Ride Director: Jan Gleason
Ride Co-Director: Lianna Jones
Report by: Daniel Krechmer
Any description of this wonderful trip must start with a tribute to our leaders, Jan and Lianna. They provided us with scenic, safe routes, great hotels and meals, many enjoyable and educational events and most importantly great leadership. They made everyone feel comfortable, made sure people had riding partners if they wanted, kept everyone thoroughly informed of plans and did a fantastic job of handling the one significant accident that sent one of our riders home. They fostered the outstanding camaraderie that existed among the group. The trip was enhanced by the wonderful Dutch cycling culture and incredible infrastructure that allows one to travel virtually anywhere on bike paths, bike lanes or quiet roads. Since my return everyone who has been to the Netherlands has expressed amazement that we experienced 11 days of riding with no rain, with mostly sunny days in the 60s and 70s. Even the famous “Dutch mountain”, also known as the wind, was relatively moderate during most of our stay. The weather gods certainly smiled upon us, and we smiled back in return.
Our group of 17 met up at Amsterdam’s Schipol Airport where we bussed to the classy and comfortable Hotel Van Rossum in the beautiful Canalside city of Woerden. The group received our rental bikes from Holland Bike Tours with most using E-bikes and few using touring bikes. The E-bikers generously drafted the touring bike riders during the rides. The trip involved two fixed bases with six nights spent in each. The area around Woerden is the “Green Heart” a heavily agricultural area located between the major cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Utrecht. Our rides led us past numerous canals and lakes with scenic farms and classic Dutch towns. There were plenty of farm animals dotting the landscape with baby sheep and goats occasionally coming to the fence to ham it up for the cameras. Highlights of the Woerden stay included the spectacular De Haar Castle, the famous town of Gouda (although Woerden claims they created the cheese), the Kinderdijk Windmill Park, a boat ride on Woerden’s canals, a cheese warehouse visit, and the scenic river towns of Weesp and Muiden. The hotel provided generous and high quality breakfasts and dinners, while lunches were at delightful country restaurants.
We spent the second half of the trip in Doesburg, a small town roughly 60 miles east of Woerden. The Hotel Doesburg is a comfortable and modern hotel with a scenic location on the IJsell River. Doesburg is one of a few towns remaining from the Hanseatic era and a walking tour helped us understand the historic significance of this beautifully preserved small town. Doesburg is a popular spot for Dutch tourists and as a result has several top-notch restaurants. Dinners were split between the hotel and several of the restaurants in town including the De Waag, located in a historic building dating to the 1400s. The rides out of Doesburg presented a different landscape with more forest and less water. The De Hoge Veleuw National Park, where we rode for two days, even had some challenging hills. Other attractions of our Doesburg rides included the Open Air Museum, which housed a variety of buildings from different eras of Dutch history, the Airborne Museum, which commemorated a key battle of World War II and the Kroller-Muller Museum with its prized collection of Van Gogh paintings. Also of note were Market day in the beautiful town of Zutphen, a tour of the Gazelle Bicycle factory, which produces 1000 bikes a day and the Huisberg Castle.
At our final happy hour we expressed gratitude to our wonderful leaders, each other and to the people of the Netherlands, for making their country such a great place to ride.
Bicycle Adventure Club
PO BOX 23998 San Diego, CA 92193
Telephone (858) 715-9510 office@bicycleadventureclub.org