Dear all,
This trip is going to be better than the Bordeaux trip last year, I'm sure. Think of it not so much as a cycling holiday as an experience in time travel. We're going back - back in time to a place where people are polite to each other in ways that seem deeply embedded in the Dutch but rarely seen, certainly in the south-east of England. There's an awful lot of good mornings and waving from cars, and polite queuing in shops. But we're also going forward to the future and how it could be - most town centres are dominated by bikes and cars are a rarity. To give you an idea of why cycling in the Netherlands is a dream come true - here's a fact: Tunbridge Wells station has places for 80 bikes. Amersfoot, where we stayed with the inestimable
@Alan H has 7,000 bike parking spaces in front of it. And behind it there is space for another 7,000 bikes. Get the picture?
There'll be a lot more info on the Conversation in the coming days and weeks after Gordon and I have sorted out a few wrinkles and I've confirmed lunch and tea stops with the places we visited and liked. But before all that, I thought I'd give a short overview, entirely my own opinion.
First, this is going to be a truly great trip. Cycling in The Netherlands is world class: the route we suggest takes us through pretty villages, there are great views and loads of interesting things to gawp at, ride on, go underneath, watch as they go round and round, eat, drink, etc. Most days we rode on specially-made cycle paths. Now - a word about cycle paths.
And then there's the brothels. Cycle paths bring brothels.
The Netherlands cycle paths are one of the wonders of the world. Most days we rode only 10 per cent or less of the day on roads we shared with cars. When we crossed a road used by cars, we almost always had priority - and the car drivers know it and every single one stopped to let us pass. For those used to riding in the south-east of England, I can tell you it was a disturbing experience. Every single road of any size had a perfect tarmac "path" for bikes that was often as wide as the road and sometimes wider. Many road crossings have a traffic light system where the rider presses the button and the cars stop. We were amazed. BUT - there are 28 million bikes in the country and they are used a lot so we found it rather odd when we stopped in the middle of the cycle path to be "dinged" by a cycle bell within moments.
The route we suggest goes through a world heritage site with more windmills than you can shake a stick at. If you want to we might go underneath a river the size of the Thames with ITS OWN TUNNELS DEVOTED TO BIKES. There are bike lifts and escalators. One day, if you choose so to do, we might go past lots of windmills - not the ones used to move water (that's a different day) but ones used to make oil, grind pepper, etc etc. There will, we hope, be a helpful chap or two (from the local history society thingy) to explain which one was used for which industry. One day we could go to the ancient main base of the Dutch navy, from where they popped over the North Sea, nipped up the Thames and stole the biggest ship in the Royal Navy and took it back home with them and sold it for scrap. Innovative chaps, the Dutch.
There will be cobbles but only in towns and usually only for short distances. We now think we know why: the tyre noise on cobbles tends to slow down the vehicle traffic. Clever chaps, the Dutch.
Every day is different: from dykes as far as the eye can see, to coastal areas of a national park where you could think you were alone in the world, from busy city centres to remote tiny villages alongside rivers.
In Utrecht, which you may choose to visit one day and we might pass through the next, there are MANY THOUSANDS of bikes parked all over the place. Cars seemed to be a rarity. The route through Amsterdam after Bunnik towards our night at Zandam is remarkably traffic-free, in fact I can't think of a single section where we shared a road with cars. (Gordon and I are now Top Experts on the Amsterdam ferry system after we jumped on one at random, thinking they all go to the same place - they don't, but we managed to get back on track. It took only two chaps, five maps and two GPS units to work it out.)
When the suggested route is looked at you might think the days are long - but they are as flat as a pancake. And talking of pancakes, yum yum. Remember the food on the LonJog trip? Well it won't be like that. We ate well, and even my lusting for chips and beer was (almost) satisfied. And
@Gordon P did not have to come home looking like an omelette as he did after being daft enough to go to France and be vegetarian.
Our experience of the Vrienden op de Fiets was a joy: you are living in someone's home, not staying at a professional B&B. The first night we had a very interesting chat with Jans and the second night Greta was very hospitable depsite our arrival three hours later than planned. (This was because of a closed bridge and much faffing on my part.) This for €19.50 per night for B&B. Breakfast is very Dutch - bread rolls, cheese, ham, coffee or tea, chocolate flakes, and Jan ate with us and told us about the historical, and historic, triumphs of the Dutch navy.
He also spoke about the war: in their darkest days of despair when the most powerful military machine the world had ever seen was rampaging and destroying their homes and families, the only slight glimmer of hope that one day this nightmare would end was a 66-year-old alchoholic in London growling over the radio about beaches, landing fields and saying we would go "to the end". And Jan said they were very grateful when they were liberated by the British, the Canadians and the Americans. Maybe that's why they were nice to us.
So it'll be a great trip. Different from last year, better I think.