Touring the Netherlands and Belgium
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- Опубликовано: 5 сен 2024
- A week holiday cycling through the Netherlands and Belgium from the UK (on a ferry from Hook of Holland).
Day 1 - Hoek, Delft, Gouda and Harmelen. Very hot day, we hit 36C in the afternoon so a bit draining at times, but the most beautiful day and the breeze definitely helped at times. The safety and ease of the cycling infrastructure hit us immediately - I felt like a kid in a sweet shop! We were smitten with the friendliness of the locals too, who not only offered to top up our water bottles (with chilled water!) but spent time talking to us and making recommendations.
Day 2 - Harmelen, Utrecht, Leerdam and Biezenmortel. Much milder temperature, beautiful day. Utrecht is quite busy but navigating it was a breeze. We once again were saved by locals, this time a young teenager who navigated us to the ferry when my route took us through a dead-end road closed by works.
Day 3 - Biezenmortel, Oirschot, Eindhoven, Heike and Mol (Belgium). Eindhoven is where we cycled the Hovenring cycling roundabout, a genius infrastructure that puts the safety of cyclists at the very front. We crossed to Belgium without even knowing (I was a tad disappointed by that!) as it truly is a continent with no borders. Somehow we could tell we were in Belgium when the cycling infrastructure wasn't as impressive as we felt less safe than in the Netherlands - still great paths.
Day 4 - A loop around Limburg. Where this whole idea of touring the Netherlands and Belgium started - I saw pictures of Cycling Through Water and thought that was amazing and I wanted to experience that in person. Later on, I also found Cycling Through the Trees, another genius infrastructure that puts you in more contact with nature, without interfering with it. Then the route just grew around those 2 points of interest, and well, here we are! Loved them both, and I'm so happy that I planned and visited them. A unique experience.
You can find out more about both places (and more!) on www.visitlimburg.be/nl/unieke-fietsbelevingen-limburg
Day 5 - Mol, Herentals, Zendhoven and Antwerp. The days had started to get colder and overcast. Antwerp is very busy and not exactly a pleasure to cycle around, especially in the city centre, but we still found plenty of segregated lanes along busy roads, so I'm not complaining.
Day 6 - Antwerp, Heide, Essen and Zevenbergen. Back in the Netherlands. You really can tell the difference as you instantly feel so much safer on roads, and no matter where you end up, there's always a cycling lane!
Day 7 - Zevenbergen, Dordrecht, Rotterdam and Hoek. A very different day to the rest, with rain and wind. Rotterdam is rich in history and we met some lovely locals who spent some time telling us a bit of it. The last 5 miles along the coast were quite taxing for me, and I was glad to end and being able to sit down (not on a saddle!), but my God, did I love this experience! I definitely want to repeat it into new countries.
The UK has so much to learn about cycling and making it safe. I'm going to miss the freedom of it when I have to return to Wales 😞
What a lovely holiday! I enjoyed watching your cycling trip. Spread the word and mobilize your friends to demand safe cycling infrastructure in the UK. It may take years to organize and build, but your children or grandchildren will love you for it!
That's part of my life! I don't have children or grandchildren but I'd still like to see the progress for future generations, and who knows, perhaps still in my lifetime?
It takes years....50 years!
Ah, the famous Dutch mountains… aka headwind. It was a tough day when I cycled as a 12 year old 10km to school with headwind and then it decided to take a turn during the day. It wasn’t much easier on the ride back home. Good 2 see you enjoyed our little country 😎👍🏻
Very lovely places en What a beauty 🚴♂️💕🇸🇷from suriname👋🏻
Great routing. So many very familiar places in NL. The shouts of glee as you realize what good bike infrastructure does for your mood.
Cycling through the trees. I've done it more than 10 times and I still love it. You passed near to my backyard. Greatings from Flanders.
What a great ride that was; you really covered a lot of ground. The scenery never gets boring.
Many thanks for posting this. The ride looked great and your videography is fantastic, I loved the relive/photos combination. We moved to the Netherlands in the early 1990s and made the mistake of moving back a few years later, we love it there for all the same reasons and it's always great to get back. We also discovered Belgium is a pretty good runners up last year so your route was nicely refreshing.
Great Video, Looks like you were out there at the same time as me and looks like you had a great time.
Thanks so much for this video it cheered me up on a rainy afternoon in Middlesbrough 👍🚴🏽♀️🚴🏽♀️🚴🏽♀️😁
It rained for four weeks straight after this weather, so u were very lucky !
Looks like a great route. I’m riding LF Maasroute in May 2024.
Glad you ladies enjoyed cycling through our low countries. Many familiar roads and paths. Thank you for taking us along.
Thank you for coming along!
BEST AND MOST BEAUTIFUL VIDEO I'VE SEEN ON RUclips
Great video! Lovely to see you all enjoying the cycling infrastructure in the NL. It has become normal to us and therefore we tend to forget to appreciate what protesters have started more than 50 years ago and what (local) governments since then have established. I noticed some familiar surroundings on your 3rd day which is exactly the area where I cycle around. But I also have experienced the horror winds between Rotterdam and Hoek van Holland. We all just have to keep moving those legs….
What a nice ride! As a dutchie I really enjoyed all the beautiful places and the ride between the trees in Belgium is something I have to do myself as well! Thanks for the lovely vid!
So cool to see you all enjoying your trip..✌️
This video is top notch👌
Fabulous tour and really enjoyed your video of it. I did a two week cycling tour in the Netherlands in June this year and was equally delighted with the amazing infrastructure. We definitely need some of that in the UK.
I'm so jealous of your trip. I could easily spend a month biking thru the Netherlands and Belgium enjoying the cycling infrastructure.
Belgium? Haha, bumby ride,
@@henkoosterink8744 Belgium is better for "sport" biking than netherlands. Hills, kasseien, a lot of small routes through the fields. Having a smooth riding is overrated. :)
@@benefiet Yes, and a lot of bad roads.
@@henkoosterink8744 ok kees
Lovely video been there 5xon holiday always take bikes it's fantastic safe riding over there been north and south into Belgium and Germany it's amazing
You've made a nice trip trough my little country!
Your little country is big in cycling infrastructure! I came back very jealous of those living there!
Cool video, it's interesting to see you riding the roads that I ride on daily basis :)
@22:55 It's 'Manneken Pis' way of saying: "Welcome to Belgium!"😂 (the legendary bronze sculpture of a naked little boy urinating into the fountain's basin. Brussels) ❤😊😄😍❤
When the Netherlands already had around 40.000 km. of separate bike-paths years ago Belgium had none.
But LOOK NOW ! Those bridges at the top of the trees and others.
Fantastic.
This tour and the depiction of landscape in both counntries : it didn't bore me one single second.
Great trip and editing.
❤❤❤❤❤
Aw thank you, lovely comments!
but look now? Belgium still has one of the worst infrastructure in Europe. nothing or not much changed.
Belgium still sucks.
@@r.a.h7682Did you even cycle in Belgium? The change is enormous. You can cycle trough Belgium seperate from cars between most big cities. The changes in most cities are huge. Look at Ghent or Antwerp. There is a network of cycle highways. There are special trains, ferries for cyclists. Also belgian drivers are more friendly to cyclists than in the Netherlands.
@@r.a.h7682 Im from Breda and as a greenhousebuilder i work a lot n Belgium and what you say is not true.
There are lots of seperated bikelanes they are not wide but good enough.
Flaanders doing an oke job and they might be proud for what they already changed, Antwerp have some good infra.
I dont know about the fench side Walonie, its French so i dont think they have the same ;p
Great camera movings especially on a bike, enjoyed your video, so next time a vid from east Netherland : Veluwe, Overijssel, Drenthe, Groningen, Friesland then afsluitdijk to North Holland, all the parts or provinces are less populated with beautiful cycle lanes over dykes (sea dijken) and through woods, maybe take a part of Germany but I do not know nothing about the cycling paths there.
Very nice ride and i see you liked Utrecht and yes they have the best cycle infra in the world so 😉and the Hovenring is something else.
Greetigs from Breda the city you just missed ;p
Funnily enough, I dislike the 'roundabout' in Rotterdam, probably because it's not a roundabout but a traffic circle.
There's some overlap, nuances, and exceptions between roundabouts and traffic circles but basically you can tell by the fact that there are traffic lights in the 'circle'.
Great ride in our country. Thanks for your video.
A very nice trip, watched the whole movie and enjoyed it, must have been quite a bit of editing. I live in the south of Kapellen, one of the municipalities where you passed along the railway line. On DAY 6 you did miss a nice stretch between HEIDE (Kalmthout ) and ESSEN, namely the Kalmthoutse Heide (cross-border) one of the largest nature reserves in Flanders) where you can cycle completely car-free via a very nice road.
Guess I'll have to come back and check it out again!
Great filming, great visuals. And beautiful routes.
Unfortunately the foreground music was too much, so I had to mute the video.
SPLENDID. Thank you so much for sharing. DO YOU PROVIDE CUSTOM TOURS OF THE LOW COUNTRIES???
I don't provide tours. It's not a job. I go out with friends or alone, and on weekends I volunteer to lead rides around London so less confident cyclists can join in group rides.
3:25: this is the most irritating part in my daily route to work. This bridge is very bumpy. It will be replaced in a few years for a concrete one.
Love cycling around the Netherlands! You should try Belgium and Germany too 👍
?? Belgium really maybe watch the whole video ;p
@@dimrrider9133 50 mins?...way too busy for that.
@@bv3bv334 dont react then if you are so busy because Belgium is in the video pffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff
@@dimrrider9133 No worries...won't bother looking at any more of your vids...🙄
@@bv3bv334 Its not my silly puppet hahahahaha and you had notime so go play with Lego again.
Nice！
4:57 Dutch lady: Why are these fools wearing a helmet? I bike faster than them.
Nice vid, but the repetitive music is cringe.
Welcome! Next time you ride here, shark teeth on your road pointing towards you mean you have to yield. At 0:58 you where supposed to yield to the car. Just a safety lesson :)
I learned that later (at that point I wasn't sure about the priority rules so I slowed down and waited everywhere just in case). But did you notice that the reason I say 'Thank you' to the driver is because they stopped anyway even though I didn't expect them to? You don't see it but they gestured for me to carry on.
@@placeswheremybiketakesme yes! I figured. I hope i didn’t come across as condecending. Us dutchies tend to volunteer advice ;) Lovely ride you made!
@@strikeformatik No, not at all! As I said on the video, I was pretty insecure about my first crossings! LOL! And I loved the volunteered advice that I got along my 7 days, it was always welcome and useful! The Dutch were nothing but helpful and friendly while I visited!
Hello. I enjoyed watching this. I am wanting to do a long trip via bike like you did in these countries. Was wondering how you determined your route, maybe someone can explain?
I live on the Oregon Coast, my family lives in Belgium. Thanks
Check out a website called Cycle.Travel. They have a route planner and all I did was add the points I wanted to pass by and it plotted the route for me.
Did you follow a Eurovelo route? If not what was your ride plan, I would love to do a ride like this
No. I just planned by picking my points of interest and letting route planners trace in between, like Komoot and Cycle.Travel.
musik ruins this video for me...
Where did you stay? What sort of accommodation?
Hotels and B&B types of accommodation.
Great vid. And: Next Time. Take off your helmet and enjoy the freedom. (It’s a bad example to wear a bike helmet. People can think cycling is unsafe…. 😊)
Everybody has the right to wear helmets . The tourists, who are not used to our biking culture, for them it makes sense that they wear helmets.
Hilarious about a bikepath?
pleasant trip, but accelerated images make the video boring and tiring
Get travel bikes.....not racing bikes.
Bicycle helmets are invented by the car industry not by recreational cyclists
Only tourists wear helmets on there bike in The Netherlands.