Our Cycling Trip from Den Haag to Amsterdam, Holland (1992)

We arrived in Den Haag on July ninth via train from Oostende in Belgium.We stayed overnight in the Turkish area of the city. The hotel was called “Hotel Fabiola” but it did not live up to its name. It was very tacky and it stunk. It cost 65 gilders or about $45.00 Canadian.

My wife and I went on our first trip oversees together. We stayed in Den Haag for a day or so. In the city we went to visit the Vredespaleis. It had beautiful gardens in the front.

We decided to rent bikes at the train station. We got one-speed bikes, which were in good shape. We packed some camping equipment on our bike and took off free as birds for a three-day trip that followed the North Sea. In fact the trail is called the Noordzee route. It is part of a system that starts in France and continues to Denmark, a trail of nearly 500 km.

On our way, we stopped at the beach resort of Noordwijk. It’s known as one of the best beach resorts around Amsterdam. It was cold and rainy but I could tell that in better conditions that would be a great place to spend a few hot days.

It was early in the morning and it was great to bike on the sand dunes while rabbits were jumping around. The trail was pretty flat and not many cyclists could be seen. We had it all for ourselves. We also saw huge fields of tulips and a few windmills, all great symbols of Holland.

In Amsterdam we enjoyed biking in town, we went to Main Square by the train station where we left our luggage. There was a hub of activity, a beehive of people from all over the world coming and going. We also went for a cruise of the canal in one of those Rondvart boats. The trips were a very pleasant way to see the city from the water. There was a guide telling us about how Amsterdam subsists below sea level. It was interesting to see all the elegant narrow houses of the seventeen-century. Some people live on boats. They even grow gardens on them.

( Here’s what my wife wrote back then behind a postcard): Amsterdam is super busy. There were too many tourists- no lockers, wall-to-wall people everywhere; bikes and cars filled the streets. City is beautiful but disorganized. The signs for the trails were very vague and often flipped around. Took a sightseeing trip by boat. This gave us quite a view of the city despite the mass of tourists. Much nicer place than London... the same stressful overcrowding but London is way more expensive.

We enjoyed looking at the skinny houses. We saw people moving furniture on the outside of the houses with cables. We also wanted to go to the VanGogh museum but nobody seemed to know where it was.

On our way back we stopped in a town called Harlem. We camped in a campground somewhere midway between Harlem and Amsterdam. We only had a few items in our bikes; a tent and sleeping bags .Everybody was looking at us, wondering about our lack of goods. Dutch tend to bring almost all the entire contents of their homes with them when they go camping.

On our trip it started pouring and we just hid under the eaves of a house by the road. Nobody was there but we were quite soaked. In the three days we had biked 150 kilometers.

Den Haag trip and pictures
Pictures of the North Sea trail
Pictures of Amsterdam

Read about my other trips