Went with Ben to do a few days of bike packing in the Netherlands this week. We cycled up to Harwich, had dinner at the Alma pub (the speediest service in a pub ever) and got the night ferry across to the Hook of Holland.
The weather, although windy was bright and sunny and we headed up along the coast stopping on the way at Bondi beach bar near Monster for breakfast.
We continued up the coast through wooded areas and sand dunes. The cycle paths are amazing, well maintained and absolutely everywhere and there was also loads of “wandelroutes” walking trails.
Stopped in Haarlem for lunch at Bagels and Beans.
Zaanse Schans
After 60 miles we stopped at a campsite in Wormer. It was really windy and heavy showers were blowing across making it nigh on impossible to get the tents up, I was almost on the verge of giving up and constantly Airbnb when the wind dropped a bit so we could get the tents up. It was still pretty bad though but Ben still managed to cook fajitas sheltering from the wind behind his tent.
Next Morning the weather had improved a bit and we headed down to Amsterdam.
roof of the Science Museum.
Basilica of Saint Nicholas
A few streets from the centre of the city we stopped for a beer and a snack.
After Amsterdam we headed down to Utrecht and stopped at an amazing campsite just outside the city.
Utrecht is a great city, a lot more chilled than Amsterdam. We had actually planned to move on further east but the weather was looking wet so we decided to stay an extra night and have a whole day in Utrecht. So glad we did as we had a good mooch around the city.
Belgisch Biercafé Olivier – awesome bar
with great Bitterballen.
Next day we headed off and had a great ride through a forest and down to the National Military Museum. A military museum is not usually something that particularly appeals to me but this was really interesting.
There was also a photo exhibition “ War Stories Ukraine Up Close” which featured pictures taken by journalist Eddy van Wessel who has been taking snapshots of everyday life in war-torn Ukraine since 2022. Really Hard hitting images but I felt it was important to also show the human cost of war.
Next we headed down to our campsite at Benchops.
Our last day, we headed down to the Hook of Holland passing through Gouda which is lovely town where I bought some cheese of course.
A fantastic trip, it was so good to take the bike over to Europe, something I had never done before done before and it was so easy to get the ferry.
