# A ride to the Netherlands, Part 4



## totallyfixed (13 Sep 2013)

One of the memories I have of Assen was lying in bed just prior to getting up, must have been about 7am when I heard the noise of a slow moving vehicle outside, taking a look I was surprised to see a street cleaning vehicle sweeping and washing the the edges of the road, not a main road, just a small quiet suburban street that I would have imagined was one of the last places that needed cleaning.
Yet again the sun was burning brightly and we were eager to be off, this time into a headwind, nothing serious but enough to knock our average down a tad. Progress was good, bikes were purring along nicely and we still hadn't seen a pothole. My only complaint was that every time we got to the outskirts of towns and villages the uber smooth tarmac changed to brick / stone paving, which whilst still relatively smooth you could feel the difference on your undercarriage.
One of the common sights we had seen, particularly in the northern areas, were people riding electric bikes, to be fair we thought it a great idea, enabling older folk to make quite long journeys. The first time we came across this was when a very sedate older lady smoothly dropped us on pulling away from the traffic lights [cyclists have there own lights here], my initial thought was that by heck they are strong in the NL, and even when we were bowling along doing 18 + mph we only just passed them. The other oddity was seeing cyclists on their "sit up and beg" bikes with tri bars on, but of course it made perfect sense in a windy flat area. Lots of good ideas over here, another one being the waste bins at the side of the cycle paths, built and positioned in such a way as to enable the cyclist to throw their litter without stopping or even slowing down. I got dr_pink to demonstrate but it looked more like she was turning left 





Often we would be alone with just the odd moped flying past but when we got anywhere near habitation the cycle traffic would increase dramatically. We saw a few roadies about, almost always a few together and for some reason never very happy looking as opposed to the utility cyclists who were more cheerful, we were soon to see a lot more.
Our route took us through Hoogeveen, continuing south through Ommen and to Nijverdal and by now the temperature had really got up, over 30C so the headwind was actually quite welcome. At Nijverdal we had to turn right alongside the A35 for a few hundred meters and encountered.........wait for it....................a hill!!
Unsurprisingly we didn't have a map with contour lines on, why would you? What we hadn't realised [my fault] was that I had plotted, [too strong a word really as we only decided on the exact route the night before], a route through the Holterberg, a magnet for roadies because of the hilly and beautiful nature of the flora here. after crossing the main road we stopped for an ice cream. Noticeable in the Holterberg, apart from the many roadies, were the large areas of Heather, the whole area reminded me of parts of Hampshire and it was the only time we climbed high enough to have a beautiful view over the forested area to the south and east. The road through here was billiard smooth so we let go on the downhill bits and I recorded 47 mph, easily the quickest on our holiday.
In Holten we stopped at a supermarket and restocked with drinks before the final push to Zutphen, 




We had no problem this time finding the address we were staying at and were delighted to find we had a self contained living area below the owners house with a beautiful garden. Zutphen is very old and very lovely and I really liked this juxtaposition of rooftops:





For the first time we didn't eat out, after walking around the old town we raided a supermarket for lots of goodies and a bottle of red wine which we couldn't finish between us - lightweights!
Mileage to date, probably a reflection on better choice of route, but 76 miles into a headwind on a very hot day was quite satisfying. 




All being well, tomorrow we would arrive in Nijmegen to stay 2 nights with our friends who we hadn't seen for several years.The route to Nijmegen was going to be much shorter [I hoped] than the previous day. By following canals we said goodbye to Zutphen and headed out along the main roads to Arnhem, out over the bridge from the film "A bridge too far" and just after lunch we were approaching Nijmegen




From this picture you would have thought we were the only cyclists using these immaculate paths, boy, was that about to change, this picture typifies the kind of segregation between vehicles, bikes and peds and here dr_pink is approaching a roundabout with total right of way to her. Earlier we had stopped in a small park to eat and ring our friends but got no answer, eek, a bit worrying.
Cycling over one of the bridges into Nijmegen was great fun and we raced past other cyclists to get into the city, at one point I overtook a roadie who had been passing everyone else on a uphill section on the bridge, I don't think he was impressed 
First stop was the railway Station to get our bearings, one or two bikes parked here, this was one isle of many, replicated underground!




We stopped at one point to look at directions on a roundabout among the masses of cyclists and within seconds a guy stopped and asked if we needed help, in better English than some I have met in the UK.
15 mins later and we arrived at our friends house, it was wonderful to see them both again, complete with a young daughter who we hadn't seen before.
Mileage:




Too much to tell about this weekend but just one of the highlights was our visit to the National Cycling Museum, I loved this early bike:




Naturally we sampled the outdoor cafes 




We hadn't seen much of any hills on this trip apart from the minor blip of the Holtenberg so our friends took us out [with trailer for their daughter] on the Sunday into Germany and some proper hills, enjoyable without panniers and yet again the sun shone throughout.
Our mileage now before our penultimate day in the NL:




All too soon the weekend was over, one we will never forget. Next stop Breda and surely the most unexpected overnight stay yet.


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## 4F (13 Sep 2013)

Really enjoying this write up and pics, cracking stuff TF


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## Pat "5mph" (13 Sep 2013)

Keep going, great write up, enjoying every bit of it!


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## totallyfixed (14 Sep 2013)

Last part will write up tomorrow evening as up north at the moment, dr pink doing a hill climb tomorrow


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## Hill Wimp (15 Sep 2013)

Excellent story so far. Feel we should have a whip round and send you both off on another tour just so you can write about again.

Im definitely hooked on wanting to go to Holland now.


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## e-rider (15 Sep 2013)

I love cycling in the Netherlands - I really must go again next summer!


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