Everyone should make the Netherlands a destination.

[Drago]

Over here in the US I would love to encounter other riders to join up with. In most parts here, it can be a suicide mission to expect any space on the roads since few places offer any bike lanes or paths. Here you first hear the deep rumble of a pick-up truck coming behind you, laying on the horn starting at least 200 meters away and the complimentary middle fingers raised out the window as they rev their engine as they pass.

An easy solution.

 

[snorri]

One thing I have noticed, having done a fair bit of cycling in the Netherlands, is that cyclists never seem to collide with other cyclists or indeed fall off their bikes for any other reason.

Indeed, I've also considered the cycling skills demonstrated daily by the vast majority are far superior in the Netherlands, when compared with the UK.

 

[mmmmartin]

Apropos of nothing at all: I'm in Bruges for a few days. Yesterday I had the most terrifying experience - driving a car in a city dominated by cyclists. Its obvious that all other car drivers are scared of cyclists and stop the moment they see one, and do anything to avoid the slightest chance of hitting one. The roads are deliberately designed to make car driving a nightmare. There are more one way streets than you can shake a stick at, and the cobbled surface is surely there to increase the road noise inside the car. Parking is impossible: garages cost €25,000 and most people just pay €8.70 a day to put the car on the underground car parks.

Riding a bike, on the other hand, which I did today, is great. However the cobbled streets do put you off, and now I realise why some streets are popular with cyclists and others are deserted.

To sum up: it's great for cyclists.

 

[tribanjules]

Booked cycle tour in July for 3rd year.
Going clockwise this time.
It's a great place to visit.

 

[slowmotion]

I'm a big fan of The Netherlands and have been over there on my bike half a dozen times. Strangely enough, I found the cycle lanes in the big cities far more daunting than heavy London traffic (including Hyde Park Corner). They must have a hidden set of rules to avoid accidents, but even my Dutch friends have not managed to explain to me quite how it works.

 

[mjr]

[...] in Bruges [...] Riding a bike, on the other hand, which I did today, is great. However the cobbled streets do put you off, and now I realise why some streets are popular with cyclists and others are deserted.

Bruges's cobbles are bliss compared to Gent's! I'm sure the anthem of Gent should be parts of a broken mudguard rattling against each other...

One thing I have noticed, having done a fair bit of cycling in the Netherlands, is that cyclists never seem to collide with other cyclists or indeed fall off their bikes for any other reason. The other thing I've never seen is anyone by the side of the road fixing a puncture or any other mechanical. In the UK one does seem to see all these things on a fairly regular basis.

I do realise that this is, of course, mere anecdote, and not at all scientific, but it is something I have noticed.

Me too. A group of us riding around Belgium for a week suffered no punctures. I suspect it's because we were mostly on cycleways and the roadside cycleways we used mainly had little hedges between them and the carriageway which probably caught the never-ending stream of debris generated by motorists which litters UK ones as much as the carriageways if not more (because there are no heavy vehicles on cycleways to grind it down or flick it into the verge). However, two riders did have their handlebars come loose after prolonged cobble riding! But we had the tools to adjust and retighten...

 

[swansonj]

......

To sum up: it's great for cyclists.

To sum up, it's great for humanity!

It's a vision of how life can be when public shared space is indeed public and shared pretty evenly and everyone accepts the more or less equal right of everyone else to be there, which becomes possible when you remove the hierarchy of precedence determined by power which we have been so conditioned to accept as normal.

 

[woodbutcher]

An easy solution.

View attachment 411640

Whats not to like

 

[Serge]

To sum up, it's great for humanity!

It's a vision of how life can be when public shared space is indeed public and shared pretty evenly and everyone accepts the more or less equal right of everyone else to be there, which becomes possible when you remove the hierarchy of precedence determined by power which we have been so conditioned to accept as normal.

Very well put.

 

[Shut Up Legs]

I might have gone on a cycling trip to The Netherlands, but it's no secret I love riding up mountains, and I could never get anyone to give me decent directions to the Dutch Alps.

 

[Blue Hills]

I have distant memories of my Vespa trip to Amsterdam and the Netherlands. Set off from Amsterdam one day with vague plans to sleep out somewhere - saw the odd patch of trees in the distance which as I got closer proved to provide no cover whatsoever. Everything flat as a pancake, no cover at all.I think I returned to Amsterdam and the hotel I'd set out from.

 

[Sixmile]

A lot of people think that it's flat and boring. There is an argument to be made for that, but there is a wide variety of landscapes from the big urban areas (well made cycle paths make it easy), lots of canal & river routes, rural farmland, sand dunes & moor areas, coastline and some hills in Gelderland (around Arnhem) and Limburg. Good route planning will pay off.

Try Limburg for the hills - south west of NL at the border of Germany & Belgium. Fantastic riding. Not long climbs, but lots of short, sharp ascents & descents.
I live in NL and have toured in lots of Europe. It's only in the last couple of years that I've started taking short tours here and have been very pleasantly surprised at what there is to see and do - even in winter. Travel by car in NL you see the motorways, travel on a bike you see everything!

I'm heading to Holland in 2 weeks with a group of friends who've never toured on their bikes before. We fly into Schiphol on Friday morning, ride to Rotterdam to stay, stay in Utrecht on Saturday, Huizen on Sunday and back through Amsterdam on Monday for a flight in the late evening. I've a rough idea of a route now but are there any 'must see/do' places along the way? We're heading to Haarlem straight after we build up our bikes at the airport and I've been told Delft is nice to go through but other than that nothing else is set in stone.

Mind you, at 7:30 this morning I had the place to myself.
View attachment 411264

Where is this, these are the kind of stretches I'd want to ride!

 

[mjr]

I'm heading to Holland in 2 weeks with a group of friends who've never toured on their bikes before. We fly into Schiphol on Friday morning, ride to Rotterdam to stay, stay in Utrecht on Saturday, Huizen on Sunday and back through Amsterdam on Monday for a flight in the late evening. I've a rough idea of a route now but are there any 'must see/do' places along the way?

Not sure about must see/do, but either Kinderdijk or the less theme-park-y windmills south of Groote Ammers (between junctions 67 and 68) or even both wouldn't be too far off a Rotterdam-Utrecht route. Eethaus De Waag in Schoonhoven did nice ice creams.

 

[tribanjules]

Utrecht is lovely. Really chilled after crazy Amsterdam.
Friends stopped off at the windmill theme park and apparently it's worth visiting

 

[User169]

I'm heading to Holland in 2 weeks with a group of friends who've never toured on their bikes before. We fly into Schiphol on Friday morning, ride to Rotterdam to stay, stay in Utrecht on Saturday, Huizen on Sunday and back through Amsterdam on Monday for a flight in the late evening. I've a rough idea of a route now but are there any 'must see/do' places along the way? We're heading to Haarlem straight after we build up our bikes at the airport and I've been told Delft is nice to go through but other than that nothing else is set in stone.



Where is this, these are the kind of stretches I'd want to ride!

The picture is from somewhere between Spijkenisse and Hellevoetsluis. Whilst it looks rural, it’s only just a little south of Rotterdam and I rode past this a few minutes before I got there...

Edit. Your route looks pretty nice - hope you have a good time!