The low lands
Previous: Burgundy to Belgium
Having hit the low lands of the Normandy coast around Dunkerque, with Arlene in tow, we headed north along the Belgian coast (to avoid the hot inland weather) into the Netherlands, where we found ourselves happily doing loops, exploring on civilised, safe bike trails. We hadn’t considered ourselves prejudiced, but we hadn’t expected riding in the Netherlands to be quite as delightful as it turned out to be (two days making it into our top ten days of the trip).
We had been planning that this was just another leg on our road north before heading back south for another winter. But alas, our well laid plans came awry, and this ended up being the final leg of our 2025 European adventure.
Day 1. Arneke to De Panne
8 July 2025 (47 km)
It was a flat ride on backroads to the Belgian border. We took lunch in the attractive Belgian town of Veurne, which was remarkably bereft of accommodation options. Suddenly, here in Belgium, the shops seemed more familiar to our Australian sensibilities. We cruised past (tempted to stop at) a (non-Decathlon) outdoors shop on the outskirst of Veurne, the like of which we had not encountered in our European travels to date.
Accommodation was easier to come by along the coast. We opted for a night’s camping in an attractive, shady campground behind the sand dunes of De Panne.
Our friendly camping neighbour had travelled here from Germany with his family to visit nearby Plopsaland (quite the attraction in this part of the world apparently). We had a surprisingly good cassolette du poisson for dinner in the pleasant campground cafeteria, plus wines and ice creams. We were somewhat confused by our arrival in Dutch-speaking Flanders, but my poor French seemed to be better accepted than our English at the cafeteria.
Day 2. De Panne to Blankenberge
9 July 2025 (58 km)
After breakfast at a cafe in the town square of De Panne, we packed up and headed up the coast. Well, the Belgian coast was quite a surprise. A seemingly endless line of uniformly high-rise apartment blocks servicing a booming tourist trade along the wide sandy beaches (a contrast to the cobbles and cliffs of Normandy). Our ride was a slow weave through the busy promenades of De Panne, Koksijde, Nieupoort, Middelkerke, Oostende and Bredene. The various pedal vehicles along the promenade were pretty wild as well as some little electric kids bikes. A sight to behold as we managed to navigate through them.
Having missed the ferry across the Yser at Nieuwpoort because of their lunch break, we rode around the port into town, and bought picnic provisions in a supermarket in town for a pleasant lunch in a shady park, before tackling the last 20 km to Brankenberge.
The dunes at Niewpoort were a brief respite from the long promenades. We did manage to catch the crowded ferry across the Nordede at Ostend. From there, the ride was a little more inland, along the tramway that runs all the way along the Belgian coast. The old town of Blankenberge behind the high promenade along the dyke was quite charming, and Hotel Manitoba was a nice place to stay: a room with a terrace overlooking their surprisingly spacious garden, and a proprietor who kept us entertained with his Fawlty-esque brusqueness.
Day 3. Blankenberge to Vlissingen
10 July 2025 (41 km)
Blankenberge pretty much blends with the more industrial port of Bruges, Bruggezee, which marked a small pause in the line of seaside apartment blocks, until one last hurrah through Knokke. We stopped for morning tea to watch the beach from a seat outside Reubens in Knokke, where we were served by a charming waiter. We were entirely clueless as to how close the Netherlands border was, and we crossed it unknowingly at the Zwin estuary. The sudden increase in the number of cyclists enjoying the ride around the estuary should have given it away. We stopped for lunch on the Dutch side at Zilt and Zout, which was spectacularly good.
There was a noteable lack of seaside apartment blocks on the Dutch side. It was a civilised roll on to the ferry across to Vlissingen. And then a short 2 km ride to our idiosyncratic apartment for the next three nights, in a quiet end of town.
We warmed to Vlissingen over the next few days, despite the superyacht retailer in the port that we passed on the way to our apartment.
Day 4. Vlissingen loop #1
11 July 2025 (50 km)
Starting along Vlissingen’s beach, we eschewed the many beach-side cafes, and headed for the windchimes on the point, which were not quite as entertaining as many of their bemused google reviews (4.6 stars). From there, the trail took us through the lovely coastal forest behind the dunes. In peak take-it-easy mode, we stopped for leisurely coffee in the garden terrace of the Restaurant Valkenisse at the 8 km mark. The coastal forest only improved on the way into WestKappel. We rode past the town up onto the dyke to the Capwest restaurant on the dyke, where we admired the sea view over toasties. The ride home through more forests and fields and through Middleberg gave us a taste of the diversity Zeeland has to offer.
Day 5. Vlissingen loop #2
12 July 2025 (53 km)
Having been impressed with our taste of Zeeland yesterday, we tackled a similar loop today. First through the parks of Vlissingen before joining the forest section of yesterdays loop for a couple of km. We headed inland soon after yesterday’s morning tea spot, and found another nice cafe for coffee on Kirkring (i.e. the road around the church) in Grijpskerke. We spent a while hanging out drinking coffee like the locals there, before heading north to Veere for lunch. Veere was pretty busy, with a parade of traditionally dressed families doing loops in their horse-drawn carriages. We settled in watching the parade over another toastie lunch in the terrace of a bakery, contemplating how surprisingly good the food has been in the Netherlands. We headed back along the coast to cross Middelberg a different way to yesterday, and back home inland through the suburbs of Middelberg and Vlissingen. We decided on a cool drink on the Vlissingen Strand before retiring for the day.
Day 6. Vlissingen to Bruimisse
13 July 2025 (60 km)
We left Vlissingen along the south coast, stopping to ponder the tide rushing out of the channel for a while. After heading inland to join yesterday’s track for a bit, we stopped for coffee at a flash restaurant on a marina. While there we realised we would miss the hourly ferry at 12:30 (30 min away), and decided to go an extra 5 km to a bridge to the next Zeelandic island (maps seem to be shy about giving these islands names, so we’re not really sure what the Island’s name is). After lunch under some trees (a relatively rare commodity along the route) near the bridge, we made quick work of the ride across the island to the 5-km long bridge to our destination island. A brief stop at Zierikzee (with a plan to return tomorrow) before a cycle through the fields to our Welcome to my Garden paradise at Arjan and Helen’s beautiful farm.
Chris rode the 3 km into Bruimisse for provisions at the Marina supermarket (which had a very Metung vibe), and on my return we rode down to the dyke to dip our feet into the lake off the jetty. An excellent night’s camping!
Day 7. Bruimisse to Port Zealand
14 July 2025 (46 km)
Our host, Helen had promised today’s ride to be the best in Europe. Perhaps the weather influenced our view, but the day didn’t make it into our top 10, although the Big Mussel at Bruimisse was an unexpected highlight as were the path side blackberries. It was a pleasant ride while we were heading south-west, but once we turned into the headwind on the south coast, what promised to be a lovely ride became a tough slog against 50-km winds.
After a break for lunch in Zierikzee, we headed on along the coast to Serooskerke, where we decided to cut the ride around the island short and head north to our second night’s camping in the big camping ground at Port Zealand.
It was a delightfully easy 10 km across the isthmus with the wind at our backs (past masses of kite surfers enjoying the wind) into the strange world of parc-camping at Port Zealand. After checking in at the wrong place, we were directed on the 1km ride around the outside of the park to the camping entrance, where we found our shady pitch for the night. We wandered in for an average dinner at one of the cafes in the park.
Day 8. Port Zealand to Schipluiden
15 July 2025 (61 km)
Port Zealand marked our crossing from Zeeland to Zud Holland. The going was so much easier than the day before, with a roaring tailwind. We rolled along most of the day with our legs sticking straight out. It was all very open along the coast, and we sought shelter at the only copse of trees we had passed for a long time, enticed by the prospect of the beachside cafe (sadly closed). There, we re-routed our path into Brielle, slowing only for a little stroll through the market at Ouddorp.
At Brielle, we found a nice looking cafe on the canal for lunch. An hour and a half later we had been served a fairly average lunch, breaking our streak of excellent Dutch lunches to date. Then onward to ferry number 2 across to Maassluis: a large affair, designed for cars that don’t use it any more, as they have built a new tunnel - a new smaller electric ferry is in the offing (according to a friendly commuting cyclist local that we chatted to on the ferry). The ride along the canals of Massluis was lovely, through some very cute neighbourhoods with shops and houseboats lining the canals. We took a left turn up a small canal with a big name (the Bree of Lichtvoetwatering), which required crossing on a manual diy ferry. After some rare upper-body exercise, we tackled the last 8 km to our comfortable house for a couple of days, among the polders of de Zweth, half way between Delft and Rotterdam.
Chris took a short ride into a supermarket in the southern burbs of Delft for provisions. The next day, Chris rested at home while Maree and Arlene went and explored Delft.
Day 9. Rotterdam loop
17 July 2025 (42 km)
The following day, we all rode into Rotterdam for a look around. A great city: must return. We prematurely stopped for coffees at a cafe on the edge of the beautiful Het Park before discovering nice coffee places therein. We felt we had to clock the ‘cool’ centre of town, so we rode in for a walk along Binnenwegplein. Finding it a bit busy, and seemingly no cooler than cool districts of other cities, we headed back through museum park, stopping for a good lunch under the amazing Art Depot Boijmans.
We looped back to Het Park and our first cafe stop to try out the Maastunnel, which we had noticed over our coffee. Quite an impressive bit of bicycle infrastructure, which took us the other side of the Maas, where we jumped on a water taxi across to Massavenkade. There, we found a nice place for iced coffees (black, good). Across the Rijnhavenburg footbridge to the busy cruise terminal dock where we paused to watch a navy boat docking. We then joined the massive cycling commuting crowd around the docks to the Willemmsbrug bridge, across to the cute canal/dock at the Cube/Mariniers Museum in Oude Haven.
We were finding the Rotterdam drivers to be not super patient with cyclists, and we needed to keep our wits about us more than we have been used to. It was something of a coin toss whether a car would give way to you or attempt to run you down. Nevertheless, we survived to get onto the quiet bike trail around Kralingse Bos - a beautiful lake - we stopped at the lovely beach for a while regretting not having brought our bathers. We tackled the final 10 km ride home along some busy roads mainly protected from angry Rotterdam drivers.
Out that night to the local Brasserie down the road from our house. A pleasant night on the terrace, realising for the first time that the closed bridge near our house was being replaced by a ferry service at the Brasserie. Oh well.
Day 10. Schipluiden to Leiden
18 July 2025 (44 km)
A cruisy ride to the coast through Delft and Den Haag today. First, the compulsory morning tea/second-breakfast 30 minutes in, on a barge restaurant in the canal at Delft, followed by a wander around the town square. Although Den Haag and Delft are largely the same conurbation, they boast some beautiful big parks, which make for pleasant riding betweeen the urban bits. We checked out the main parliament building, and ventured into the old town for lunch at a lurid cafe (Koffei by Ami). The ride out of town took us via the Peace palace (being watched over by a group of very dedicated Falung Gong protestors), and through the very large park/forest to the beach, which felt a bit resorty.
Onward along the dunes which felt a bit more hilly than they should have as the day heated up (to all of 26 degrees or so). At least one of us definitely overheated about halfway along the coast and we stopped at several shady glades before the coast trail met the road inland. Distracted by a bunch of mud-caked kids climbing out of the canal for another jump off the bridge, we missed a track closed sign, which resulted in some backtracking on the road to Leiden.
We approached Leiden through the very modern medical research district, and after navigating another diversion in the last kilometre, we arrived at the pleasantly cool Ibis hotel. In the evening we wandered out to the cafe street along the canal behind the Ibis, and lucked on the very funky Paca Ciao restaurant, entering through a an entrance thrugh a cuppboard a la The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe - where the vibe ended up being somewhat better than the food. An ice-cream and a wander/sit around the canals and streets of Leiden ended the day. As is often the case with University towns, Leiden has a really nice vibe about it.
Day 11. Leiden to Alphen aan den Rijn
19 July 2025 (20 km(!))
Only 15 km today, thankfully, as it was humid and heading toward 28 degrees. After a late check-out we ambled down the canal (which was humming with Saturday traffic) and into the outskirts of Alphen, where our big hotel at the Avifauna Park sat. We dumped our bags there and rode the 2.4 km into town for lunch in a cafe terrace on the canal with a bit of a breeze ameliorating the heat somewhat (having being told off by a local in the first 5 m of riding into a pedestrian mall, another cultural learning).
Back at the hotel, Maree and Arlene had a tour of the Avifauna park, while Chris nappped, showered and retired to the comfy chairs of the bar to take in the Tour de France.
Day 12. Alphen aan den Rijn to Haarlem
20 July 2025 (38 km)
Breakfast in the avifauna park was not very inviting, so we rode into the sleepy-Sunday-morning town for brunch at a cafe on the canal (having been turned away from a cat cafe that we didn’t quite understand…all other clientele had brought their cats). After a fond farewell, Arlene headed south to the ferry at the Hook of Holland, and we headed north along pleasant canal paths and through Hoofddorp under the airport traffic.
Maybe we stopped for lunch, surely we stopped for a coffee along the way, but it’s all a blank now…
…until we arrived at the canal in Haarlem, just as the heavens opened. We sheltered somewhat ineffectively under a tree, but the storm didn’t pass before we were drenched so we continued on (sans wet-weather gear), first to shelter under a restaurant awning, and then onto to our hotel, where we were greeted warmly by our hosts in their restaurant. They took our bags up to our cute room, while we delivered our bikes to the underground bike parking station a few hundred metres down the road (very civilised).
A passegiata around the bustling old town around the church (with more of an Italian town feeling), dinner at a passable pizza restaurant on the street, watching the world go by. We had a good nights sleep on our high bed, and back out to the old town for breakfast at Toast.
Day 13. Haarlem to Amsterdam Noord
21 July 2025 (28 km)
We can’t remember why we elected to take the more direct route from Haarlem rather than the loopy road north that we originally envisaged. But we did, and it was fine. Our entrance into Amsterdam was along pleasant parks, and we found ourselves having a civilised lunch on a quiet street among the canals, thinking Amsterdam was a quiet pleasant place.
But then we decided to head to a phone shop to get Chris’s phone fixed, in the main tourist drag, which was much less pleasant. The less said about getting the phone fixed, the better. Back on our bikes we rolled onto the ferry across to Amsterdam Noord just in time, just as the alarm was ringing signalling that the ramp was about to go up. In retrospect, we probably should have waited for the next one—they come every five minutes.
We joined the commuters on the ride along the canals and through the parks to our house in Noord, opposite a canal, in a pleasant, quiet part of town. We got to know that ride to and from the ferry well over the next fateful week.
That night, in our cute little house looking out over the canal (with pet bunnies), we reconsidered our plan to continue heading north to Denmark. Maree had gained an appointment with a specialist in London. So we decided on an alternative adventure: ferry to Newcastle, ride to London, visiting friends along the way. But the next morning the complications and cost of any potential next stage health-care after the specialist appointment sunk in. Finally the penny dropped that non-urgent specialist care would be a lot simpler if we were home.
So then and there, we cancelled the ferry and bought two plane tickets home for three weeks time, with the aim of a meandering cycle back to Altenberge to drop our bikes off for their boat trip to Australia.
With that momentous decision made, we spent a few days exploring Amsterdam. On the 23rd, we rode into town, parked our bikes in the big parking station in the busy part of town, and went for a walk through the centrum and then west to Erasmus park where we had lunch people watching. We came back via the phone shop (the less said the better still), retrieved our bikes and went for a ride around the docks to the NEMO science museum and checked out their big sloping green roof and the old boats along the wharf.
Day 14. A return to Alphen for Chris
24 July 2025 (50 km)
While Maree went off for a haircut, Chris intended to head south to Alphen to pick up his keys that he had left at the hotel there. He had thought it was going to be a quick 23 km ride each way for some reason, but it was actually 45 km each way. So, he booked a return ticket plus bike to Hoofddorp. The train trip was good (a single bank of 3 folding seats for the bike), and cycle.travel suggested a route to Alphen different from our last ride to Hoofddorp. Once the keys were retrieved, cycle.travel plotted a a third completely different, and still lovely, route back to Hoofddoorp. This time with lunch at a nice canal-side cafe in Woubrugge, a cute little ferry and a long wait at a drawbridge.
Day 15. The Markem loop
25 July 2025 (44 km)
It was a surprisingly short ride through the parks and streets of Amsterdam Noord before we hit the farms and polders to the north-west of town. At the coast, we climbed the dyke to the bike path that took us to the causeway across to the island of Marken. We had a long sit at the Marken lighthouse, followed by a pretty good lunch on the port in Marken. From there we wandered down to the ferry dock for the calm sail across Gouwzee to the somewhat more touristy Volendam. We thought the adjoining Edam might be worth a visit, but after a pleasant enough ride into the burbs of Edam, we decided not to go the extra half a kilometre in to the old town.
Along the inside of the dyke to Monnickendam for a drink on a barge and a wander through the old market. A pleasant ride home finally heading in through the park to the north of our house. That evening we jumped on the bikes again, and headed to Nieuwendijk Road for dinner in the local pub on a table down on the port. Lovely.
Day 16. Amsterdam Noord to Putten
26 July 2025 (57 km)
And so we headed off from our cute house in Noord, to head east toward the end of our trip. Our path out of Noord took us across the Buiten IJ (the main waterway separating Amsterdam from Noord) east of the city. It was a long wait to cross at a drawbridge. We encountered lots of friendly cycle groups coming the other way as we headed southeast along the south of IJmeer. We finally crossed to the north side of Gooimeer, which we rode along for 10 km. With not a huge density of welcoming cafes along the way, we ended up sheltering from some light rain under a sales office for a green development along Goimeer. On our way out of the development, we passed a dead, but remarkably alive-looking, grass snake on the road: our first snake of the trip!
Once across Eemeer to the south, the trail followed bird-filled wetlands until the outskirts of Putten where we turned off onto Vanenbergallee to our Castle for the night: Kasteel de Vanenberg. A flash night was had including a good dinner in the Brasserie.
Day 17. Putten to Zwolle
27 July 2025 (58 km)
Voted by Maree as one of the top-ten rides of the trip! It was pretty nice, through forest all day, and a little topographical relief after weeks of flat. We rose to the mighty height of 50 m during ride.
After a fond farewell to our castle, we headed off 2 km down the road before I realised I didn’t have my phone charging lead. So, Maree rode back to the castle while I re-packed, having unpacked all my likely bags watched on by a field of highland coos. I then rode back myself to meet Maree coming back from the room and bike-shed empty handed. She wisely suggested looking where we parked the bikes last night outside the Brasserie, and there it was.
Maree was told off by a passing motorist for being on the road on her ride back to the castle, and it has occurred to us that, surprisingly Dutch motorists tend to be less courteous and accommodating that the French, or even the Italians. I guess there are so many bikes and dedicated bikeways dominating the landscape the motorists feel somewhat more proprietorial about their roads.
Being a Sunday, and our ride being through a lot of rural forest, we weren’t super optimistic about finding a place for lunch, but we ended up being spoilt for choice and had a good lunch on a terrace overlooking a lovely garden and soccer pitch in Vierhouten (A weird tomato soup with a fatty lump of meat in it for Maree—note to future selves: don’t order the tomato soup—, and a strange open brie and mushroom sandwich for Chris).
More forest and off-road paths to Zwolle, with its lovely entrance through parklands along the railway line, and across the star shaped canal/moat around the old town. We received a lovely welcome by our hosts in Jantjes Lief cafe who shouted us ginger ales before we retired upstairs to the spacious light apartment, where we stayed for two nights.
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We had two comfortable nights in our apartment, but while there, health-related anxiety peaked. We decided it was time for Maree to head home, and we brought her flight home forward to three days time. Sadly we couldn’t extend our stay in the apartment so we moved to the Bildeberg Hotel near Zwolle station, and Maree booked a hotel room in Amsterdam for the following night before her flight. After some logistical shenanigans, Chris hired a car for the day to transport Maree’s bike the 120 km to Altenberge, while Maree caught the train to Amsterdam. On returning to Zwolle having delivered the bike to our place in Altenberge, Chris realised he had enough time to catch the train to Amsterdam for one last date with Maree before she left. Our Italian dinner in bustling Amsterdam was a better farewell than our rushed goodbye at Zwolle station, and Chris took the dusk train back to the hotel in Zwolle before his solo last leg back to Altenberge.
Day 18. Zwolle to Hardenberg
31 July 2025 (47 km)
I was a little sad riding out of Zwolle, but it really was a beatiful ride to Hardenberg. I saw my first red squirrel of the trip (very cute). Lots of beautiful forest. Best sandwich I’ve ever had for lunch at another nice terrace in a cafe at Vilsteren (cheese nominally, but amazing other ingredients that were difficult to identify). I had a memorable brush with an electric Kombi Van, which gave me uncharacteristic car envy.
More beautiful forest in the afternoon, right up to the 60s suburb of Hardenberge housing Odding’s place B&B. Really just a family home, with the kid’s rooms converted to guest’s rooms, with one shared bathroom. I just made it into town for dinner at the Brasserie d’Markt before the heavens opened. Fortunately, it stopped in time for the 2.5 km ride home.
Day 19. Hardenberg to Gronau
1 August 2025 (66 km)
I started out in the rain at 9 am, as a band was passing with the prospect of a dry few hours presenting itself. I managed to load the wrong route and realised I was heading toward our original destination of Wietmarschen about 10 km out. As it happens, I hadn’t gone too far out my way, and only a little back-tracking was necessary.
The ride took me across the German border for a bit, which meant more on-road (back road) cycling, and loss of phone reception for a while (a crucial while, as it was when Maree was landing in Melbourne). I managed to lose my route with loss of reception, but I went old school and found my way to Vasse (back in the Netherlands), where I found a restaurant who served me a couple of coffees while a little rain came through, and I managed to get my e-SIM working again, and chat to Maree while she was in the uber on the way home from the airport.
It was Netherlands almost all the way to Gronau - not super memorable. I managed to have the wrong address in my route, and I sailed past my airbnb to the other side of town as the rain was building behind me. By the time I worked out where I needed to be and started riding the 11 minutes back, the rain arrived and I had to stop in the town of Gronau (not super exciting). The airbnb is fine, but the bedroom extension has a crazy low roof.
I had three days booked in the house in Gronau. The second day was rainy, but it stopped around 4pm, so I decided to head out for a 30 km ride before dinner. An unremarkable loop through some nice forest, around a big lake.
THe next day was finer, and I headed on a loop south to Ahaus. Nice ride back into the Netherlands to start, through some pretty forest and wetlands. I had a cheap, not bad lunch after looking around the domhof and town of Ahaus.
Day 20. Gronau to Altenberge
4 August 2025 (66 km)
I headed off ten-ish, the first few km revisiting my short loop of two days earlier. Waves of memories of the last 9 months washed by me as I rode largely unaware across the quite pleasant landscape. But today brought some actual (geographic) relief, with hills to climb and roll down. A fairly average lunch at a cafe in the pretty town of Burgsteinfurt. The final ride up the hill to Altenberge was oddly emotional.
The next few days back in Stephanie’s place (my first stop way back in October) were busy, organising the return of both bikes to Velo de Ville, working out how to send my excess luggage home, and perhaps a little obsessively doing two loopy rides around Altenberge (41 km and 40 for a visit into Münster) to reach the 10,000 km mark for my bike. Roy at Velo de Ville was extremely welcoming and helpful, and leaving the bikes with them for the ship home was hassle-free, even if letting them go was a little emotional
And on the 9th August, the day finally came for the train trip back to Amsterdam, where we had booked two nights in a flash hotel on the edge of town for the final two nights we had planned together. At the end of the line on the south of town, it was quite a different Amsterdam experience to Noord. I ended my Netherlands soujorn with a beautiful day, exploring the town on a hotel bike and visiting the Van Gogh museum, before the Monday morning flight home…
