Hello,
A friend and I are cycling from London to Amsterdam then to Brussels in June and I've got a few questions I hope people can help with. It's my first tour, his too, and we're a bit in the dark about what to expect.

Here's the itinerary:
Day 1: London - Harwich: 90 miles (ferry overnight)
Day 2: Hook of Holland - Amsterdam : 50 miles
Day 3: Amsterdam - some town: 80 miles
Day 4: some town - Brussels: 80 miles
Day 5: Eurostar home.

I guess we'll never be far from food or drink and we'll be staying in hotels overnight.

A few things I've learnt from reading this forum and other sites:
- get a good bike lock, take the bike inside when possible.
- get up early and get going so you can stop on the way.
- plan the route properly so we don't stop every 10 minutes to check a map.
- stop every hour or so to take in the sights and stretch our legs.
- our daily distance is on the long side compared to most tours so we may not have that much time to hang around and see the sites.


And I've got a few questions:
- How much should we be eating compared to a normal day, assuming we're cycling for 5-8 hours a day? What are good things to eat (we'll be eating in cafe's/restaurants most nights)
- How do people lock panniers to their bikes? I don't want to have to take the panniers off every time I pop into a cafe/shop.
- Are there any great tips for this sort of short tour.
- Can anyone recommend places to stay or things to see on our journey? We haven't planned the exact route so are a bit flexible.

Thanks in advance for your advice.
Steve