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.