Hilly NL - Day 6 - A lot of castles round around the hotel

Bicycle: 32 km

Riding time: 2:08 h

Total ascent:  147 m
Avg speed: 15.1 km/h
Route: Around the hotel in North of Maastricht

Weather: Sun and clouds, no rain, but strong wind,  17 C

Finally it seems that the bike has been repaired successfully. At least I could ride 33 km without any incident. Okay, 33 km aren't that much, but then I was back before lunch, and then too lazy to get out of the hotel room again. It didn't help that each time I looked on buienradar, it seemed that in the next hour it would go to rain. And actually the only time it did NOT forecast rain, it was actually raining outside. Anyway, I at least did some riding today. 

I took it slowly, stopping at each castle along the way and taking a picture.

Well, okay, the first picture wasn't a castle strictly speaking, but it looked great with the gray sky behind it. 

The first castle... 

... inaccessible like all the following ones, but still in use. 

Castle number 2 (Hartelstein) looked more like a defensive manor, and seems to house a housing project as well as a second hand shop. 

Before coming to castle #3, I passed through the Maas landscape, which at least in this region here claims to be a nearly natural river... not like in the rest of the Netherlands, where most rivers are highly regulated. The horses (and also some angus cattle) are officially "employed" in this landscape to keep the vegetation low and avoid the growth of a small forest along the river. 

Castle #3 was inaccessible at the moment and also unoccupied, but clearly there were some reconstruction works ongoing in order to reopen it to the public. Not sure what are the precise plans for the castle though. Looks big compared to poor, young brompton. 

In front of that castle was also this not-at-all-explained "sculpture". One would think that the explanatory sign above it gave some hints why a toilet bowl would be standing around in the middle of a village... but no. It was tempting to use it... but I figured that this wasn't the scope either. 

Continuing, I came to castle number 4, which I had seen already yesterday, but for good measure I took a new picture.

Shortly after followed by castle number 5 ...

Today I managed to progress beyond this castle and back to my hotel without incidents, but not without passing an other 2 castles. Castle #6, which is a few hundred meter away from our hotel ...

... and apparently used by a long list of companies for their offices, and a bit further down the road castle number 7 which is currently being restructured, but already quite close to finalization. Probably for something like a company or meeting rooms. 

And then finally back to the hotel, castle number 8 of the day:

Hilly NL - Day 3, 4 & 5 Rides to bicycle repair

Bicycle: 33 km

Car: 34 km 

Taxi: 5 km

Walking: 5 km

Riding time: 2:02 h

Walking time: 1:08 h
Total ascent:  165 m
Avg speed: 17.1 km/h; 14.5 km/h; 15.1 km/h
Route: Mainly to and from bicycle repair shop

Weather: Generally sunny, in the later days quite windy but less hot, 19 - 28 C 

These last 3 days, instead of riding, I have mainly been going to the bicycle repair shop. It started alright on Thursday (Day 3) morning, when I got up really early (6:00 am) to have a ride in the morning before breakfast as weather forecast for the day was hot. Too hot for me to comfortably cycle. 

I decided for a route of about 40 km around the hotel so that I would be back by around 9:15 in time for a shower before breakfast. As typical for this region, I came by some castles... 

... and then mainly cycled in between the Maas river and a parallel (but higher) running canal. At some point my planned route had me cross the canal, where there wasn't any bridge at all, but luckily going straight on the side of the canal where I was, was an option, so I continued on. 

The landscape overall was flat (although one could see some hills farther away) and not specially thrilling but okay for an early morning ride. 

Shortly after crossing the canal and starting my way back to the hotel, the bicycle became hard to steer... so I checked... and the front wheel was going flat. I tried pumping it up, but as soon as I removed the pump it went flat again within less than a minute. So nothing to be done. At this moment it was 8:30, so safe enough to call my husband to come and pick me up. (Alternatively I could have caught a bus and then a second bus... but well, husband wasn't too far away and it was time to get up anyway).

While waiting for him, I checked out brompton sellers at Maastricht and found two shops, one of them right in front of the train station. So it seemed that the solution to the problem was relatively easy. Boy was I wrong!

After breakfast we went by car to Maastricht, I handed over the poor (young) brompton to the bicycle repair man and we went off to some sightseeing and shopping in Maastricht. (While on this trip my bicycle broke, it was also the trip where on the first hike the hiking shoes of my husband broke... so definitely a trip with a lot of broken essentials). Anyway, we did our day in Maastricht and as the bike shop hadn't called (as promised) we went back again to the hotel and lounged in the large, park like garden all afternoon in the shadow of a huge oak. 

On Friday (Day 4) morning, we had decided to do a day without hiking and cycling, visiting a castle, having ice cream in yet another castle and then driving back to Maastricht to pick up the bicycle which by now should have been repaired... although the bike shop never called. And there it was, with a new, fully inflated tire waiting for me. So all seemed good and the poor brompton went into the trunk and we back to the hotel. 

As it was still early and I hadn't moved a lot during the day, I decided for a round of about 30 km around the hotel... but only after a km or so I noticed that steering was still very hard, and I made an enormous effort to even cycle. I found a quiet spot on a road and examined what was wrong with the bike. It definitely wasn't a flat. It was the breaks on the front wheel which now touched the wheel continuously... and obviously made cycling hard work. 

So back it was to the bicycle repair shop. I still had hopes that this would be an easy fix, and luckily this bicycle repair shop only closes at 19:00 so I had enough time to fight my way back into the city against the wind and with the breaks half on. 

Unfortunately it was not a quick fix, and I needed to leave the poor brompton in the shop again. For yet another night. And had to call again my husband to come and pick me up. I think he is simply relieved to hear when I call that it is the bicycle that has a problem and not me. 

As they promised that the bicycle would be repaired first thing today (Day 5) in the morning, we went right after breakfast to pick it up again, and yes, there it was, with a front wheel full of air and rolling. I even did a test ride of about 1.5 km through the center of Maastricht to try it out, and all seemed well. So husband set off by car for his hike to the highest point in the Netherlands, and I started the ride that I wanted to do yesterday. 

I had the entire day ahead of me, so decided to take it slow, do the same round I had planned yesterday afternoon and stop at each castle on the way and take a picture. I managed two...

... before the flat stroke again. Not even 8 km had it lasted (while the previous front tyre lasted for over 6,000 km!)

Luckily I was very close to a bus stop, the bus was there waiting and going straight to Maastricht station. So there I went again, to my not-preferred bicycle repair shop in Limburg. They took in the bicycle again to repair it once more. While I took a taxi back to the hotel, where I rejoined my husband who gave up on his hiking plans when hearing about my bromptons disadventure. 

At this point, I was very much tempted to take a train back to Leiden and get my Specialized Roubaix... but it would have meant an entire day in the train, the hassle of reserving a spot for the bike on the train (due to Corona) and the hassle again on Tuesday to either try to fit the bike in the car, or to ride back alone by train again. Luckily my husband convinced me to do an alternative plan. Hiking!!! An activity I quite dislike, mainly because I find it strenuous and boring. But I got to select the hiking route and choose a short one, about 5 km, with fields and forest, no hills and a restaurant at the end. Which was actually quite nice. 

En route we came by a castle with hotel and restaurant...

... later on through meadows with horses that choose to stay right in front of the exit gate (but didn't actually try to escape, just stood there, annoying the hikers) ...

... and finally along a small stream back to the restaurant where we had parked and then had a late lunch.

Before the hike the bicycle repair shop actually called that the bike was fixed again (they changed again the inner tube and this time even fitted it with a normal brompton valve on not a Dutch valve, which they previously claimed was completely unavailable in the Netherlands). I now really wonder what kind of inner tube they had used in the first repair attempt. Probably not a brompton inner tube but something else, which actually did not fit. 

For today I was fed up with cycling... tomorrow more... hopefully. And hopefully to new destinations! 

Hilly NLs - Day 2 - Wahlwiller to Weert

Bicycle: 36 km

Car: 32 km

Riding time: 2:09 h
Total ascent: 239 m
Avg speed: 16.9 km/h
Route: Wahlwiller - Weert
Weather: Sunny and warm, but not so hot as feared, 23 C

Today weather forecast was saying that it would get quite hot from lunch time onwards, so we decided yesterday to get up early, have breakfast before 8:00 and get going on our hiking (husband) and cycling (me) adventure of the day before it would get too hot, at least for me, to move. Actually now sitting in the large park of the hotel (admittedly in the shade of some big oaks), it isn't actually that hot. Nice and summerly, but not scorching.

In order not to do just a round ride from the hotel, I went with my husband by car in his starting point for the hike, Wahlwiller and then cycled back from there. 

I had found yesterday on Route.nl a round ride of about 50 km from there... which I shortened into about 36 km... as I obviously wanted to come back to the hotel. 

It started with a small castle a few kilometers after the start. 

Apparently Limburg is very well known for its abundance of castles. And it is known for its beer. I first came through the factory of Brand ...

... and shortly after through Gulpen. Definitely want to go back to Gulpen to try their Urhop that I normally buy directly from the producer. But today that place was way too early on my route... not yet for a stop. I rode on, with a bit of up and down through the undulating landscape. 

One steep hill was too steep for me and my brompton at about 10%... but luckily it was also very short so I pushed my bike up and then had a view over the hills and valleys around. 

I know, in any other country, these views wouldn't be breathtaking, and I have definitely already climbed higher hills. But well, still amazed at these non-flat landscapes in the Netherlands.

A little bit further along on the wayside I spotted a supermarket, did some small shopping and then had a brussel waffle with raspberries in the shadow of a very nice tree, before heading back to the hotel. 

Hilly NLs - Day 1 - around hotel

Bicycle: 17 km

Riding time: 1:04 h
Total ascent: 130 m
Avg speed: 15.7 km/h
Route: Around the hotel, North-East of Maastricht
Weather: Sunny and quite warm, 20 C

This year for vacation due to Covid-19 we decided to stay in the Netherlands. Not really a place we would normally consider for vacation, but actually there are nice things to discover here as well. 

As my husband wants to go hiking and wanted to escape from the flatlands we came by car to Maastricht in South Limburg, the only region of the Netherlands with some hills. Surprisingly they only start around Maastricht, so it is really only the last kilometers of the Netherlands that are hilly.

After hours in the car and a late lunch at the hotel before dinner I went for a quick ride of reconnaissance close to the hotel. Quickly planned on komoot. 

In 17 km around the hotel I did more than double the ascending than I did last Saturday on a 77 km ride from Leiden to Uithoorn. And yes, there was one slightly tiring climb... but I didn't need to push the bike. But with the ascending also comes the descending and I had a very long and straight descend from Berg en Terblijt down to Geullem. Which a lot of cyclists on racing bikes climbed up showing a lot of fatigue. But I had clearly climbed up that hill on the other side on ways with a bit less of a gradient. 

This was the view from the hill before I sailed down. 

Further along the route was a nice and cold valley with catacombs build into the rock, a small river and a lot of open air restaurants along. But I went on, back to the hotel. 

Day 7 - Venlo - Deurne (Leiden -> Venlo trip)

Bicycle: 39 km

Train: 180 km

Riding time: 2:24 h
Total ascent: 78 m
Avg speed: 16.3 km/h
Route: Venlo - Deurne
Weather: Cloudy, headwind and drizzle (sometimes), 18 C

Yesterday I had reached my official and unofficial goal of this one week ride through the Netherlands. But today is Sunday. So one more day off before returning to work. 

My initial plan was to cycle towards Eindhoven and to take the train there. But already today in the morning it was clear that the wind would be against me and that potentially some rain could be coming my way too. So instead I followed a route back to Deurne, but on different paths than yesterday when I make the Deurne -> Venlo trip in the opposite direction. 

Out of Venlo I came through this strange park or maybe some kind of university campus. Not sure. 

After about 20 km, as usual, I had my first break. I found this bench alongside the way. As in the past days, I had brought some sandwiches from my breakfast. 

I have found that my ideal break schedule is to have a break approximately every 20 km. Sometimes it can be a rather short break. Other times longer. On this 7 day trip I actually always had sandwiches with me so didn't need to go to restaurants for lunch. Just for dinner. And unfortunately Dutch cuisine really isn't very good. I would say that apart from the breakfast in the B&B in Middelburg, I did never really have great, good food. Not even in the 4star hotel in Deurne. Probably yesterday evening in Venlo I could have had a chance, but I was tired and didn't want to go out for dinner. So just went to a Döner place close to the station (and the B&B) and ate in my room. Which was exactly what I wanted. 

But really I am missing the onsen. It is such a great invention to go off to an onsen after a day of riding. Relax in the waters and then have a hearty meal with a cold beer, before making the last few km to this nights accommodation. Pity onsen are not more widespread. 

After my lunch break today unfortunately it started to drizzle. Not strong enough to really call it rain. But still strong enough to get quiet wet. Shortly before crossing America... 

... I had briefly considered to go to the next railway station, which would have been only about 4 km away. But decided to continue in the rain/drizzle. Sometimes it stopped, sometimes it started again. Luckily on the last kilometers to Deurne station it had stopped and surprisingly although I had not donned my rain cape, my jersey and cycling shorts dried in time for my arrival at the train station, so I am not sitting in damp clothes here, but rather in smelly, sweaty ones. 

As a summary of 1 week cycling through the Netherlands, I can say: 

• Landscape is a bit boring, even though I noticed some differences. 
• Heavy headwind (as again today), isn't good fun 
• I should have made shorter daily trips to be able to do also some sightseeing. Yes, I like cycling, but 7 days nothing else but cycling and eating is a bit boring. Maybe a better idea is to look for 1 or 2 bases and ride around, including some sightseeing. 
• Even July can be cold. I hadn't brought my bicycle cap or cycling scarf, and both would have been nice (and are really lightweight) 
• Cycle touring with the brompton is also in the Netherlands comfortable. Due to Corona, bicycles were not allowed on trains. But folding bicycles were. As of 1st of July they changed the rules again, and now you can again bring a normal bicycle on the train, but need to reserve first. 

Day 6 - Deurne - Venlo (Leiden -> Venlo trip)

Bicycle: 62 km

Riding time: 3:41 h
Total ascent: 123 m
Avg speed: 17.3 km/h
Route: Deurne - Venlo
Weather: Cloudy, but no rain, 18 C

Today, after nearly 400 km of cycling, I reached Venlo, the official goal of this one week ride through the Netherlands. The unofficial goal however was a supermarket in Germany to get sweet mustard! 

The ride today was shorter than the other days, only about 50 km, plus an other 10 over into Germany and to the source of sweet mustard. 

The countryside had less forests, more farmland, but with fields. A lot of corn fields, some asparagus fields, but very little dairy pasture. It seems to be a part of the country with a lot of pig farms, but they are never allowed outside. 

Although it continuous to be mainly flat, it is not totally flat. But going over the boarder to Germany means climbing a hill with 3 - 4 % gradient. Something unseen in the Netherlands (with the exception of probably the Southern parts of Limburg). 

Although the wind is no longer blowing at force 6, it was still pretty windy, so finding a small hut for lunch, was nice. 

When cycling over to Germany, I expected some kind of indication on the boarder that one crosses into a different country. But there was absolutely nothing. Only the language on the signs changed. But yet, I managed to take a picture of poor brompton, yet again divided between 2 countries: 

 

Day 5 - Baarle-Nassau - Deurne (Leiden -> Venlo trip)

Bicycle: 72.9 km

Riding time: 4:18 h
Total ascent: 83 m
Avg speed: 16.9 km/h
Route: Baarle-Nassau - Deurne
Weather: Cloudy, a bit sun and no rain, 18 C

Today was a relatively eventeless ride from Baarle-Nassau to my second convent hotel in this trip. 

Less forests than yesterday, a few more fields and a long ride along a channel. 

The channel is quite similar to the Vliet channel that links Leiden with Den Haag and Delft. But with much less boat traffic. Obviously today was a weekday (Friday) so not many recreational boat riders but also not a single transport ship. So maybe this channel is now outdated for transport. 

Following the entire time the LF route would have resulted in a 84 km ride. But after so many km in my legs from the previous days, I had planned also a somewhat shorter version. Unfortunately that went right through Helmond and from there along a rather major road to Deurne. So the last 10/15 km weren't the nicest to ride. We are talking the Netherlands, so obviously there was ALWAYS a cycle path but even cycle paths alongside busy roads aren't really nice. But it brought me to my hotel a bit earlier so I had some rest time. But not enough time on catching up with the blog. This here I am writing while waiting for my dinner. But the blog post for Day 3 is still waiting to be even drafted. At least I got cleaned up the one for Day 4 in the afternoon. 

The shortcut through Helmond however brought me to these cube houses, by the same architect as the more famous ones in Rotterdam. 

Good thing tomorrow is a quite short ride. 55 km along hopefully scenic paths to Venlo. Actually if I would just take the shortest path, Venlo is only 36 km away. But no reason to cut things short tomorrow. 

Day 4 Ossendrecht - Baarle-Nassau (Leiden -> Venlo trip)

Bicycle: 85 km

Riding time: 6:15 h
Total ascent: 110 m
Avg speed: 16.7 km/h
Route: Ossendrecht - Baarle-Nassau
Weather: Cloudy, a bit sun and one rain, 17 C

Today I mainly pedaled through forests. Which is surprising in a country like the Netherlands where there aren't many forests. Maybe the LF path was especially going through forests, or simply here in the South there are more forests. 

For being the Netherlands there were also some non totally flat areas. I know that in Limburg there are real (small) mountains, but it was more surprising that in a region so close to the sea not everything was totally flat. Actually in the village where I started (Woensdrecht), there was even a street announced on cycling signs as having a 5% ascent. Not that I tried it out though. 

Somehow Komoot or Garmin initially sent me in the wrong direction, back on the path I had come yesterday, but after a while I got suspicious of the route as it just didn't correlate to my expectancy. So retraced my pedal strokes and cycled back to the convent to take the correct route. 

From there onwards it was mainly through forests. Later on also through Belgium, There were still some remains of recent boarder controls (due to Covid-19 boarders between Belgium and Netherlands (and other countries) had been closed.) but now everything was open again. 

I stopped at a ice-parlor-farm (something that exists also close to Leiden, but maybe is a Dutch thing), loaded up my water supplies and had an ice cream, while I could see the rain coming closer and closer. This ice parlor was located in a farm house that was designed by one of the Amsterdam school architects. 

After some rest there, I continued on, although the sky looked darker and darker. Luckily shortly before it started raining I found this public rest place, which was located right besides the medieval gallows hill. But for me it meant a safe place to hide from the rain and eat my sandwiches. 

After crossing more forests I finally made it to Baarle-Nassau and Baarle-Hertog, one being Dutch and the second being Belgian, and together being really just one village, as one can see nicely from my evening ride to dinner, where in 3 km of riding I managed to cross the boarder 6 times! But it was worthwhile for an authentic Belgian beer:

While my black brompton made it in February this year to 3 prefectures in Japan at the same time, the green one made it to two different countries today:

 

 

Day 3 - Middelburg - Ossendrecht (Leiden -> Venlo trip)

Bicycle: 85 km

Riding time: 4:45 h
Total ascent: 186 m
Avg speed: 18 km/h
Route: Middelburg - Ossendrecht
Weather: Clouds and sun and a strong tailwind,  20 C

Finally tailwind! And sun! 

After two days struggling against a fierce onslaught of headwind, today was time to sail in front of a (slightly less strong) tailwind over land from Middelburg to a village in the South of Bergen op Zoom. 

My plan was to follow the coastal LF route down to Middelburg and then the LF 13 route to Venlo. And while in the first two days I hardly used the coastal route (wind would have been even worse and the ferry from Hoek van Holland was very infrequent) from today I started following LF 13. It is a well indicated route, although I followed my garmin. 

Clearly strong winds are often expected here as there were many streets protected by alleys: 

Not for the only time in this trip, I came by some remains or memorials of the 2nd World War: 

Although today was the longest ride in this 1 week ride from Leiden to Venlo (I am writing this post actually sitting already on Day 6 in Venlo in my B&B), it was also the fastest average speed. Surely this was helped by the strong tailwind which blew me over land and along the sea away from Middelburg and right into Ossendrecht. 

The route was following for a long while the coast on the outer side of the damm. 

But there were also two channels crossing what must have been a peninsula but were severed by these channels. 

I also came by some white poppy fields, poppy seeds for cakes??? 

And these sheeps who had to cohabitate with a lot of abandoned onions that were apparently dumped on their pasture. The sheep very clearly had not interest in eating the onions. 

And finally I arrived at my first convent-hotel of this trip. Although this was the longest day in the saddle, I would say it was not the day I was most fatigued. Probably it helped that the day before I essentially had a rest day and that the wind was a reliable tailwind for nearly the entire ride.