A revisit to TandemTreffen, this time near Bielefeld in Germany, followed a week later by the International Tandem Rally in Scaër, Brittany. Between the two lay about 1,000km – too far to cycle in a week, so we put the Pino in the car and headed for Dover. We stayed overnight at a Premier Inn just outside Dover for an early start.
Not wanting to spend too long in the car, we stopped at Fletcher Hotel De Kempen, one we’ve stayed at before as a half-way stopover right on the Dutch/Belgique border. The next day we continued, timing our arrival at Bad Salzuflen to mid afternoon. The organisers of TandemTreffen 2023 (TT23) had arranged free parking under the hotel – most of the group would be arriving by car though a few cycled there. Later we all met up on the terrace for a welcome drink and official ‘meet’.
Most of the group stayed in the hotel but a few had camper vans in the car park to the rear of the block. The hotel had set aside a large seating area in the restaurant for us to have breakfast and evening meals together. The wonderful staff in the restaurant/bar area were so friendly and efficient…one never had to wait long for a drink! In true German style we each ran our own tab, writing down what we’d had in the way of drinks to settle up at the end of the stay. Breakfast and evening meals were buffets with a varied choice to suit most requirements.
For those that wanted it, for a small fee the hotel provided lunch bags though most of the rides stopped for lunch where there were a few cafés and restaurants for those that wanted to buy lunch.
After returning from a ride we would lock up the bike in a designated area in the garage, pop up to the room for a shower and change then head down to the bar area to socialise before the buffet was served at 7:00pm. After dinner we went to one of the conference rooms, first to be briefed on the following day’s ride then to receive a presentation from some of the group on a tour they had made. I gave a Powerpoint presentation on our ride from home to Tecklenburg, for the International Tandem Rally (ITR) the summer before.
On the Sunday some of the group went on to visit a local landmark before heading for home. We skipped this as we had some travelling to do, heading for France and the ITR which was to be held in Brittany a week later. We had six nights to stay somewhere before then, so I split the journey into roughly equal chunks of about 300km a day and found somewhere to stop overnight, each time for two nights so we could go for a ride before moving on again.
Our stops were in Eijsden, just south of Maastricht, the outskirts of Amiens and about 11 miles from Mont Saint Michel.
On Saturday 27th May we arrived at Camping Kerisole, in Scaër, Brittany and joined other members of the Tandem Club for a week exploring the area around the town. Mid-week we took a rest day and drove to the coast to wander the harbour area of Concarneau.
At the end of the week we had another five days in France before our ferry left from Cherbourg, so we headed for the north coast, to Pont Gouennec where we stayed fro three nights and had a couple of rides to explore along the coast.
First destination was a burial mound a little way inland. To get there we had to use some off-road tracks.
After the burial mound, we looped back to the coast and rode west as close to the shoreline as we could. There are some superb beaches bordered by mounds of big granite boulders.
That evening we cycled a short distance to a sea-food restaurant overlooking the marina.
Next day we left the bike in the car and drove to the place we had turned back the day before, to continue riding west along the rugged coastline. The day started a bit gloomy and overcast.
By the time it got to lunchtime, the sun had broken through. Initially we had a job finding somewhere open but with the help of Google found a place where sat in the shade and enjoyed a good lunch, then it was just a matter of riding back more directly, to the car.
Our next stop was Granville, near the base of the Cherbourg peninsular. The hotel was right by the sea, overlooking a beach but the nearest free parking was a 10 minute walk away. There was an English style pub just over the road and enough food places open to find breakfast, lunch and dinner without too much of a problem.
We decided to leave the bike in the car and chill for much of the time, though we did go for a walk around part of the town. Our ferry home was around mid-day so we had plenty of time to get to Cherbourg the following day.
View from our room, dawn and the tide is about as far out as it gets.
A total contrast – no beach as the tide reaches its high point.