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Permalink Reply by Tony on February 25, 2018 at 10:27

It is a brilliant ride to Amsterdam - are you planning to just cross Holland from the Hoek to Amsterdam or extend it by taking a ferry to France and cycling up through Belgium and then Holland?

Depends on your attitude to luggage and whether you want to see places along the route I suppose but if you take the less liggage route you can easily do it in four days.

Belgium and Holland both have excellent cycleways (called Fietspads) and I would really recommend joining something called Vrienden op de fiets (https://www.vriendenopdefiets.nl/nl) which is kind of a pre Air BnB thing where all the hosts are bike nuts and happy to accomodate you and your bikes even if its has been chucking it down with rain. It is one way of getting to know ordinary Dutch people - but good luck getting them to speak English even if you tell them “Nederlands is niet moeilijk”.

I would recommend taking the coastal bike route LF1 - the big sky is something to see and its not flat - so dont be surprised if it takes more effort than you think - especially if the wind is in your face.

if you go into the towns along the way they all have secure bike parks - use them as tying an expensive bike to a post is the way to get it stolen unfortunately. Interesting places include Rotterdam, Den Haag, Leiden and Haarlem. In Belgium if you want to extend the tour Antwerp, Gent and Bruges are worth a visit.

I ve got a set of fietspad maps if you want to plan a route but you can buy them off ANWB - kind of the Dutch AA but also PRO cyclist.

Have a great time

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Permalink Reply by Rosie Lang on February 27, 2018 at 21:08

I was thinking of the France route...getting the ferry to Dunkirk and then going along the coast from there. I'll probably use hostels/bnbs so I won't need to carry a tent. 

I think 100k a day would be ok...it's flat right? 

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Permalink Reply by Tony on February 28, 2018 at 13:08

It is flat that is true

When I did what you are proposing to do (actually I looped back in Holland and did a fair bit of cycling in northern Belgium) the wind on the Delta dike over what is effectively the river Rhine draining into the North Sea was ridiculously strong

Honestly it was as hard riding into that wind as riding up serious climbs in the Alps....so don't underestimate it ;-)

You can always though take a break (or two) in a pancake house and eat poffertjes until the wind dies down

Try and time it for when the tulip fields north of Leiden are in full bloom - that is a surreal experience
 
Rosie Lang said:

I was thinking of the France route...getting the ferry to Dunkirk and then going along the coast from there. I'll probably use hostels/bnbs so I won't need to carry a tent. 

I think 100k a day would be ok...it's flat right? 

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Permalink Reply by Simon Jennings on February 28, 2018 at 13:46

Hi Rosie - I did this ride back in October as far as Rotterdam in the warm autumn weather and it was fantastic.. I went London-Dover-Calais-Bruges-Rotterdam along the coastal route in Holland as Tony describes.  My main mistake was ending up in Folkestone on the way to Dover but once over the channel (complete with a personal vehicle escort off the ferry into the centre of Calais) it was pretty smooth- I've got the route on Strava if that's helpful. In Calais you can actually jump straight onto a canal towpath like the Belgian and Dutch ones and I almost completely avoided main roads in France as well. Enjoy the ride!

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Permalink Reply by Erika Kennington on March 2, 2018 at 8:00

I'm up for a cheese/wine/chocolate mini tour!!

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Permalink Reply by Rosie Lang on March 2, 2018 at 13:44

@Erika Yeah! I was thinking the first week of May to take advantage of the bank holiday and I think there should be tulips in/around Amsterdam... Are you free around then? I've have enough holiday to go anytime pre-Mid May. 

For the route suggesters - what was the London-Dover bit like. If it's horrible I'm a little tempted to skip it, get a train to Dover, and have more time cycling in Europe. I'm not sure if that's a bit cheaty though... 

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