| We booked this holiday because, compared to my girlfriend Angela, I'm a complete amateur when it comes to cycling (she's cycled across Laos)! So Holland seemed an easy accessible option without too many hills - in fact we only cycled up one smallish hill in 5 days. Rather than having the hassle of transporting bikes overseas, we contacted Tulip Cycling a dutch company which specialises in organising cycle trips, mainly for english speaking tourists. They provided us with all the kit (well set-up Trek touring bikes, panniers, toolkits), comprehensive route maps and pre-booked inexpensive hotel/hostel accommodation. Although more expensive than simply hiring a bike, their help in planning the route and booking the accommodation was very useful. The costs were approx. £45 for the two bikes and route maps per day, and £50 per night's accommodation (for the two of us). This is a LOT cheaper than booking a similar european cycling trip through someone like Exodus. We booked our flights through Easyjet from Edinburgh to Amsterdam, with return tickets back from Zurich (very good prices and decent service). This allowed us to include a trip to see my sister in Switzerland, using a european "express" train to get us from Utrecht down to Basel. Bizarrely SNCF, French national railways, were the only company who could sell us the rail ticket over the internet despite the train not going through France! |
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| Following the short flight from Edinburgh, we took a local train from the airport to Utrecht, where we hopped on the bus to our pre-booked accommodation at Bunnik. The hostel was set in a beautiful location, in a country park, but was a bit hostely for our tastes (bunk beds etc.), despite having our own room. We were however, very impressed by Tulip Cycling, who delivered the bikes on time, gave quick rundown of the equipment and went over the route maps. The next day we headed off towards Gouda which is located west of Bunnik. This was probably the best days ride, as we meandered through the canals and quiet country roads of central Holland, before arriving at our hotel in Gouda where we managed to find a good Indian restaurant for a curry (hmm curry..). The next day we rode to Dordrecht via the well known Kinderdijk windmills, a group of well preserved windmills next to the canals. We stopped here for some coffee, applebake and slagroom (that's whipped cream to you and me) - a favourite with the dutch. We got absolutely soaked cycling into Dordrecht, which is a pleasant enough town in a very industrialised region of Holland. We then took the train followed by a long cycle (nearly 100km) to the De Hoge Veluwe National Park which is east of Utrecht. We stayed nearby in Otterlo in the very good Hotel Kruller (with good food) for the next two nights. But don't go to Holland's largest national park expecting herds of wildebeest or mountain landscapes stretching as far as the eye can see. The only wildlife we saw a scottish highland cow!! It was a good place to cycle though, despite getting very wet and cold on the second day. We then cycled back to Houten, again near Utrecht. We stayed in the Hotel De Roskam where we had a great evening meal. Unfortunately our 70's style hotel room also had thin walls which would have been great, if we'd wanted to listen to the pub singer next door singing until 1 or 2 in the morning. But we didn't! The next morning we walked bleary eyed, down to Bunnik's ugly concrete town centre, before catching the train to Basel. The express intercity took us down the Rhine, taking 7 hours to do only 500-600 miles - and people complain the trains in the UK are slow! Still the scenery was nice and our aching (okay, MY aching) limbs needed a rest. There we at my sister's new apartment near Basel and did some hill-walking around Gimmelwald and cycled along the Rhine and over to Germany, before getting soaked once more on the return - but we were used to that by then! |
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