No hills/no gravel - Day 3

Route: Wolfheze - Schoonhoven - Leiden 
Distance: 135 km
Elevation: 215 m
Duration: 6:18 h
Weather: sunny and slowly getting warmer, 9 C

After two days in the “hilly” region around Utrecht and Arnhem today I cycled all the way back home. I had taken the day off, as I need to use up my PTO days before relocating to Japan (likely early May) and weather forecast was fine. Sunny and even a slight tail wind. 

This was the only hill I saw (and didn’t climb) for the entire day:

Apart from that it was a quite ride through the vast river delta of the Netherlands  seeing some old town, but mostly on the distance:

I had a few stops along the way and 2 (!) soups to combat hunger and a bit of cold. But, yeah, pretty ride, but also pretty uneventful.

Hilly & Gravely - Day 1

Route: Utrecht - Austerlitz - Rehnen- Ede
Distance: 83 km
Elevation: 397 m
Duration: 4:39 h
Weather: sun and clouds, 8 C

After a long time of only riding around Leiden (albeit quite big loops), I saw that this weekend weather was going to be really nice (well, for being February always) I decided to do a 3 day trip a bit farther away and in a landscape different from the normal polders around Leiden/Amsterdam.

I knew that behind Utrecht there is the Utrechtse Heuvelrug, a hilly area, but I actually never had been there. So goal for today! 

I didn’t start though in Leiden, but got the train to Utrecht, otherwise it would have been too far to enjoy the hilly part.

The first stop was a pyramid! In Austerlitz! 

But as you can see, it isn’t a “real” pyramid, nor OS this THE Austerlitz, which Google just told me is somewhere in the Austrian K&K empire. 

But well, the village closeby was actually named after the original Austerlitz, when it was founded by the French, so yes, there is some connection. 

Until here my way was in the forest, but mainly along normal roads, but quite soon after I entered into the Heuvelrug proper and had a very nice, winding way with very light gravel.

And yes, there was a bit of up and down. Nothing too steep, this is still the Netherlands, but not as flat as around Leiden. 

For being February there were a good number of other cyclists around. So I can understand the warning in Komoot that in summer this park can be too busy with too many cyclists at different speed to be enjoyable to the faster ones. But today that was no problem.

Actually I had put the ride into Meetup in case someone wanted to come along, but somehow a 80 km +, 400 m day in February didn’t sound attractive to other people on Meetup. Who knows why?

I for my part can’t complain, but it is also true that I feel my legs way more than after a 80 km flat ride. Probably the added weight of the overnight bag doesn’t help either.

For the night I am staying in a hotel run by the Salvation Army, which however feels (and looks) like any normal hotel, with the exception that they ban alcohol and cigarettes. 

Dinner was quite nice, definitely better than in many other Dutch places.

Going South - Day 1

Route: Leiden - Veghel

Distance: 131 km

Elevation: 152 m

Duration: 5:52h

Average speed: 22.4 km/h

Weather: 17C, cloudy but dry, nice tailwind 

During the week the weather was finally fit for summer. Now on the weekend it got grey again, but at least no rain and reasonable temperature for cycling. So nothing to complain. 

After trying out my Apidura cycling bag over Pentecost for the first time, I gave it a new go this weekend. Originally I aimed to do my first century ride (I.e., 100 miles = 160 km)… but I started quite late (around 10:00) and although I had mostly tailwind, the last stretch I had planned from Den Bosch to Eindhoven would have had sidewind and in Den Bosch I was only at about 105 km. So riding an other 55 winding through the landscape didn’t sound attractive. Luckily I hadn’t booked any accommodation for the night yet (I had checked yesterday and it seemed that there was more than enough available in Eindhoven, so no hurry). So I repainted my ride and headed to Veghel instead. A surprisingly ugly, mid sized town, with a lot of industry. 

But open restaurants! 

I think today was the first day that restaurants in The Netherlands were again allowed to open indoors. 

On my way here I did however come through three nice small villages/cities. 

Schoonhoven

… Nieuwpoort…

.. and Woudrichem. 

Cherry tour around Geldermalsen and then to Utrecht

Bicycle: 87 km 
Riding time:  5:06 h
Total ascent: 138 m
Avg speed:  16.6 km/h
Max speed:  28.1 km/h
Route: Geldermalsen - Culemborg - Leerdam - Geldermalsen - Utrecht
Weather: Sunny, not a single cloud and really warm, 26 C

New all time record for me, 87 km cycling in one day! And actually apart of my buttocks I am feeling pretty fine. Luckily enough they only started hurting in the train back and the last km back home was a pain. The problem seemed to have been the stitches in my cycling shorts. I hope Nivea will do its work.

I met up today in the morning with a group from Meetup at the station in Geldermalsen for a leisurely ride through the Gelderland, a region which seems to be very well known for its fruit fields. Not only cherries as today, but also apples and other fruits, like currants and raspberries.

We pedalled at a perfect (for me) speed through the fields, and after protest of some of the participants stopped at a cherry vending place, where we all bought like half a kg cherries. Mine are already save in my belly. The last I ate in the train back from Utrecht.

The organizer of the ride had thought up a nice route through of about 50 km through a somewhat different Dutch landscape. Less (or maybe even no) polders, much less dairy farming, and a lot of fruit trees.

Close to the cherry spot and actually already quite close to Geldermalsen, we ate in a very nice relaxing garden restaurant on the shores of this river-cum-lake. Food was Dutch. But that can't be helped.

At about km 45 there was an other fruit farm, where they also had many fruit trees and bushes for show and tasting. Like these red currants. A long time I haven't eaten them... probably since picking them last in the garden of my parents many, many years ago. (Not even sure if those bushes are still there... need to check next time I go).

And after about 49 km we were back at the station, where the ride officially ended. However 3 of us thought that it was a great idea to continue just a bit further (well, "just" an other 30 km) to Utrecht. So we left half of the group at the station and rode to Utrecht at pretty much the same leisurely speed, following one of us and his Google Maps. Google Maps brings you (at least in the Netherlands) safely on official bicycle lanes to your destination, BUT it does not necessarily choose the nicest routes. Pretty much the same what Garmin does, when you just give it the destination. I recently downloaded an other app, Komoot, where apparently it is possible to plan a trip following the knooppunt system, which normally runs on much nicer cycling paths. (I am getting totally spoiled here. How am I ever going to be able again to ride in a country like Japan, without a perfect cycling infrastructure???) But no time yet to really look into it. And even if I had, I am still having the problem that my Garmin does not want to connect to my iPhone via bluetooth. Strangely enough it connects perfectly fine to its mobile internet to UPLOAD rides, but not to DOWNLOAD anything. Mysteries of technology (or technological ignorance).

Riding into town we came by this perfect habitat of mussels...

... and this very cute houseboat.

Getting close and closer to Utrecht but not quickly enough for one of the three of us, how had her husband returning today around 18:00 from a business trip, and she still needed to get home. Lucky me ;-) my husband only comes back tonight from his business trip, so I could continue riding at the perfect speed.

At Utrecht station I arrived just perfectly in time for the next train to Leiden. Actually I felt perfectly fine as long as I was on the bicycle and could have easily continued for an other 10 km or so... But Utrecht Centraal it was.

So really a PERFECT DAY. Nice weather (a bit hot, but not too hot), lovely people, great ride, new personnel distance record (the previous one was riding from Bentenjima to Irago in Japan, which however was also coupled with ascent record (for me), good cherries, reasonably nice landscape, and no hills, which I obviously appreciate.