8NB2501 Netherland & Belgium
We are at the Boutique Hotel Oude Morsche (the old swamp) - it is much nicer than its name. The bikes are ready and our guests have all arrived despite the strike in Amsterdam. After a welcome briefing and bike handover, we take them on a city tour in beautiful Leiden.
The sun is shining, the bikes are loaded. Plan A for today is a leisurely cycle. The first stop is the famous seaside resort of Scheveningen. The Binnenhof and Maurituis Huis in The Hague are the next highlights. Lunch is planned in Holland's most beautiful city, Delft, as well as a visit to the Royal Delft porcelain factory. A wonderful first day ends in Maassluis, right on the water. A ferry will take us across tomorrow.
The sun I shining an we start our ride from Maassluis to Cazand with a little ferry trip to Rozenburg. We hop from one island to the other and soon we find us at our first coffee stop in Pannenkoekenhuis. We than ride to Neeltje Jans to get more information about the enormous Oosterscheide dam. Upon our arrival a little snack is already prepared for us. In Middelburg we stop for a short refreshment. From Vlissingen to Breskens we hop on our second ferry ride for this day. The last 10 miles we ride along the beautiful coastline. We enjoyed every minute of it.
After a long day yesterday, we allowed ourselves a little rest in the morning. Some of us went swimming, others slept in and went for a walk on the beach. After a good breakfast, we cycled along the North Sea coast again and enjoyed the wind and the view. Then it was time to say goodbye. Goodbye North Sea, welcome to Belgium. Bruges was not far away and the next big highlight awaited us here. And even better... here we have a well-deserved rest day.
Bruges - the absolute insider tip! A city in which medieval architectural beauties present themselves as if on a catwalk: magnificent patrician and guild houses, the town hall like a magnificent shrine, the Belfry reaching for the sky, the idyllic Begijnhof. Not forgetting the canals, which are called “rejen” here and for which Bruges is known as the “Venice of the North”. And the best part is - it is completely unknown! Hardly a soul gets lost here! That was of course a joke! 8.3 million tourists a year, increasingly also from cruise ships that drop anchor in Zeebrugge and flush the “sailors” into the city. We set off early for a city walk to escape the heat and the crowds. And despite everything - Bruges is a gem!
After a delicious breakfast we start our journey to Gent. Another gem of Belgian historic towns. We ride on tree lined avenues next to the channel Brugges to Dammen and from there to Ghent. Wherever our eyes fall we see green grass or green trees together with some happy cows lying in the sun. What a luck summer is finally arrived.
A beautiful cycling route along the river Schelde and its floodplains awaits us. Some little towns lie on our way, with typical Flemish charm. In Dendermonde we got more about the legend of a quarrel with Emperor Charles, a good horse and a broken heart - except that we had a delicious lunch. But the highlight of the day is definitely Antwerp. Where is the name coming from? Why so many diamond cutters in Antwerp? What is special in the St. Jacobskerk? Tonight we will know it! So lets go and start the day....
Today we leave Belgium and cycle back to the Netherlands. We should perhaps enjoy the famous mussels with fries, the moules-frites, once again before leaving Belgium for good. Through the Kalmthoutse Heide, a nature reserve with lots of flora and fauna, we head towards Dordrecht, the oldest city in the Netherlands.
Hard to believe how time has flown - it's our last day of riding. But there is still a lot to see and explore. Our first destination is north of Dordrecht - Kinderdijk with its 19 windmills. Since 1997 a UNESCO world cultural heritage, they belong to the most photographed sights and are a popular calendar and postcard motif. When you think of Holland, besides tulips and canals, and you think of cheese. Gouda awaits us with its extraordinary town hall, the famous stained glass windows of the Sint Janskerk and of course the cheese museum. After a coffee, a cheese sandwich one of the famous sirup wafers we continue along the Amstel River to Amsterdam.