Ride Across the Netherlands

In the Netherlands, bikes travel in style

Since 2007 I've dreamed of cycling across the Netherlands. In 2010, Tim and I decided to celebrate our milestone birthday (this year!) by doing the trip - and then we found out we would be living here, which made it so much easier. Accordingly, we spent the past 7 days cycling more than 500 km from Den Burg on the island of Texel to Maastricht. If you look at a map of the Netherlands, the route bisects the country from the northwest to the southeast.

We acquired a new tandem for the trip, made in the Netherlands by Multicycle. It's a Dutch style bike and very comfortable and easy to ride. I named her Marie Claire, and she's shown riding in the designated bicycle car of the train above.

Our trip began with a four hour train trip to the opposite side of the country. Our journey had a rocky start as the first train (from Venlo to Nijmegen) stopped in between stations, with a long announcement in Dutch. We still don't understand enough of the language to catch the gist of the message, so we asked another passenger. He explained that there was a problem with the tracks and the train would return to the last station where everyone would be bused to Nijmegen. Good for everyone else, but bad for us because bikes are not allowed on buses. We were at least 30km short of Nijmegen but we got out the map to figure a route. No one got off the train, however, and eventually it continued all the way, arriving only 20 minutes late. We saw our connecting train depart from the station but weren't able to wrangle our bike to the platform in time. Luckily, the train to Den Helder leaves every 30 minutes so we were only 30 minutes behind schedule. Just enough time for a kopje koffie (little cup of coffee).

Arriving in Den Helder, we rode a couple kilometers to the ferry dock for the trip to Texel. The ferry to the island takes about 25 minutes, and there were quite a few bicyclists. Rolling off the ferry we opted to ride along the sea wall to the village of Oudeschild and to the Texels Brewery.

Typical Texel view: sheep, sheep and more sheep

After a tasting session on the terrace, rain started to fall so we moved indoors for a snack and a glass of the Best Bock Beer in the Netherlands, for 2010 anyway. We returned to the bike and cycled past quite a few sheep (Texel is famous for lamb) to the main town, Den Burg. Our overnight destination was a sheep farm just outside Den Burg, where Vrienden op de Fiets hosts Mireille and Frank made us feel welcome in their guest "pipowagen" caravan.

This thatched brick barn houses the guest bathroom

We cycled back to town (only 7 minutes away) for a delicious dinner of cockles, minestone soup, lamb and sea bass, with yummy vegetables like turnips. Shower in the barn and then bed, tomorrow is a big day and we anticipate headwinds.