I took a cycle trip on Sunday 5th May around the famous Bollenstreek area (South Holland province), which is well known for its lush flower fields during the Netherland’s early spring season. You’ve probably seen pictures of the expansive fields full of tulips and other flowers; unfortunately, that flowering period is very short and in this area, essentially lasted not even a month during April. I’ll do a separate blogpost on the flowers, but let’s get on with the cycle route.
A note on cycling in general in the Netherlands: everyone does it. 2 year olds all the way to 100 year olds. Absolutely everyone.
And the variety of bikes is huge with old-fashioned manual to electric, barrow bikes, tandems, lie-downs and everything in between. The most common type is called a city bike which is quite a traditional design although these typically come with a 7-speed automatic cassette in the back.
My choice of steed is a plain 21 speed unassisted 2 wheeler.
Another important thing about cycling in the Netherlands is that there are cycle paths/lanes absolutely everywhere – the route I cycled here (~ 25kms) contained maybe 20% riding on non-specific bike paths.
Noordwijk Aan Zee is a small seaside town on the Netherland’s Mid West coast (midway between Amsterdam and The Hague), a close cousin to Noordwijk proper which is a couple of KMs inland. Weather can be quite stormy in winter (easily on par with the Cape of Storms, this is the famous North Sea after all), and the locals joke about having all 4 seasons in a day – very familiar.
My route starts in Noordwijk Aan Zee (where I currently live), moving south along a dune/beach bike path for about 4 kms towards Katwijk, another seaside holiday town. The Netherlands is generally quite flat but there are some small dune hills here with maybe 25m elevation change. This particular route also has lanes for walkers and paths towards the beach.
Next we move on to Katwijk/Katwijk Aan Zee (KAZ) which is a little bigger than Noordwijk, although not by much but similarly charming and beautiful.
KAZ Beach Rd
KAZ town centre
All these little towns have a similar concept to a highstreet in the UK with quaint shops and restaurants lining the streets. Many of the restaurants at least are closed for the winter though – this seems to be a common theme in Europe.
Unlike Noordwijk Aan Zee, Katwijk Aan Zee shopping is closed on Sundays …
We now move down Industrieweg in Katwijk Aan Zee in direction Leiden:
Note the dyke moving top left to bottom right in the map above. The level of engineering that has gone into the Netherlands as a whole due to the susceptibility to flooding, is completely stunning. The dykes and canals that criss-cross the entire country essentially act as a balancing system to maintain consistent water levels everywhere.
We move from Industrieweg to Konining Julianaweg and Zeeweg
Zeeweg changes into Rijnstraat and we’re now in the suburban areas of Katwijk Aan de Rijn moving towards Rijnsburg.
The Dutch are very patriotic and you’ll see the flag flown often at private residences.
Rijnstraat moves into Valkenburgseweg and then into Katwijkerweg and Hoofdstraat. The Rijn river runs parallel to us on the left.
The Rhine is one of the major European rivers. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein, Swiss-Austrian, and Swiss-German borders. After that the Rhine defines much of the Franco-German border, after which it flows in a mostly northerly direction through the German Rhineland. Finally in Germany, the Rhine turns into a predominantly westerly direction and flows into the Netherlands where it eventually empties into the North Sea.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhine
So the major river you see in the 2nd map above is in fact the Rhine that comes all the way from Switzerland and drains out to sea at Katwijk.
Moving on down Hoofdstraat …
And just an average drive down the street in your own horse and carriage!
We turn left near the end of Hoofdstraat along the new path next to Duyfraklaan, cross the bike bridge over the Rijn and turn right into Luit Katlaan. Continue with that until we hit Voorschoterweg.
At the end of Voorschoterweg, we see the new bypass bridge/highway over the Rijn. This bridge is only about 3 years old …
Carrying on in this direction would take you to Leiden so we’re going to make a uturn and go back up Voorschoterweg for a short distance and then turn right into Duyfraklaan, over the river and then left into Rijnsburgerweg.
(apologies for the video on this one – stabilizer was off – yes it makes that much of a difference!)
Same path further on and over the bridge:
Left into Rijnsburgerweg.
At the top circle we turn diagonally left into Oestgeesterweg which then further on merges into Sandtlaan.
The Dutch cyclists are speed demons, and often travel in gaggles of bikes. Note the bike lane traffic light at the end …
And we cross back over the Rijn. Yes we’re doubling back on ourselves a couple of times but you’ve got to see the sites …
As we cross the Rijn on Sandtlaan, we turn right again into Rijnstraat but jink left and then right into Kerkstraat, merging again with Rijnstraat further up along our original route.
Just before we hit Zeeweg, we take the bike-only path (Roversbrugpad) to the right that runs alongside the old highway/bridge and towards the Rijn.
(Warning: the above clip is 3mins)
You may have noticed (or not) that bike lanes often have equivalent signage and traffic controls to the vehicle roads … very snazzy! Also, bikes are often left unlocked (depending on the area) … very low theft in general in NL, and pretty much none in the burbs.
We now go back up to the bridge and across, traveling alongside the highway and then back under it on the other side towards the Noordwijk interchange.
We go straight at the circle into Herenweg and end up at the junction with Zwarteweg, with the petting farm sandwiched between the 2 on the left.
We carry on until the next circle and then left into Beeklaan; now in Noordwijk proper. Mopeds are allowed to use the cycle lanes as well.
Down towards Gladiolusstraat. Vehicles must give way to cyclists and pedestrians at junctions. I takes a bit getting used to looking to the left rather than the right.
The pecking order is:
- cyclists
- pedestrians
- buses
- vehicles
Past Gladiolusstraat and through the tulip fields towards Noordwijk Aan Zee.
We are now going into Noordwijk Aan Zee – the main road enters NAZ and then turns right at the circle for the main loop back to Noordwijk, or straight on into the town centre. All bus stops have electronic sign-boards, and the bus service is generally accurate with times met to the closest minute or so. At the end of this video, I turn left into the NAZ “high street”.
(note video is 3mins)
Beach side of the NAZ town centre.
There are 3 bus routes in/out of NAZ so lots of transport to choose from.
The NAZ beach road back to my place.
Don’t let those Dutch folk in short sleeves fool you – it’s pretty chilly out. They’re just immune to the cold.
The Dutch are also very big on their dogs – Berners and Labs are the order of the day. Not many cats around …
Midway through this video as it pans towards the sea, you can just make out the NL North Sea Luchterduinen wind farm in the distance – this one is fairly small by comparison (only 43 turbines) but NL hosts 3 of the largest sea-based wind farms in the world. The largest is 165 turbines!
Here’s a map of the wind farms dotted around the North Sea.
Also continuing south down the coast is the port of Rotterdam (just north of the Belgium border) which is the largest shipping port in Europe.
And that is our trip done – about 24 kms distance and 4 hrs roundtrip. Quite a leisurely ride …
I hope you enjoyed it and see ya on the next one!