A map showing my tour.

Cycling Summer 2022
26 July – 29 August

CC-BY-SA OpenStreetMap contributors

I guess after at least three times I can call it a tradition that in the summers of even years I like to go for a long bike ride. Not as insanely long and fast as other people, but long enough to forget the rest of the world a bit on the way.

For this year my destinations were suggested by two events in August: ESSLLI 2022 in Galway (Ireland) and AiML 2022 in Rennes (France). Technically they were right after each other with almost no time to bike from one to the other, but I only had to attend/teach in the first week of ESSLLI, so why not try?

Let’s start with an obligatory messy luggage photo.

Part 1: Newcastle(ton) -> Isle of Arran

How do you get from Amsterdam to Glasgow by bike? By looking at the map and deciding you first want to see the Isle of Arran, and taking along someone who wants to go hiking there anyway. So on the first day we biked from Amsterdam to IJmuiden and boarded the ferry that took us to Newcastle.

To get from the east coast to the west coast of the UK we basically followed the “border” between England and Scotland. There are two ways to do this and the reasonable option probably would have been the more-asphalt and more-touristy Hadrian’s Cycleway. But because we like forests we took the more-adventure route: National Cycling Route 10, also called the Reivers Route.

The first night we spent on a farm camping in Bellingham and the next day we reached the Kielder Water.

So far we still had mostly normal roads, but then the route went straight into the hills and forests.

Paths became narrower and narrower.

Unfortunately, right after entering Scotland and in the middle of the beautiful forests my back tire decided it had enough off-road for today and went flat, very near to Kershopehead Bothy which I had read about before, and now gave up all ideas of crossing the river to visit.

This was also the moment I realised and had to confess to E that I only had one spare inner tube with me, but nothing else to deal with punctures. So I used up the only joker, and crossed my fingers. Obviously I had been too impatient and did not pump enough, because just 2.5 kilometers later the shiny new tube also gave up with a textbook snakebite.

With a combination of cursing, whining, walking and rolling-but-trying-not-to-ruin-the-rim we managed to get out of the forest and after 8 km reached Newcastleton, which for the occasion of getting stranded was almost perfect: it had a camping site and a supermarket that was still open. There was even a note from a nearby bike mechanic at the bus station, but Josh did not answer his phone that day.

On the next morning I first went to the outdoor center north of the village, which online mentioned that they rent out mountain bikes — so my hope was to also get my flat tire fixed there. But there was nobody and even though I found their bike shed, it was of course locked.

So I took a bus to Carlisle and bought all the tings: puncture repair stuff, three new inner tubes and a new tire. They even had a 35-622 on stock — my favorite measure which seems to be rare in the UK.

The bus ride to Carlisle and back was actually fun. Everyone else seemed to know the bus driver by name — Alan. But some stations later someone wanted to get in who shared my level of unfamiliarity: first he stood on the wrong side of the road, then he wanted to enter the bus on the side where the driver was sitting. He apologised, mentioning that he only just came from Ukraine and still has to get used to the left-side driving.

Back in Newcastleton after my shopping tour I could finally heal my two-wheeled friend and around 13:00 I was ready to move again. While I had been bussing and shopping, E had already packed up our tent and started to bike further, so now I had to catch up, but not so much that I needed a highway to “The North”.

We made it until Moffat that day and the next day we reached the west coast. After a short stretch along the coast we reached Ardrossan where we boarded the ferry to Arran.

Arran is really wonderful and impressive. And for such a small island it has impressive mountains, of which we immediately got a taste. The camp site we had chosen was in the north, near Lochranza, and the (only) road there from Brodick also went up to 200 m and down again.

The next day was bike-free. Instead, I joined E for the first part of the hiking track around the island.

Yes, it’s possible to take pictures with a phone through binoculars :-)

Interlude: Finding a Ferry

As I prefer cycling over walking and had a goal for next week, I left the Isle of Arran after two nights.

Previously I had hoped to take the Kintyre Express from Campbeltown to Ballycastle, but while planning the trip I came to the conclusion that they were simply not operating at all in 2022: the website did not work and also all other methods to reach them failed.

Hence I had to adjust my plan and found another ferry: from Cairnryan (near Stranraer) to Belfast. I had booked a ferry ticket for the next morning, so my goal was to get from Arran to Cairnryan in one day. This became the longest day of this trip, starting with 22 km on Arran (with the climb) that thanks to a silly mixture of fear to miss the ferry and temptation to maybe even catch one ferry earlier, I did way too fast. After a great vegan English breakfast on the ferry then I had 111 km to Cairnryan.

There is basically only one road along the coast here: between Girvan and Ballantrae the A77 is legally cyclable, but it is not a nice experience, with lots of traffic and sometimes very narrow. I was very happy when I finally finished that part.

Lots of kilometers means lots of sweets.

That strange rock in the sea is Alisa Craig.

That evening it took quite long to find a good camping spot, because I did not want to bike all the way to Stranraer that I then would have to bike back the next day. But finally I found a nice spot with a great view of the sunset.

Part 2: Belfast -> Galway

Getting up early for the ferry, I also managed to catch the sunrise.

It seems there are way fewer cyclists crossing from here to Northern Ireland than visiting Arran. The ferry to Belfast had no cyclists corner or anything. Instead, someone opened a door to a control room and said “Just leave your bike somewhere in there”.

After plenty of tea and reading the last parts of Juli Zeh’s Corpus Delicti (which since the pandemic became a very different kind of book) I set foot and tire on Northern Ireland. Getting out of the harbour in Belfast took quite a bit but eventually I came to the city proper and met these two friendly blue animals.

Once I had found the river a very nice bike path led me out of the city. The countryside was pretty, there was not much traffic and I went from one village to the next.

The place for my first night in Ireland was the Meelmore Lodge, a camping site plus hostel, with a small but very good restaurant, and a fantastic view of the mountain range. Here I also learned that in Irish English a Chamomile tea is called a “Camma” or something similar.

My first was also my only night in Northern Ireland, because I already crossed the “border” the next day.

The main thing that made me realise I must be near the Irish border were all the anti-Brexit, anti-Boris and anti-protocol protest banners. Besides that the only thing that changes from one Ireland to the other is the design of the road signs, and the idea to instantiate a “real” border here again seems truly silly on location. Later I heard that there are in fact more places with border crossings between the two Irelands than all the rest of the EU has on its outside border.

Turning my route slowly from going south to going west, I followed the N52 for quite a bit. While it is a road with quite some traffic, the large side strip made it tolerable.

In Mullingar I was surprised to find that basically the whole city was turned into a festival! Always a lucky coincidence for a hungry cyclist.

Between Mullingar and Athlone there is a really nice cycleway built on a former railway track. It is part of EuroVelo 2 and Ireland promises that someday the whole way from Dublin to Galway will be a Greenway as nice to bike as this part.

Mostly straight, with very few intersections and very few other cyclists, this stretch was perfect to push a little faster and listen to the cool people from PostmarketOS discussing whether they should switch to sourcehut or not.

In the countryside near Athlone I found a cozy place to stay via warmshowers.

One of my hosts had a great workshop and is managing the NGO New Horizons.

Food stops are important!

I arrived in Galway (county) one day too early for ESSLLI, so I did not bike to the city yet. From another warmshowers member I got a recommendation for a wild camping spot and was not disappointed. Directly opposite Galway (city) there is a pier next to a small beach. The road along the coast here was full of people living the so-called van life, but the pier itself was still completely empty and became mine for one night.

The next day I only had 36 km left to Galway (city). Which does have bike paths, but they tend to have the German problem of suddenly ending.

Interlude: Gossip and Knowledge

In Galway I stayed for 1.5 weeks for the European Summer School. I did include ESSLLI in my summer tour before (then as a student), so I guess now I can also call that a tradition.

Funnily, the part of Galway where the university is and where ESSLLI took place is also called Newcastle. So apparently I had biked from Newcastle to Newcastleton to Newcastle ;-)

If you are curious about what I actually did at ESSLLI, you can have a look at the website for the course Knowledge and Gossip taught by Hans van Ditmarsch and myself.

The architecture of the university buildings reminded me of those in Marburg.

After our course was over I had some days left to explore Galway, including its stickers.

Part 3: Galway -> Cork

As mentioned in the introduction, the other event on my bike route for this summer was in Rennes, France. Again, there was a ferry to solve this problem, but first I had to get to the south coast of Ireland.

This involved parts of EuroVelo 1 and stunning views earned by steep climbs.

After one day I arrived in Doolin, and had enough of the day left for the touristy thing to do here: a short boat trip to see the Cliffs of Moher.

On the camp site in Doolin I met another cyclist, with a recumbent bike and many stories to tell.

The rainy next day brought me through Limerick. In hindsight I probably should have read at least some poetry there.

Luckily I had no household waste with me. No house, no household, no household waste. Or is “tenthold waste” a thing?

Mallow was a great place to have a second (or maybe third?) breakfast.

Near Cork I then found a place to camp in someones garden. This was actually the first time I relied on welcometomygarden.org and it was very nice. Just like with warmshowers there seems to be a built-in bias for friendly people with interesting lives and great stories to tell. They also had a fire place, sort of.

The next sunny morning I rolled into the city of Cork.

Or do I need to say republic of Cork? In Dutch?

Ferry: Cork -> Roscoff

Again the fear of missing a boat made me arrive way too early. Sitting and waiting in the giant parking zone of the harbour was not the nicest thing to do. But the ride over the ocean was pretty and uneventful, as it should be.

Roscoff -> Lamballe

The harbour city of Roscoff has no train connection, something Jon Worth has probably ranted about before, so I biked off the ferry through Morlaix until Lamballe where I then took a train to Rennes.

In particular Morlaix was nice to see, with beautiful artwork on its many high bridges.

Interlude: AiML

It was good that my accommodation in Rennes was very close to the campus, because on Monday morning I noticed that I had again a flat tire. Well, at least it happened when I was here already and not the day before in the middle of nowhere.

The conference, Advances in Modal Logic 2022, was wonderful. I will just list three of the speakers whose talks I particularly enjoyed.

Rineke Verbrugge about zero-one laws for provability logic.

Sophie Pinichat about formulas synthesis for Propositional Dynamic Logic (PDL).

Line van den Berg about privacy in Dynamic Epistemic Logic (DEL).

Part 4: Normandy

After the conference I still had a few days time and turned north.

Food!

And slowly the bucket-list reason for my slight detour appeared on the horizon, namely Mont-Saint-Michel.

Did I mention food?

The roads were nice here, following some canals, but I again had to fix a flat tire on this day.

In Caen I said bonjour to Jeanne d’Arc …

… and enjoyed some hipstery food in the sun.

Interlude: TER fun

The summer was coming to its end (read: the next academic year in the Netherlands was approaching). There was not enough time to bike the whole way home, so from Caen I took a TER (regional train) to Amiens. Just outside the city I found the great Camping des Cygnes where I could reserve in advance to then be allowed to arrive very late in the evening. There is even a kitchen and common room that given the late hour of the day I had all for myself. Strongly recommended!

In the morning then I biked back to the station of Amiens, seeing a UFO that looks like it came from Eindhoven, and took another train to Lille.

Final: Belgium in a day

Belgium is famous for not being very large, but depending on where you measure, it is also thin enough to bike through it in one day. And I only noticed on this day that all of the Belgian coast belongs to Vlanderen, so Wallonia is actually landlocked. So I quickly found myself in the Dutch speaking and Kaassoufflee eating zone.

From Vlissingen I wanted to take the train home to Amsterdam, but the Dutch railways were mostly on strike. Hence I got a train to Schiphol and from there biked another final 22 km home. Finally it was time to eat the last bit of cheese from Le Totem.


Thanks

As always, this tour would not have been possible and not as much fun without others:

And explicitly no thanks go to:


CC-BY-NC-SA 2026 by Malvin Gattinger.