Cycling to Poland via Harwich / Hook of Holland

So, we have started the journey and here is a quick update if anyone wants to make a similar trip. We started in St Albans using cycle.travel (thanks for recommending it @grams, it is my favourite map now) with paved only option as it is close to original EV2 route but with less busy roads. We have older racing bikes (CAAD9 and Ruby) with 25mm tyres hence the road choice and ultralight baggage but for anything else you can use all paths option as it saves quite few kilometres. The first leg of the route was fantastic- country lanes and cycle paths (sometimes using road running next to was quicker), very quiet and picturesque. Few pubs along the way were open early so quick tea/food/loo break is not a problem. We found our first stay in Braintree (the plan was to go to Colchester but we could not find any accommodation available) so did approx 80km in our first day but had to start ultra early the following one to make it to Harwich for 9am and catch a ferry. We opted for google.maps route as it saved approx. 20km but with more traffic. As it was super early (4am start) and wet, we wanted to stop for some tea along the way but most of food places were closed and the petrol station we stopped at, served only coffee. Thankfully we had a good pace and some time to spare, as I got 2 punctures one after another. Lesson learnt- if you have one, do not rush and check the tire throughout. I did not, and less than 10 mins later had another puncture because I missed a piece of glass inside the tyre. We have made it to the ferry around 8am and are now heading towards the continent. Will try to update the thread again in 2-3 days time but pm me if you need any additional info.

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