Return to the Veluwe

Apeldoorn is just an hour east of Amsterdam but the nearby Hoge Veluwe national park feels quite remote. It is the same swath of forest and heath that I described in Rondje Veluwe a couple of years ago. This time my girlfriend Alice and I took a two-day journey from Apeldoorn through the forest.

Return to Groningen

Sunday morning: we're at a cafe right on Schiermonnikoog beach and it's cleared up. With the wind blocked by glass panels it's fairly warm. A long strip of beach on the open sea. Kite flying and sail racing. After having our coffee we continued to explore the network of packed sand paths through the dunes. It being a clear, lovely Sunday in late summer, we had plenty of company.

Groningen / Schiermonnikoog - Day 2

View from the hide, Lauwersmeer national park

In the morning, we said goodbye to Dick and Flora and went up the road to Zoutkamp, with a little harbor. From there, we skirted the Lauwersmeer, a man-made lake that's at the center of a national park. Not too spectacular, just a large expanse of grass. We found a bird "hide" and looked at some swallows hopping along the bank of a pond where cows lazed. The hut had wooden boards for shutters and you lift them to open a slit in the structure, presumably unseen by the birds. At the entrance we ran into a Belgian birder who showed videos of an owl that later attacked him. Other solitary men carrying telescopes and cameras wandered past.

Groningen / Schiermonnikoog - Day 1

New paths, Groningen

The beautiful town of Groningen, tucked away in Holland's northeast, quite close to Germany. The plan is to head for the island of Schiermonnikoog, easternmost of the Frysian isles, which form a crescent-shaped barrier to the North Sea. We rented identical Gazelle Orange bikes at the train station (€8.50 per day). Then we crossed the ring canal and headed north, got fried fish at the Vismarkt, made an espresso stop at Black & Bloom, run by a coffee maven who "really knows his stuff" according to my cycling companion Brian Jones. We were sitting outside sipping our espressos, me observing the cheerful passersby on foot, bike and scooter, Brian on the phone to London. Another gorgeous summer's day.

Kromme-Rijn Route Oost

A mid-summer ride. Overcast but quite warm, another day in a European heat wave. I rode the train to Utrecht, then changed for Houten, just east. Then I realized it might be easier to access the route from Culemborg so continued another 10 minutes. From Culemborg station I headed north to the Lek river (the western continuation of the Nederrijn, itself an extension of the Rhine river). A barge-like ferry went across to the north bank, carrying a handful of helmeted cyclists. On the other side they all headed east, wind at their backs. I went west, under the railroad tracks toward Houten. This is a swampy area with lots of ducks in stagnant pools. The route follows a narrow road with views of the river, then branches off along a narrow track through swampy fields (to point 64). A horse-drawn cart clops up the trail, then a Sprinter train darts by behind me. It's the middle of nowhere (actually just outside Houten) and I like it.

Rondje Peel en Maas - Day 3

Helenavaart, outside Meijel, Limburg

Cooler and breezier today but still sunny and nice. Pleasant start of the route from 9 -> 96 through woods along the Helenavaart canal, here a tranquil brook, then over a wooden bridge and I'm back on the LF-13a. a promising entry to today's fietstocht.