The lost coat of Arnhem

After our final night in the Netherlands at a friendly campsite near Arnhem, we begun the usual morning ritual of packing up our tent, gathering our kit, filling up our water bottles and our bellies, and headed out. Both of us were sad about leaving the stunning and welcoming Netherlands behind, but we were very excited to be heading to Germany to stay in the 5-star rated campsite which we had found online. 

We pedalled merrily along, passing many more windmills and getting our final two dutch ferries. We were counting down the miles to get to the German border where we assumed we would be greeted by a huge sign and some sort of fanfare. It’s fair to say we were a bit underwhelmed passing the A3 sized EU-style sign that welcomed us to Germany. As we would soon realise, however, this would not be our first or largest disappointment of the day. 

We had bought some orange/mango flavoured oat milk at the supermarket the day before (which was pretty grim by the way) and about 35 miles into our trip I asked Jack if he threw it away at the previous campsite. He said he couldn’t remember and I replied that it was on the table with his coat. Suddenly, he slammed on the brakes and asked me to check if his coat was in the front of his bag. It was not…

We swore for a bit, thought for a bit and decided to get some food, head to our 5-star campsite and decide what to do there. We looked for the closest supermarket on google and headed towards it to be greeted by a clearly deserted building. The closest shop was many miles away so we continued to the campsite and luckily passed a small grocery shop / bakery on the way and used a chunk of our remaining cash to get food.

As we turned the final corner into the campsite we were greeted by absolutely nothing. The supposedly 5 star site simply did not exist, or was somewhere completely different.  We cycled back to a not-so-luxury caravan park we passed previously and asked for a space there which we were told would cost us €16. We counted out our remaining cash and fell short but the very nice owner let us stay for only €12. It wasn’t quite the 5 star experience we expected but a hot shower and patch of grass is enough to keep us happy. 

We took some time to research routes, trains and options for getting back to the lost coat. It looked like you could get a train and a bus and go there and back within 4 hours so we decided that would be our plan for the next morning. Otherwise we would either have to organise postage from the coat’s current babysitter or spend a lot of time thinking about and shopping for new coats, which we weren’t so keen on. 

The decision had been made, the route back to the coat planned and so we headed out for a dinner at a stunning golf club by a windmill nearby. The combination of schnitzel, beer and chips was perfect to forget the troubles of the day. 

This morning we packed up quickly and set off to the train station. We decided it would be awkward and expensive to get both of us plus a fully packed tandem on a train so I (Baz) decided to wait while Jack undertakes coat-rescuing by himself. 

So now I’m 2 and a half hours into sitting on a rundown German train platform, waiting for Jack to return with his waterproof hero cape and our mini rucksack trophy. 

Speak soon,

Jack and Baz