Bicycle Paradise Holland and Belgium 8NB2401
On the first evening, we met at our tour start hotel on the outskirts of the Dutch city of Leiden. After the welcome briefing, in which we presented the most important points about the tour, we, Diana, Jo-Ann, Michael, Ernie, Angela and Michael, walked into the city for a sightseeing tour.
The first day is always the most exciting. Well, we'll find out on our ride out of the city of Leiden. First we cycle south and then out to the coast to Scheveningen. This district of The Hague used to be a health resort and still attracts many people today for their relaxing vacation. Our plan, however, was to go and see the famous painting by Jan Vanmeer, "The Girl with the Perlohring", which can be seen in the Mauritshuis in The Hague. After lunch, we encountered more typically Dutch events on the way. Firstly, one of the musician's boats on the canals and secondly, the famous windmills. Despite the rain and the wind, we arrived well in our beautiful little hotel in Maassluis. A fantastic first day here in Holland was rounded off with a delicious dinner.
Today is the longest driving day of the tour with 112 kilometers, or 70 miles. Out of the hotel and straight onto the first ferry, which takes us quickly across the Meuse. From there, we travel from island to peninsula, to island, to peninsula. There are many bridges and sensational dams to cross, including the Oosterschelde Dam, 9 kilometers long and often referred to as the eighth wonder of the world. Although Middelburg was bombed and almost completely destroyed by the German Luftwaffe in 1940, this beautiful city was completely reconstructed after the Second World War. The next ferry takes us closer to our destination. As it was a very long day of driving, we were looking forward to the van shuttle to the hotel.
After yesterday's rather windy and rainy day, the sun finally peeks out between the clouds today. We cycle back out towards the coast across the lovely Dutch farm landscape, cross the invisible border to Belgium, and enjoy a relaxed ride along the coastline to the small town of De Haan - much to the delight of our tour guide, who shares the same name as the town :) The most famous visitor to the city of De Haan (until Angela came, of course ;) ) was Albert Einstein, who spent some months here. There are so many great statues along the beach promenade and later in De Haan that we hardly made any progress because we stopped every few meters to take photos ;) We ended the day in the small town of Bruges further inland. Tomorrow we will stay another day here to sightsee the city.
If you are in Bruges, you should visit the chocolate museum and take a boat trip, as we did. Afterwards, take a nice walk through this beautiful city.
We leave the beautiful city of Bruges and head to Damme first. We cycle along beautiful, Flemish landscapes to the Bruges-Ghent Canal, which takes us to the fascinating city of Ghent.
What a gorgeous day today! The sun comes out pretty soon after our start in the morning. Along the river Schelde we keep cycling into the cute little historic town of Dendemonde. A few adventures later we continue our paths through small Belgian villages and back for a short while along the beautifully green river side. Until we ... wait a minute ... we know this guy appearing in the distance ... and we also know this truck ... it is Michael who put up a surprise 0.0% alcohol boot beer at a lovely spot by the river, shortly before the city traffic of Antwerp starts. You may say: "bah! 0.0% alcohol - this is no real boot beer. But little would you know. It is the most refreshing and rehydrating thing after a long day of cycling. And the best - your still on top of it all. The city of Antwerp welcomes us with a musical concert. It is a lively town tonight but we enjoy it big time. Same as our very delicious dinner in our medieval-style restaurant. What a great time we had!
"I am cycling in the rain, just cycling in the rain ...", this is how our guest and professional musician Erni changed the lyrics of "Singing in the rain". From Antwerp onwards it poured with rain and so we were glad that Angela picked us up from our lunch break in the van. Once again, the hotel (Villa Augustus in Dordrecht) that Edelweiss has found here is an absolute highlight.
After a fulfilling 8 days of cycling through the Netherlands and Belgium we start our final riding day into Amsterdam. Once again the heavy morning rain wouldn't let the sun come out so that we, once more, started the day by all of us driving to the first highlights in the van. We first tried escaping the rain at the windmills of Kinderdjik but weren't yet successful. But once we reached the city of Gouda we were able to take the bikes out of the van again and to continue cycling for the remaining part of the route. After our sightseeing of Gouda, with an obligatory stop at the Gouda cheese shop, an all the more beautiful part of the ride would come up. Running along seemingly endless Grachten (waterways) our cycling path took us past quaint little houses with their incredible flower decorations. With ended our charming bike tour with a final dinner in a restaurant with a view over Amsterdam.