…A year later: Münster to Plymouth
Previous: The low lands
One of the challenges of long cycle tours, a long way from home, in one’s retired years, is the ever-present possibility that one’s health might take a turn unexpectedly. And so our tour ended in August 2025.
Back home, we first had a month or two resolving the health concerns, and getting the all clear to resume life as normal. And then, in a moment, a fall off the bike on home territory, a few broken bones, and another 9 months or so of getting better again.
And over that time, our bikes sat in the Velo de Ville factory. The planned shipment home hadn’t happened. We asked the question: could we just head back, pick our bikes up from the factory and keep riding? The answer was yes. In 6 weeks, we had arranged our visas and booked our flights back to Amsterdam, and our trains back to Altenberge for a happy re-union with our newly serviced, faithful old bikes.
Münster in September was sunny and warm enough for an afternoon aperitivo on our arrival. We caught the bus to Altenberge the next morning, welcomed like prodigal children to Velo de Ville. Our Münster friend, Mark, had ridden out to meet us there, and to guide us back to Münster along his favorite wooded trails for lunch. With our bikes in hand we spared no time organising ourselves to ride off the next morning.
The plan had broadly been to head south, but we were drawn to London by family and friends. So the trip south became a trip west to Plymouth, from where we could get a long way south quickly on the Santander ferry.