Norwich to Uppsala (Sweden) day 2. Now That’s What I Call a Headwind

Day 2. Now That’s what I call a headwind 

The ferry crossing was very straight forward and I was especially pleased that I had managed to find a space to squeeze my bike in in the bicycle parking area.

The other plus was I had the opportunity to rate the Stena line Egg on Toast which was actually quite good.

Once dockside then I didn’t hang about disembarking as I knew today would be a struggle with a strong headwind forecast all day. On the plus side then thanks to the Netherlands incredible cycling infrastructure over 80 miles would be on  good quality cycle track, often far away from motorised traffic.

Sadly the wind was as bad as predicted so my 103 miles took me 11 hours. 

It also meant I only had time for two café stops which were both a bit rushed. Fortunately I had packed an emergency croissant and half a snickers bar which took the place of one of the other potential stops.

Despite the rather cycling focused day all my trip goals remain in tact (see Day 1 post for details)

 1. The Uppsala parkrun people we’ll be pleased to hear I covered the planned mileage today but with more head winds forecast tomorrow and storm Babet due to hit Friday there is a good chance I might have to skip a bit of cycling to make it on time.

2,3. Still no sign of any pickled herring to review yet but I’m sure some will turn up the nearer I get to Scandinavia.

4. Only had time for two cafe stops today and both were good  solid Dutch offerings. 

Tref cafe scored 6.87 on the EU approved European  cafe rating system and had a nice hot chocolate (with heart) but cake had seen better days.

The second had a nice outdoor continental style seating area (probably as it was on the continent) which I took advantage of.

It also did Apple pie with cream, which is a must in these parts, so managed a respectable 7.06 however im hoping for cafes better to come.

5. Thing of the day today was the windmill but I only saw two. The winner was in the middle of a housing estate. In previous cycle rides in these parts I’ve seen lots of windmills so I was rather disappointed with the lack of participants.

I will still, of course,  be sending a winning thing of the day certificate to the local mayor.

Tomorrow’s thing of the day will be bridges. I went on a lot today so they are clearly popular in these parts. The other thing they seem to have a lot of is rivers.

Im pinning my hopes on tomorrow not being so brutal and I can take a bit more time and care rating things and updating my spreadsheets. Hopefully everything will still be on track

Tomorrow’s weather

Trip stats

	Miles	Time on bike	Average speed	Meters climbed	Distance to go
Day 1 Norwich to Harwich	77.64	06:05	12.8	784
Day 2 Hoek of Holland to Deventer	102.95	09:02	11.4	366	884

Todays route