Ride on the fortifications of Leiden

Bicycle: 14 km 
Riding time:  0:48 h
Total ascent: 12 m
Avg speed:  17.2 km/h
Max speed:  27.0 km/h 
Route: Fortifications of Leiden * 2
Weather: Sunny and very warm and a bit humid, 24 C

I took the opportunity that my husband was studying Japanese to get out for a quick evening ride before dinner. Again I had not specific idea where to go, until a few hundred meters after leaving home, I discovered that I had forgotten all my water supplies, so I decided to stay as close as possible to home, but still to continue riding. Thus transforming this ride into a a zig-zag line around the moat of Leiden.

I took this picture at the point of return (I didn't do the ride twice in the same directly but once forward and once backward), just to see how the road from the other side looks like.

I think the anti-clockwise ride was slightly better, more straightforward.

Here a picture from a place actually quite close to home... but when I took it I still had more than half of the ride in front of me. In Leiden they always decorate the bridges very nicely with these pink and white flowers.

and a picture of the only surviving windmill in the centre of Leiden, DeValk, which is a huge windmill. Normally a windmill would only start at the level where there is the balcony on this one. But with windmills in the city, they needed to construct them higher and higher to harvest the wind which was otherwise blocked by the houses.

Ride for 2 pictures from Leidschendam

Bicycle: 29 km 
Riding time:  1:47 h
Total ascent: 29 m
Avg speed:  16.1 km/h
Max speed:  31.7 km/h 
Route: Leiden - Vlietland - Leidschendam - Leiden
Weather: Sunny and warm, 21 C

When we asked our friend who was staying for the weekend with us, what he'd like to do today at breakfast, he mentioned that the ride in bicycle yesterday evening was nice... So off we went for an other ride, this time a bit farer out. 

Our first stop was a beach on Vlietland, where we left my husband sleeping on a blanket, while we continued South towards Leidschendam. We didn't have that much time, as our friend needed to get on a bus at 13:45 at Lammerschans, so the two of us "speeded" down the channel to Leidschendam, took two pictures ...

... and back we came to Vlietland, where my husband was already awaiting us along the river to ride more back to Leiden and the bus that would pick up our friend for him to return to Brussels. Japanese style tourism ... but on a bicycle. 

Finally we arrived to Lammerschans from where his bus departed 30 min before departure so had all the time to say our good byes, fold up the poor brompton again and put it in the basket and then riding slowly home with the strange baggage. 

Quick ride out to Kagerplassen

Bicycle: 15 km 
Riding time:  0:57 h
Total ascent: 28 m
Avg speed:  15.7 km/h
Max speed:  28.1 km/h 
Route: Leiden - Kaagerplassen - Leiden
Weather: Sunny and warm, 21 C

This weekend we had a friend from Palermo, now living in Brussels come over for the weekend. When picking him up at the station, Matteo suggested to put the brompton in the box on the handlebar of my city bike. I didn't believe that this would work, but actually it fitted just about, but good enough to ride to the station, unpack there and then have 3 bikes, so that we could ride back home.

In the morning we then did a walk through Leiden, including a few of the hofjes. In the afternoon while everyone else was sleeping happily away on their siestas, I prepared the sweet for the dinner invitation, which freed me up for a short ride in the evening. Our friend also wanted to come along, so we left my husband in the kitchen to prepare the dinner (definitely what he prefers... he would have kicked us out anyway) and went for a quick ride out to Kaagerplassen up to the end of the road, where we relaxed a bit looking at the water and all the passing boats. Before heading back home, where just in front of the house I discovered that my poor husband had been trying to reach me for the last hour as he had run out of olive oil... luckily this lack had a quick fix and the dinner party could start as planned. (Well, I arrive a bit late from the shower, with all guests already here. Still need to get used to Dutch punctuality. In Spain it would have been quite impolite to arrive at the hour of the invitation. Hosts are never ready by then). But no such considerations for hosts in the Netherlands ;-)

Afternoon ride to Boskoop

Bicycle: 50 km 
Riding time:  2:55 h
Total ascent: 64 m
Avg speed:  17.1 km/h
Max speed:  28.8 km/h 
Route: Leiden - Boskoop - nearly Bodegraven - Alphen - Leiden
Weather: Sunny and quite warm, 20 C

Today I decided to stop working quite early (around 16:00) after a week travelling (to Madrid) and working long hours nearly every day. And then set off for a ride out. I hadn't really a specific idea where to go, until about 10 m after I left home when I thought, that I could try for Boskoop. I had never been there, but the cities name obviously sounds juicy. 

I looked at the street signs and found easily some for Alphen aan den Rijn and decided that on the way I would find further signs for Boskoop. 

Here is where I turned away from the Rhein and off towards Boskoop: 

The way to Boskoop was very well indicated. Around Boskoop the number of tree nurseries went up spectacularly and it seemed that the city council had instated a law mandating a well groomed and designed front garden or face death penalty (or at least eternal ousting from the neighbourhood association). Each garden was a show room and many houses on the back end had a tree nursery attached. 

Per Strava it was 20 C on average, but that must be an average which does not account for the local climate in Boskoop where it was really hot, and that although it was probably already past 18:00 when I was there. 

In the centre of the village is an interesting bridge: 

Then I looked at my map and decided not to continue to Gouda, also because it was getting later and it was still quite hot, so I thought that returning would be a good idea. I had thought to ride to Bodegraven and then along the Rhein back, but finally turned briefly before through a nice landscape including this long and shaded avenue:

I would say that the entire ride until Alphen was very nice. In Alphen itself I got lost (not for the first time, grrrr....), although I tried following the street signs for Leiden, but somewhere I must have assumed straight when it was right. 

While riding (well, while stopping during the ride) I was messaging my husband where I was and at some point I told him that I'd be home before 21:00, to which he replied "Okay, we'll meet after the theatre at home"... um... I had totally forgotten about it. But at that moment I was in Alphen at yet an other vertical lift bridge ...

... and nothing I could do about it anymore to arrive in time for the 20:00 theatre performance. 

So here just a bridge performance: 

Which was probably better than the theatre performance anyway from which my husband returned with nearly an hour delay (there was a discussion about the piece afterwards) and quite annoyed at it (hopefully not at me). 

When I finally found the way home from Alphen, I just stopped one more time to get a picture of this  factory slowly falling apart, inappropriately named "Nieuw Werklust"

Just riding

Bicycle: 17 km 
Riding time:  0:54 h
Total ascent: 19 m
Avg speed:  19.1 km/h
Max speed:  ??  km/h (Strava says 74.5 km, but I am positive that thats's wrong)
Route: Straight line out of Leiden and back along the railway tracks to Den Haag
Weather: cloudy but no rain at all, 14 C


After a day working - read: sitting in front of the computer - an hour out in the open and just riding. No goal, just a quick evening ride. When I planned where to go, I wanted an uncomplicated route, easy to follow for just mindless riding. And this straight line did definitely meet that requirement.

As I wanted to be back home around 21:00 (but had started only a bit after 20:00) I turned back at quite exactly 30 min into the ride and came back. The way back didn't have the benefit of tailwind anymore... But still, I made it back in a little bit under 30 min. Total time out: 58 min, total time riding: 54 min. Probably a new record of riding time vs. stopped time.

Picnic on Zoetermeer and then some cycling

Bicycle: 64 km 
Riding time:  4:28 h
Total ascent: 153 m
Avg speed:  16.0 km/h
Max speed:  29.2 km/h 
Route: South to Zoetermeer for some picnic and then later in the afternoon up to the North to Brassemermeer
Weather: Sunny and nicely warm

Today in the morning my husband prepared a cold rice salad, a very Italian family dish, which we didn't eat in ages and then we packed it all up (plus a kg of cherries) and set of for Zoetermeer to have some picnic there. I didn't really know if or where there is a picnic place on that lake, but it seemed likely enough that there should be some.

And hell there was, with beach and everything:

Where everything included a lot of people doing barbecues. On the way to this spot, we also came through a nice village:

After resting on the beach in the shadow of some trees, we returned back home, as my husband needed to travel on to Bologna... So more time for me to cycle.

After a rest at home, I restarted my ride, without a really clear goal, but just thought that going North might be a good idea. So I went. At some point I decided to follow the "Molens & Meerroute"...

... and was "rewarded" by multiple windmills with cows:

... of windmills with cows and sailboats (yes, up there on the right of the windmill is a sailing boat):

It was also a ride to inaugurate a new cycling pants I just bought this week. 

A circle around Leiden

Bicycle: 25 km 
Riding time:  1:31 h
Total ascent: 39 m
Avg speed:  16.6 km/h
Max speed:  44.3 km/h (can this be true???)
Route: Once around Leiden
Weather: Sunny, a bit windy, 21 C

On Saturday I had come back from a long and nice ride in Gelderland with quite some buttock pain and a bright red spot. In the evening I was hardly able to sit on a normal chair and yesterday just riding out to a park on Kagerplassen was not the most enjoyable cycling experience (also because I had to ride on the brompton, as my Citybike doesn't want to keep the air in the tyre... But today it felt better so I decided to get out an give it a try. Wearing my second cycling shorts, so that I don't get the same irritation in the same spot. 

I decided for a ride around the city, both with the idea to be able to return home should the buttock situation get worse and also to get home in case husband was getting home for dinner.  It's not a perfect cycle, and looking at the map below now a posteriori there was definitely room for improvement in this round. Did really miss that river only narrowly. The South and East part of the ride was nice. The North part was simply along a rather major city road, so nothing specially.

I also forgot a lot of stuff today at home: helmet, gloves and water. Only the water could be helped on the road:

But I am happy that I am back on the bicycle without major pain.

Probably no more cycling for the next days, as it is off to Madrid (for work) on Wednesday morning and tomorrow I guess I need to prepare my suitcase...