesday.
The flight went well, the train to Venlo was straight forward - much easier than UK trains. The price was the price, none of this crazy phase of the moon, day of the week, how far before your journey can you predict your need to travel. Taxi to Straelen was also easy enough. €30 and in the pouring rain, but easy - just hop in, cross the German border and there.
At Beyss I got to try Kate for size. There is no real adjustment, just the possibility of adding extra seat location slots. Fortunately (and impressively) she was spot on for fit. After a night in a hotel in Straelen I was on the road towards the Nederlands.
I was navigating using OpenFietsMap on a Garmin 800 and aiming to pick up LF13. Long Distance Fietspad 13. The clue seems to be in the name but this proved to be a very long and winding road, sometimes dropping down to a winding path through woodland scarcely narrow enough to get the velomobile thorough. It was also tended towards being rather damp in the afternoon. But I got to the hotel in Hilvarenbeek at around 6pm. The hotel had a cycle shed, hot showers and Dutch Pancakes - just right! And Mika's rather hot pronunciation of 'Whipped Cream' was worth the trip on its own! The Hotel Brabant is a recommended stop for anyone passing through the area...
Learning from Day 1 I plotted a route to towns and let the GPS take the strain. This worked fine up into South Holland before encountering a sudden surprise ferry. The river was only 200m across but I'd missed the ferry by about 15 seconds and the next one was in an hour and a quarter. Bah. Time to get to the ferry back to England was suddenly becoming pressing.
Once across the river it became a bit of a charge to get to Europort in time. The wind was blowing, with even the local cyclists weaving all over the road. The Evo-K was up to the job, merrily passing a number of cyclists on the drag into the wind and towards the ferry.
The ferry left Europort with a warning asking people not to go out on deck because of the Force 8 wind. Oh well, I grabbed a couple of drinks, a quick pizza and headed for bed before things got bumpy.
The ride from Hull to home was uneventful, tho 120 miles in a day was a good run for Kate - the evo's new name.
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