TdE Day 2 Fietsen door bomen & water (Hilvarenbeek - Diepenbeek)

Route: Hilvarenbeek - Postel - Fietsen door bomen - door water - Diepenbeek 
Distance: 104 km

Elevation: 154 m
Duration: 5:13
Average speed: 18.8 km/h
Weather: sunny and quite hot, 26C

Today in the morning I woke up to my cycling shirt drying gently in the air.

Mukesh might be able to trek for days on end through the Himalaya, but cycling 120 km in the flat of the Netherlands didn’t do any good to his knee. Admittedly it was his first 120 km. So he decided to do the responsible thing and to stay close to train lines where he could return when needed. So he headed back to Tilburg and then on to Den Bosch and finally to Utrecht. In the end he pretty much did the same km as I did, but less than what he would have needed if he had had to go to Maastricht. 

I in turn did continue South. Overall the day saw a lot of forests. And this was a blessing as again it was quite hot, so the shade was very welcome. Already a few km after the start I turned into the forest of Landgoed de Utrecht. 

And a bit later I was cycling on this beech avenue. 

After 20 km I crossed my first international border into Belgium.

In Belgium pretty soon I got onto this Kanal which was nicely in the shades of big trees. Unfortunately after several kilometers the way was blocked and a detour was indicated.

The detour nearly, nearly brought me back to the Netherlands, but I managed to stay on the right side of the road.

Checking the detour I recognize that I didn’t need to follow the entire detour, but could shorten the ride a little bit. This also brought me too the small village of Postel, which seems to be a huge tourist magnet. I don’t really know why there were so many people, but definitely there were a lot of Harley Davidson and other motorcycle riders. There were also several restaurants and stalls with french fries (well I guess they are called BELGIAN fries here!). But I took something sweet at what seemed to be a very famous bakery. Even had a small queue building up outsid of people who came to buy bread.

This was a welcome break. 

From Postel I continues on a normal road which had something like a cycle path attached to it, but at least from my spoiled Dutch background, not a very good one. Kind of cycling in the ditch parallel to the road and with car drivers thinking that as the cyclist is beyond a white line , that line would be sufficient to protect the cyclist from any harm of passing cars. Anyway, it wasn’t soooo bad and luckily quite soon I rejoined my originally planned route, which followed some very quiet canals in the forests.

When my water supplies started to run low, which really means for me that bottle number 1 is getting nearly empty (because I am a real water addict and mightily fear running out) I turned into a very small village along the way and found a nice lady who refilled my bottle. Alternatively there were however some “Biergarten” along the way as well.

My next break I want to take at around 50 km and just before the “Fietsen door bomen” I found a steakhouse. Although steakhouse isn’t really a good description for this magically very peaceful and quiet garden restaurant. I didn’t want to have a steak for lunch with the heat and the other 40 to 50 km to cycle. But a carpaccio and a small salad were ideal.

Well rested and a bit cooled down I came to my first official highlight of the day (although one has to admit that riding along the canals was already great. They seem to be less used, less well maintained than in The Netherlands which makes that they have lusher vegetation around or so it seemed.) Anyway, the first official highlight of the day what is this bridge construction in the middle of a forest that allows cyclists or pedestrians to get to the top of the canopy and then rush down again. “Fietsen door de bomen”: 

 

The first time I did it slowly, stopping for pictures. The second time in one go to enjoy breezing through the trees up and down. Very gentle slope indeed. 

In Wijchmaal I hit a cycling road through the more forest and followed it for 20 km. The cycling road actually is even longer, maybe 40 km. 

Along the way and right about the 75 km marker there was an other very relaxing cafe in the forest on the way, where I stopped for a homemade lemonade and a rhubarb cake. 

At the place where we finally left that cycle way, there was even some blooming heath: 

Admittedly I didn’t manage to capture it nicely. Essentially because it was a bit off limits for cyclists. 

Not too much later, and only 10 km from my accommodation for tonight, I reached the second official highlight of the day: “Fietsen door het water”

I had been here before (I think in 2019) with Matteo and a friend, but - crucially- without a bicycle.  On foot! Which actually was okay as well. 

From there it wasn’t too far to my B&B of the night in the nondescript village of Diepenbeek. One thing I noticed yesterday in Belgium is the lack of welcoming front gardens. Many people have big gardens in front of the house, but either just fill them up with pebble stones, or an often well manicured lawn, however without any flowers, trees or other vegetation. 

Compare that to houses in The Netherlands which often have very lush gardens, like this excellent specimen from Bilderdam:

 

TdE Day 1 Leiden - Hilvarenbeek

Route: Leiden - Gouda - Nieuwpoort - Gorinchem - Tilburg 

Distance: 123 km

Elevation: 149 m

Duration: 6:58

Average speed: 17.7 km/h

Weather: sunny, 25 C

Yesterday was my last working day, and already today my six week Tour d’Europe (TdE) started. Although in the morning I needed to try to send some parcels with all my office equipment back to my company, which DHL had not picked up yesterday. So the tour started with some delay, and the parcels are still at home because the DHL point at Hema could not take these parcels in. 

I had posted the ride on the Den Haag Meetup page, just in case someone wanted to tag along. And yes, an outdoor guide (Trekking and rafting in the Himalaya!) , Mukesh, wanted to come along. So we met up with a bit of delay at Leiden station and started the ride which should bring me about 2600 km through Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France and Luxemburg, if all goes per plan. Today it started with the first 120 km. 

From Leiden to Boskop, a route that I cycle frequently, but this time through some Boskop gardens. Then on into Gouda and after that we had our first stop at a bakery in Haastrecht. After that continued along a nice, winding small river, through a part of south Holland which is relatively remote, because it is not well served by trains. 

 After crossing the Lek by Schoonhoven, we had lunch in the small, old and very relaxing village of Nieuwpoort. 

We continued to Gorinchem and it became little by little hotter and hotter and my water supplies were running short so we needed to make a small (5km?) detour into Gorinchem where there is a public water fountain, before continuing through the landscape and for the first time in this trip leaving known roads! 

Still quite hot I wanted a break and a cool drink and we found a brewery in Almkerk. I got a big apple juice and Mukesh a locally brewed beer. Sitting in a nice garden in the shades of some trees was very relaxing and when we restarted also the actual temperature had come down sufficiently to be comfortable again. 

Continuing on we came to an other ferry, this time crossing the Bergsche Maas. Luckily it was open. I hadn’t realized in the planning stage that there was a ferry. 

We slowed down. Not sure if Mukesh was tired or if he thought I was tired. Anyway we cruised through the landscape and hit finally the Wilhelminakanal shortly before Tilburg. I knew that part from a previous ride I had done from Leiden to Tilburg (back then passing through Dordrecht) but what was really nice was the Kanal after Tilburg. 

A few km before our hotel we had to turn inland and around 20:30 we arrived. Didn’t have time for a shower before dinner but that allowed us to have a nice dinner in a surprisingly nice village. 

Meet-up ride: Tilburg - s'Hertogenbosch - Nijmegen

Bicycle: 81 km 

Riding time: 4:22 h
Total ascent: 183 m
Avg speed: 17.3 km/h
Max speed: 36.0 km/h 
Route: Tilburg - s'Hertogenbosch - Nijmegen
Weather: Sunny, a few drops of rain and STRONG tailwind, 23 C

So, today I had planned "the Quintessential route of Holland" around Leiden. But... I hadn't counted on the "Quintessential Dutch" strong wind. 

While still waking up, one of the co-riders pinged me on Meetup asking if we'd still be going ahead. I had closed the window during the night and wasn't aware on just HOW windy it was outside. After checking a bit the forecast, it looked like there were going to be winds of strength 6 all day today around Leiden... So not ideal for a round trip. 

After a little bit of further exploration with the help of Buienradar, I came up with a completely new, and much longer route, from Tilburg to Nijmegen, that had incorporated a strong tailwind. 

I had never been in Tilburg, s'Hertogenbosch or anywhere in that region, but thanks to route planner of the Fietserbond I was able to plan a route while on the train using the knooppunten system, which normally (and also today) assures quite scenic rides. I did a few manual modifications to the basic planning routing it even through more countryside and it really paid off. We had very nice and - for Dutch standards - quite varied landscape. Forrest, fields, small farmer villages, and an old city in the form of s'Hertogenbosch. But for me the highlight of the day was a small landscape of heath in full bloom. I think I have never seen that. In my entire life! So that was quite an experience:

Riding on we needed to cross the Maas, and - not surprising to me, as I had seen it in the route planned - but surprising to my co-riders, we embarked on a small ferry, which did run on demand. On our demand. A private crossing of the river. 

Thanks for the very strong tailwind it felt sometimes as if the bicycle had gotten a motor. Very relaxing ride. However when we needed to turn (occassionally) and got headwind (only in very few cases) or sidewinds, the wind was STRONG. 

Actually back in Leiden on my way back from the station, I nearly got to a standstill on the middle of a street crossing due to a strong side-headwind. 

Here the map of our ride today: 

Meet-up Ride: Leiden - Gouda - Kinderdijk - Dordrecht

Bicycle: 66 km 

Riding time: 4:09 h
Total ascent: 75 m
Avg speed: 15.8 km/h
Max speed: 38.5 km/h 
Route: Leiden - Gouda - Kinderdijk - Dordrecht
Weather: Sunny and quite hot, 24 C

Some weeks ago I had done this nearly same ride already, and found specially the ride from Gouda to Kinderdijk (and the ice cream just before Kinderdijk) really enjoyable. Compared to the ride I had done alone, the only planned change was how to ride out of Leiden as I had discovered the other day a really nice "through the countryside" small path towards Boskoop.

Apart from that it was nearly copy-paste from that earlier ride, including the lunch stop just prior to Gouda, in a restaurant in the countryside. Only that this time we could sit outside. (Last time, I tried outside, but it started raining, so I took refuge inside and got 2 pannenkoeken... waiting out the rain. This time no rain... so one pannenkoeken only. Actually this time it wasn't only "no rain", it was actually quite hot. Too hot for me to ride with the helmet, but just about right without it.

After lunch we passed through the center of Gouda and then outside into the country side as well.

Unfortunately in the middle of nowhere and about 10 km from Gouda one of the ride participants punctured and no one had a repair kit with him/her. Probably should get one... although I have not the slightest idea how to repair a bicycle... but she seemed to know... only that we didn't have any tools at all. After discussing a bit the options (including riding on the back of one of the bicycles to the next station, she finally decided to hike back to Gouda. That probably took her 1.5-2 hours, as we were really in the middle of nowhere and Gouda was the closest train station of all.

The remaining 3 of us, among them Kasia one of the regulars at the Meetups (see several prior posts), road on.  Had our ice cream break just before Kinderdijk, then road through the tourist hordes (already much less than in plain daytime) and onwards towards Dordrecht. Kasia got a bit tired, and it was admittedly really, really hot, so we took a ferry quite early on into Dordrecht and cut the ride short by probably around 10 km. And had this very nice and very fast ferry ride:

Me trying to take a selfie... not ideal...

The ferry brought us right into the centre of Dordrecht, and I still think that getting into Dordrecht is the one and only correct way how to approach this city.

Meet-up ride: Haarlem to Den Haag

Bicycle: 71 km 

Riding time: 4:09 h
Total ascent: 241 m
Avg speed: 17.2 km/h
Max speed: 37.4 km/h 
Route: Haarlem - Noordwijk - Den Haag - Leiden
Weather: Cloudy and tailwind, 17 C

Today Hans from the Den Haag Meet-up group organized a ride from Den Haag to Haarlem... well, at least that was the initial intention. But seeing the wind forecast he very wisely inverted the direction to be Haarlem - Den Haag, which gave us a nice tail wind while riding over the dunes. 

We met up at Haarlem station, actually most participants arriving on the same train. Just when we came out of the station it started to drizzle lightly... grr... it also looked very grey. But well, there we were, nothing to be done than start riding. Which we did after Kasia and I clad ourselves in our protective clothing. 

We passed quickly through the main square of Haarlem and already there the drizzle stopped (so probably after 5 minutes or so). Hans then guided us expertly out of the city on on the dunes. Kasia and I after a while stripped out of our rain clothes again, never to wear them again for the rest if the ride. 

The ride then was over the dunes, which offer a surprisingly varied landscape. Open sandy zones, but also forested areas. 

Shortly before Noordwijk we were hold up by a half marathon (or at least some running event) with thousands of participants:

Shortly after, in Noordwijk we had our lunch stop at a nice beach restaurant, and although it was really windy, we got a good table right in a corner protected from the wind, so that when the sun came out, it got actually nicely warm there. Otherwise, although we at 14th of July... it was more like an autumn weather. But not too bad for riding a bicycle, specially as it never rained again. 

We had a relaxed lunch together and then a few of us - me included - went for a short walk along the beach and getting our feet wet. But the water was cold. There were nearly no swimmers in the water, only a few surfers, but well dressed surfers.

Then we continued on paths that I know better from my frequent evening cycling tours, always along the sea and to Den Haag. Somewhere along the ride, when we had anyway stopped to regroup, I "assaulted" some passing hikers, and we got a nice group picture taken:

As always with these Meet-ups it is nice to ride a bicycle, but it is even nicer to just chat with the other people on the ride while being on your bicycles and more or less leisurely riding along. In 7 one can easily chat with everyone for some time, get to know new people. So really a great invention! 

Arriving in Den Haag Hans guided us to the very centre where we had a last drink all together, before slowly splitting up. I had decided to cycle back to Leiden and Kasia did come along as well, with a half idea to maybe cycle the entire way back to Amsterdam... but then we had the wind against us. It wasn't super hard, but definitely a noticeable difference. 

Tomorrow more, but then only around Leiden (around Kagerplassen).

Actually today was my first ride in like 10 days, as the weather this week wasn't very good, yesterday I was too lazy and last weekend we went with other friends from an other Meet-up to do canoeing in Utrecht, which was a lot of fun and surprisingly wasn't so hard as I thought... 

Meet-up Ride - Den Haag - Hoek van Holland - Maasvlakte - Brielle - Schiedam

Bicycle: 76 km 
Riding time: 4:38 h
Total ascent: 235 m
Avg speed:  16.4 km/h
Max speed:  33.8 km/h

Route: Den Haag - Hoek van Holland - Maasvlakte - Brielle - Schiedam

Weather: Sunny but not too hot, 23 C

Today was the time for my first self-organized Meet-up. We did the ride that I had planned a few weeks ago for a ride from Den Haag, that we had to cancel due to very strong winds and rain that day (instead I did though that day with an other person from Meetup a ride from Eindhoven to Nijmegen, which was the only part of the Netherlands without severe weather that day - and back wind). 

With Meetup you get people signing up, then signing out, then other people signing in, so until the last moment one cannot really be sure how many people will turn up. However as I enjoy cycling also alone, that's not really a problem and today 2 more turned up, then was planned for, which made us a nice group of 6. 

Only Garmin didn't want to collaborate at all. In Den Haag station, when we were just about to set off it didn't turn on correctly and then it didn't turn off at all. Luckily from Den Haag to Hoek van Holland it is a straightforward ride, which we found easy enough with the help of some street signs an one co-rider who had been riding there before. 

Along the way we stopped at the beach and even held our feet into the - relatively - cold water. 

We were a mixed group, with a German 50% majority (is that a majority?), a Spanish, a Dutch and a Chinese. And also from the bicycle perspective we were very mixed from a Swapsfiets (without gears and front break!) to a mountain bike, some racing bikes and touring bikes. Nicely mixed group, all riding together to one common goal.

After this stop at the beach we continued on to Hoek van Holland and had lunch there in a chiringuito on the beach.

This first part I recorded directly on Strava as Garmin wasn't collaborating at all. During lunch I managed then to restart the device, so intended the record the rest directly on Garmin, but somehow the piece between Maasvlakte and Brielle didn't get stored... grr... (but it was still a nice ride). Isn't it strange how not having an electronic copy of a nice experience feels bad. Why?

While the ride in this first part is over the dune (and with some side winds today), the second part is through the biggest port of Europe (at least initially), with a lot of industry, which make for quite some change. But even out of that industrial area relatively quickly one is again in the countryside and on we went to Brielle, our second (well, third, if you count the beach) stop of the day with a nice ice cream. From Hoek van Holland we took a ferry over. The Swapfiets rider found out that riding on a little bit more on the ferry would bring her closer to Brielle so a subgroup (4 of us) left the ferry in the harbour, while the other two continued a bit mot on the ferry, bringing them closer to Brielle and we met up there. They were faster, notwithstanding the Swapfiets. 

In Brielle we did a small touristic ride of the city and its fortifications and then followed in the "wheel-steps" of a ride Schiedam - Brielle - Rotterdam that I did last year with this same Meet-up group organized by Hans. I remembered that first part from Schiedam to Brielle as specially scenic and varied, and it didn't delude. 

When we came to the hand driven ferry one of the co-riders recognized that this place was actually quite close to Delft, where he and his 2 friends are living, so after (important!) crossing over with that mini ferry, they left towards the left while I ferried (on bicycles) the other two to Schiedam along the route. 

Here the third part of the ride from Brielle to Schiedam:

While the middle part got unrecorded, as somehow Garmin wasn't up to it today.

More Meet-up rides to come :-)