Day One: Sunday 9th August
At 7:45am the ferry docked at the Hoek of Holland and we rolled off. Me, Lesley and Lily. Lesley is a couple of years younger than me but doesn't currently commute or ride that much. Lily is 13 but did a 300km tour in Bretagne a couple of weeks before. I am on my commuter bike with most of the luggage. Lesley is on a Super Galaxy with a small load. Lily just has her own coat, bottle of water and an ipod.
The first thing we do is get lost trying to join LF1. Quick retrace and we are soon seeing signs for the Noordzeeroute. There are lots of leisure cyclists out for a spin as it is sunday morning. The cycling club groups that pass us leave a waft of aftershave as they go by.
As predicted by everyone, we get a bit lost at the top end of Den Haag and walk along a seaside promenade for a while. Get pizza bread and apple turnovers for lunch from the supermarket.
We also some how manage to come out on the road junction directly opposite the StayOK hostel in Noordwijk but not see it and then spend 30 minutes going in a big circle. We get there for 3pm
Noordwijk stayok by
vorsprung2009, on Flickr
StayOK is nice and the stodgey pasta and mealballs evening meal is ideal
Day two: Monday
Lesley and Lily are a bit tired after the 60km ride the day before. Also the weather is fabulous. So the planned trip to the horicultural thing in Lieden is cancelled. Lily and Lesley lie on the beach all day. I lie on the beach most of the day but find some time for a trip to the nearby town, Noordwijkerhout. I get a proper VVV map with the numbers on it from tourist info, stock up on supplies and spot a number of possiblities for the evening meal
At dinner time we cruise down to Noordwijkerout together and decide to get an Indonesian takeaway from the place in the church square.
This goes down very well with a couple of beers back at the hostel
Day three: Tuedday
Leave Noordwijk StayOK on the LF1. The road up to Zandvoort is really great. It's a cycle path as wide as devon lane, motor traffic free and across the dunes on the coast. There is nothing to see except scrub. A couple of deer leap out in front of us.
At Zandvoort we take the wrong road but it doesn't matter as we now have the super VVV map and just reroute. Past the formula one track as it goes...
Stop for a coffee and damn fine apple pie on Driehuis. Brief confusion at the ferry at Ijmudien, nearly buy a ticket to Amersterdam. The "flying ferry" crossing is free for bikes.
It is Lesleys birthday today and as we are well ahead of the 3pm opening time for the hostel she suggests a trip to the seaside. So we have lunch from a Spar shop in Wijk aan Zee. I can't really recommend Wijk ann Zee. It reminded me of Burham on Sea...
A quick retrace and across Beverwijk and Heemskerk to the fabulous StayOK in a castle.
Heemskerk Stay OK by
vorsprung2009, on Flickr
Shortly after we arrived there it started raining heavily, the only time on the entire trip.
We had pasta and meal balls (again) at the hostel for evening meal
Day four: Wednesday
We left the castle and crossed back on the ferry, heading for Haarlem. We got lost and a bit grumpy. Got tickets at Haarlem station for Soest.
Haarlem Station by
vorsprung2009, on Flickr
Changed at Utretcht
Soest StayOK was easy to find.
The evening meal on offer was the ubiquitous pasta and meatballs so I quizzed the hostel staff, went off and found a Chinese/ Indonesian takeaway. It wasn't quite as good as the previous one and we ordered far too much. But very welcome
Day five: Thursday
Lesley declared the nearby town of Amersfoort to be worth a look so we set off on a trip around the local area. The terrain around Soest/Utretcht was different to the North Sea coast. it was still sandy but heavily forested.
Riding out from Soest by
vorsprung2009, on Flickr
Coffee Stop in Amserfoort by
vorsprung2009, on Flickr
Also visited the "Pyramid" which was up the only hill on the entire trip
Pyramid near Amesfoort by
vorsprung2009, on Flickr
The pyramid was a curiously popular attraction for locals. Maybe it was the frits that attracted them
Frits near the Pyramid by
vorsprung2009, on Flickr
On the way back to the hostel we went to the ice cream shop, which was near the Chinese takeaway
Back at the hostel in Soest they actually had a non- pasta and meal balls item on the menu! So we had gratin and risotto for dinner
Day six: Friday
We cycled to the Dick Bruna Huis in Utretcht. The route took us past some very swanky looking houses. Dick Bruna is the artist who invented Miffy the rabbit. For my 13 year old this was the highlight of the entire trip to Holland.
Had a pleasant coffee in Utretcht then got the train to Rotterdam
We were all impressed by the StayOK in the cube houses in Rotterdam
Lily outside the cube houses by
vorsprung2009, on Flickr
view stayok rotterdam by
vorsprung2009, on Flickr
evening view stayok rotterdam by
vorsprung2009, on Flickr
The cube house StayOK didn't really do evening meals so we found a place called the "Dim Daily" and all had excellent noodle soup
Day seven: Saturday
StayOK let us leave our luggage and bikes at the hostel, even though we'd "checked out" in the morning. We walked through the street market, bought some cheese and went to the museum. Saw some great stuff. Then we got lunch from a Spar shop and spent about 2 hours just sitting on a bench near a canal
About 5pm - ish we went back to the Hostel, picked up our bikes and luggage and got a train from Rotterdam Centraal to Hoek Haven and the ferry.
Fish n Chips for dinner on the ferry, goodbye holland
Ferry back by
vorsprung2009, on Flickr
