Riding time: 1:33 h
Total ascent: 63 m
Avg speed: 16.6 km/h
Route: Leiden - Kastel Duivenvoorde - Leiden
Weather: Actually quite windy, cloudy, sometimes sunny, 19 C
After coming back from Japan, we had a full weekend in Leiden. Today I managed to convince my bicycle-adverse husband to come on a ride to Kastel Duivenvoorde, not too far from Leiden.
With the knooppunten we planned the ride out there. He was riding the big bicycle, which I just bought last summer, but haven't really started to like yet... I think I only used it 2 or 3 times so far and then bought a new brompton (green brompton), as I had decided to leave my black one back in Japan under my office desk there. But per my husband, the big bicycle actually rides very nicely... I guess I need to give it a try again. Here the two of them, big brother and tiny brother:
For the way out of the city I decided on the nice ride along the river and lake. However wind was against us. Not too bad... but still.
After an error in the ride at about 15 km we arrived at the castle. And were lucky that the next guided tour was in only about 45 minutes, which allowed for a visit to the nice park before heading to the castle, which is only accessible with a guided tour (not that I knew that before).
The guided tour was in Dutch only, however there was a written summary both in German and Italian available of the tour... but actually the Dutch version was perfectly understandable. The guides were all local volunteers who did a great job in explaining this castle.
After the tour, we had a rest in the restaurant on the premises and then rode back the more direct way along the train tracks back to Leiden, with the wind in our backs. In Leiden when we came up to a Mosque on Haagweg, my husband mentioned that his old apartment from over 20 years ago was really close by, so we took a short detour to find it again. Sweet and far back memories!
