TRAVEL STORY: Tulips and a Two Year Old in the Netherlands

2 year old Jennifer Wilbraham ready to take on the Netherlands with her folks ...

Tulips and a Two Year Old The Wilbrahams' Tour of the Netherlands

We had a successful tour of Denmark when Jenny was five and a half months old. Last year we rode an organized tour across Florida to let Jenny have her first camping experience. Later that year, we did a mini tour of western Prince Edward Island where we added camping gear to our load and completed a totally self sufficient tour. Having done that, it was time for the next igtour. Neither of us had ever been to the Netherlands. Since it flat and has bike paths everywhere, we figured it was a good place for towing er, touring.

Buying tour books and a map was the first step. After reading about possible places to visit, we plotted them on a map. Through a process of elimination, we found enough places clustered nicely together to make a possible route. We booked tickets and our first and last night lodging in Amsterdam.

The weather in the Netherlands is variable, and since I wanted to see the tulips, it was going to be fairly cool at that time of year. We tried to go as late in the tulip season as possible with hopes of getting some warmer weather. It seemed to have worked. We had weather in 50 and 60 and were comfortable when we stopped to eat or sight see.

After an enjoyable flight on Singapore Air (highly recommended!) we got a taxi to haul us and our gear to the B&B from which we would begin our two-week journey. Our luggage consisted of two bike Friday NWT, two trailers, two bags of camping and bike gear, Jenny bed, plus our two carry-ons, emergency food supplies, and a bag full of toys.

Our first day consisted of putting the bikes and trailers together and getting acclimated to our surroundings. Once the bikes were together, we wanted to go the tourist bureau (VVV) to get bike route maps. At that time, the skies also decided to open with rain. Silly that we were, we headed out anyway. The first VVV we visited turned out to be a bust, not having the scale of maps we were looking for. What was interesting, though, was the number of people still out-and-about on their bikes in a downpour without any rain gear on. Some were riding while holding umbrellas, but in general, it seems the Dutch just get wet. Not long after we had gone out, the rain eased. In fact it stopped completely and started to dry up as Derek and I ate dinner soaking wet in a nearby restaurant.

Sunday, the following day, we did some sightseeing around Amsterdam. We were supposed to meet a Dutch couple, also Bike Friday owners, for a ride, but we overslept. There was no answer on their phone and no other way to contact them at that point. I think we ended up having them P.O. at us but we made ourselves feel better by telling ourselves that behind the train station was a silly place to meet. Anyway, we tried another VVV on the other side of Amsterdam and once again came up empty for maps. They said to go to the ANWB equivalent of AAA - the next day. But it was Sunday and they were closed.

We had wasted enough time already so we parked the bikes in a bike parking garage very cool! It operated the same way as a car park and was safer than locking the bikes up out in plain view. Having our bikes secured, we took a canal boat ride, had a late lunch, and eventually meandered our way back to the B&B to get our things organized for starting our tour in the morning.

The hostess at the B&B graciously stored our suitcases for us while we toured. We headed out and made our first stop at the ANWB. The maps were OK, but still didn seem as detailed as we would expect.

Unfortunately, you can order the maps ahead of time, and until we finally found what we needed, it seemed we wasted quite a bit of time just visiting the VVV offices which are found in almost every village. Our first goal was Alkmaar, northwest of Amsterdam.

It is well known for its weekly cheese market, which we missed because we were a few days early. On the way we stopped at Zaanse Schans, a re-created village museum. We normally don stop at those sort of places but it turned out to be a nice place to get out and let Jenny run about. There were animals for her to pet and it was a nice place for us to wander around, and even better, there was no cost to get in! We had our fill of Zaanse Schans and headed out. We got very close to Alkmaar but the skies looked threatening.

There was a Pension house just off the bike path which we decided to check out. It turned out to be a quaint house in a quiet area owned by a nice older couple. It was a good find because not long after we arrived, so did the rain.

We found the maps we needed the next morning in the Alkmaar VVV. They were only for Noord Holland (North Holland), but would serve us for the next few days. We headed south from Alkmaar towards Haarlem, where the bulk of the bulb fields are.

The Netherlands is very flat, and one of the sights are windmills, which is a clue as to another one of nature elements you need consider: wind. The wind was mostly in our face the whole way. We got close to Haarlem but we only did about 25 miles that day. Once again, we had a nice surprise though; there was a field of tulips across the street from the hotel that we stayed in. Another cool thing the hotel let us keep the bikes in our room. The trailers didn fit through the doorway to our room without being collapsed, but the hotel manager let us keep them in the hallway.

As the days passed, we realized that we were not going to make the anticipated 40 miles per day that we had planned on. It seemed to take a long time to even get on the road in the morning. The alarm was set for seven, but by the time we packed, loaded, and ate breakfast, it was 9:30 or 10 before we started out. We also didn camp as much as we expected either four nights in total. Either we rolled into town too late to bother, or it was too wet to want to. Having discovered this, we simply re-adjusted our chedule

After visiting the bulb fields, we headed for Delft famous for its blue and white pottery. Then we rode through the outskirts of Rotterdam, completing the Renstad (ring of cities surrounding Amsterdam). Rotterdam is a very modern city because it was totally rebuilt after being bombed in the war. We had no planned stops there but we found two very interesting things: the wan Bridgeand the Maas tunnel. The tunnel was awesome. It a tunnel under the Maas River for bicycles, 590 meters long. It a two lane proper tunnel just like the Lincoln or Holland tunnels in New York City. We took the elevator to it because of our load, but most people simply took their bikes down the escalator with them. No tolls, no nothing, a huge tunnel just for bike traffic.

Once past Rotterdam, we were out of the Renstad and heading toward quiter, more rural villages. We visited Kinderdijk, a collection of 19 out-of-service windmills, then headed to Woerden where we inquired about taking a train. We were falling behind in mileage and really wanted to tour the Friesland area. Derek went into the station to ask about the train schedule and found that there was a train from Woerden to Deventer in an hour so we bought tickets. There was also a train change in Utrecht so we had a small adventure ahead of us for the day.

It wasn too bad. We needed to take elevators to get to the correct platform. Getting on the train was a bit tricky because the bike area was fairly small. We managed to disconnect the trailers and cram everything on. It would be straightforward if you had just a bike or panniers. The trailers were a bit cumbersome to deal with but hey, it was our only option.

It was 6pm by the time we got to Deventer, and as luck would have it, we found a hotel what turned out to be the ONLY hotel in the city - straight off and stayed there for the night. One thing we didn anticipate was that many things are closed on Sundays. But it wasn't too much of a problem. We were leaving Sunday to head to Zwolle via the Ijssel river route. Deventer is known for its gingerbread and the one bakery that specialized in it was closed so we missed our chance to try any. The shops that had Zwolle blauwvingers (shortbread dipped in chocolate), and hard candies specific to Zwolle (Zwollse balletjes) were also closed when we got there.

We pressed on to a place called Zwartsluis and camped there. We would stay there two nights and do a loop ride the following day to villages Staphorst and Rouveen where people still wore traditional dress, also Giethoorn, where there are no cars allowed. Homes are along the canals and are connected for cycling by a series of bridges. Staphorst and Rouveen gave you the feeling of being in Amish country, only the people rode bikes instead of horse and buggies.

We rode into Friesland and immediately it was as if the tour book opened. The farmhouses with the double swan on the gable were everywhere. Herds of Friesian horses frolicked in the fields. We saw more tulip fields scattered about, and many small quaint villages. It was our favorite area on our tour. We biked for two days in the province and then caught the ferry from Stavoren, across the Ijsselmeer (formerly Zuiderzee until they built the dike and made the sea into a freshwater lake), to Enkhuisen. We rode just to the outskirts of Edam another famous cheese town second to Gouda. Then, our final day, we headed back to Amsterdam.

In the end, we covered a little over 400 miles in our 13 days of biking. It was enough to give us a feeling for some of the different areas of the Netherlands. It was also enough to make us know that we want to go back. The maps and bike path signs weren the greatest, but the people were the friendliest wee ever met.

One instance that stands out is that at an intersection we couldn determine if we needed to go right or left because the sign had been broken off. Just then, a van pulled over, the driver got out, asked us where we were headed and then proceeded to give us directions. We never had to listen to people shouting at us to get off the road (except for the one time we accidentally found our way onto a piece of road where bikes weren allowed).

The motorists know how to drive with bicycles on the roads. The food was great (huge servings at dinner just what you want at the end of a day of cycling), and the scenery was terrific (definitely unique to the Netherlands). Jenny had a terrific time as well. With a playground in just about every village and animals everywhere, there is plenty of entertainment for a two-year-old. Just bring your own Cheerios - the plain ones don exist in Europe.