groovestew

Hey there,
My work is sending me to Brussels in early September, and I thought I would take the opportunity to cycle to Amsterdam before returning home. I've never done a tour before, but I'm an experienced Randonneur, so the distance isn't daunting to me. I have three full days to do the ride. This will be a credit card tour, no camping.

Anyone here done this ride before? Where I'm looking for advice is mainly on the route and suggestions for places to stay. I'm willing to ride up to 100-125 km/day, and would prefer to stay under 350 km in total. According to Google, the most direct route is about 220 km via Antwerp and Rotterdam. Given that I'm open to a longer trip, I can take a more meandering route if there are some must-see destinations along the way. I've never been to mainland Europe, so I'm completely unfamiliar with the sites in Belgium and the Netherlands. It would be nice if the route had plenty of places to stop for food and water (or beer) along the way. That's probably not a problem in Europe - I live in Canada where you can go 100 km between services.

Any advice is appreciated.

Doug64

Part of our route my wife and I rode took us from the Belgium border near Eindhoven, The Netherlands to Amsterdam. Ours was a circuitous route that could be modified to fit your needs. We mainly stayed on the coast (Route LF1 and LF10), bypassing Rotterdam, and riding to the northern region of the country. However, you could use the same tactic as us. We were flying out of Schiphol Airport ending a 3 month ride that started in Lisbon. We made a large loop through The Netherlands adjusting it to get to Amsterdam a few days before our flight.

Food and lodging are not a problem. Be sure to at least ride through The Hague. It is too bad you are time limited, because that is a great city to wonder around. We liked it much better than Amsterdam.

Heck, In Belgium they even tell you where there is coffee! There are bike paths everywhere. The locals actually get a little irritated when you ride on the roadways. Not all bike paths are surfaced. Also, be prepared for rain.




The coffee is good, but I'm not sure about their beer.

Jonathandavid

I'd use route LF2, which goes all the way from Brussels to Amsterdam. You may want to take some shortcuts, but it's a useful guideline:


Holland-Cycling.com - LF2 City Route (Stedenroute)

Biking Kalmhout - LF2 - Cycling Antwerp

fietsbob

I'd go to Bruges first then go over the Delta works and up the coast. I did it southbound . ('91)

groovestew

Incredible! You mean, I can just follow signs for "LF2", and I'll get all the way to Amsterdam? That's just amazing. This is very helpful.

I'm also intrigued by the coastal route and The Hague as mentioned by Doug64 and fietsbob. It seems to me that I can pick a choose a few different LF routes to take me wherever I would want to go.

Thanks for the suggestions.

fietsbob

I liked the Falk Brom-/Fietskaart , its a paper map booklet sliced so the whole thing does not have to be opened
and carried away in the wind.

It shows the bike routes as little red dotted lines ............

Doug64

Another thought:

If you are flying out of Schiphol Airport, there are some relatively inexpensive hotels, Ibex, within 4-5 km of the airport. The motels have a safe place to store your bike and a free shuttle to the airport. The basement of the airport is also the train station. You can take a shuttle to the airport, hop a train into Amsterdam, and play tourist without being encumbered by your bike.

We were advised by local folks not to leave our bikes unattended in Amsterdam.

When you are ready to leave, just ride to the airport, go downstairs and get a bike box, load bike into generous sized box, and you are on your way. Have tools to remove pedals, and loosen or remove bar and stem.

There is an app that has the bike routes that can be used on a smart phone. We loaned our map booklet to a friend when he was going to The Netherlands, but he said, he did not need it using his phone. I prefer the paper maps to a small smart phone screen, but I back them up with a Garmin 60CSX with "City Navigator, Europe loaded on it. I'm sorry, but I don't know the name of the app; someone else may have that information.

Jonathandavid

Yes, the route should have signs all the way from Brussels. I know that the signs in the Netherlands are well maintained, but always take a map anyway, with the route marked on it. It only takes a single missed sign, for whatever reason, to loose the route.

The LF2 can take you around Rotterdam, through Gouda, which I would recommend. One highlight are the windmills at Kinderdijk.

Another way to plan a route is to use the network of numbered junctions, the knooppunten. As I recall, Flanders has a similar system. It is a web of cycling-friendly roads and paths, overlying the regular roads. The junctions are given numbers and if you're on the network, the two junctions you're in between are signed. This means that a route can be planned simply by writing down a series of numbers. Often you can do this on the fly, because many areas have maps by the side of the road. But there are also apps to help planning. Disadvantage is that you can't ask around for a knooppunt; locals will know where Alblasserdam is, but not where to find junction #2 .

The coastal route makes for great touring as well, but it is a detour. It also avoids Rotterdam, going through Hook of Holland. I personally don't like the area of the Flemish coast, but the Dutch dunes and Zeeland are very beautiful. Cycling on a summer's evening through the dunes near Wassenaar is something special because of the many nightingales, in the right season. These stretches are part of the North Sea Cycling Route, LF1. You can follow the signs all the way to Bergen, Norway!

dongringo

I just did a loop tour from Amsterdam>Utrecht>Breda>Antwerp>Ghent>Brugge>Rotterdam>Dordrecht>Gouda>Leiden>The Hague>Gouda>Amsterdam and honestly, while all of it was great, I enjoyed the first half the best...more countryside, less urban sprawl. Antwerp and Utrecht were two of my favorite cities as well. Breda is also a very nice, underrated city. The Hague is incredible, but that side of Holland is a lot more traffic choked. There's an LF route that will get you from Brussels to Antwerp then on to The Netherlands. As soon as you cross over into The Netherlands you can take the same, and incredible I must add, LF route on to Breda then to Utrecht then Amsterdam. That entire section is incredibly picturesque, postcard Holland. I don't know why everybody always does the coastal route and Rotterdam is no big deal, but to each his own. If you want old, stereotypical Holland with a couple of great Belgium cities go Brussels>Antwerp>Breda>Utrecht>then along the Veght river on to Amsterdam. Just my two cents.

MichaelW

LF routes have an A and B direction indicator.
LF1 takes you, eventually, to Bergen in Norway.

groovestew

More good suggestions. I think I'm starting to get a plan in mind. If I do Brussels -> Antwerp -> Breda -> Kinderdijk -> Gouda -> Utrecht -> Amsterdam, that's about 250 km, give or take, which over three days will give me time to stop and smell the tulips (okay, probably no tulips in September), whereas if I took the longer coastal route and The Hague, I would spend more time pedalling and have less time to enjoy the sites. I'm very time restricted, so perhaps the coastal route will need to be saved for a future longer tour.

What's special about Gouda besides cheese? I love Gouda cheese, by the way. I used to work for Dutch farmers (in Canada) that made awesome Gouda, until they got shut down after selling e.Coli contaminated products. Oops. I'm reminded of a TV show called "Bob and Margaret" set in London, England. They took some Canadian relatives for a trip to Cheddar, and the Canadian's comment was, "Ooo, how quaint! A town named after cheese!"

chasm54

In my opinion, it would be a tragedy to do this route and not take a look at Bruges.

groovestew

Some other time, perhaps. Bruges would add 150 km to my route, and I don't have the time.

fietsbob

My trip there I made a friend who as landscape maintenance gardener worked for the British War graves commission ,

lived in Ypres.

The reconstructed city, since it was leveled in WW1

Doug64

bulevardi

In theory yes. But if you miss a sign, you can get lost.
It's best to write down the cities you like to pass to go to your destination, so you can follow these cities as guideline too. And ask people on your way if you're on the good direction or routes. Most people here speak English very well. (don't mind the funny accents)

Or if you have a bike GPS, you could use that too with an OpenCycleMap for Europe or something similar.

Anyway, interesting route there
Hope I can find some more time to help you further, but I'm kind of out of time these days

ijsbrand

The OpenCycleMap shows all the LF-routes, and also the Dutch 'knooppunten' system. One app that lets you download all the necessary OpenCycleMap tiles to your phone for free is ViewRanger.

Winfried

First, you should definitely not forget the option of taking your bike on trains, so you can save time and avoid going through uninteresting areas:
Seat61.com Belgium
Seat61.com Netherlands

Also, OpenStreetMap has two maps: For transport, and cycling.



Another great thing to try: Ride or take the train (with your bike onboard) to the Belgian coast, and ride the Kusttram ("Coast tram") from Oostende (the lower half isn't as nice) to the final stop at Knokke, then ride the 10km to Brugges.



That's because they use cheap locks, and often don't even use them to attach the frame to a unmovable object. With a good quality D/U lock, there's nothing to fear.


As for places to stay, there are tons of good quality hostels in. In Brussels, I can recommend the one that's part of the official organization of youth hostels (www.lesaubergesdejeunesse.be); In Amsterdam, I liked the Stayokay Amsterdam Vondelpark (younger crowd) and Shelter Jordan (more quiet). Check Hostels Worldwide - Online Hostel Bookings, Ratings and Reviews for ratings and comments from guests.

dongringo

This is a good plan in my opinion. As far as Gouda, it's a nice canal town, a lot like Delft. I enjoyed walking around the historic center in the evenings, but I mostly used it as a base in order to do a round trip to Delft>Leiden>Hague and back. Good place to stay. I wouldn't spend much time there though. I'd rather spend the time in Dordrecht, an incredible, old harbor city. The way I would do it in your case would be Brussels>Antwerp (city center)>Breda, then Breda>Dordrecht> water taxi to Kinderdijk>Gouda, then Gouda>Utrecht>Amsterdam. Make sure to take the Veght river route from Utrecht to Muiden then west to Amsterdam. That would be an amazing last day (which was my first day.) I took the Amstel river route from Gouda to Amsterdam on my last day and it didn't even compare to the Veght river route. Hope this helps. Btw, I stayed on the LF routes most of the time, but can't remember them off hand. Sounds like you are getting it figured out though. Looking forward to hearing about your final route and how it all goes. I absolutely adored riding Holland. Belgium was nice too, but the cycle network in Holland is simply stunning. Also, don't worry about not seeing Brugge this time. Yes, it's amazing, but you would need to stay two nights in order to have an entire day to do it justice.

fietsbob

FWIW,
Ghent and Wevelgem (near Kortijk) are not far from each other, I followed a Canal Towpath most of the way

Though the Classic spring Bike Face goes out to the coast and back First

groovestew

Awesome feedback everyone. I'll muddle this over for the next while. Chances are, I won't finalize my plans until I get there, but I'm definitely further ahead thanks to everyone here.

groovestew

Hi everyone, I'm back from my trip and thought I'd bump this thread with a brief report and some photos.

I planned out a route on the Knooppunt system using this Belgian site, which lets you download a GPS course that I plugged into my Garmin Edge 500; I also wrote down all the junction numbers so I wouldn't have to rely on technology.

Using a tip from @bulevardi, I found a used bike at Cyclo Atelier - a Peugeot racing bike from around 1990. This was not an ideal touring bike, but the shop had few bikes to choose from, and the Peugeot was the most suitable for my needs. Beggars can't be choosers, right? I learned very quickly that 20mm tires at 90psi and cobblestones don't mix well, and Europeans are very fond of their cobblestones! Thankfully, the route had very few sections of the very rough cobblestone. The previous owner of the bike had retrofitted it with old STI levers that didn't work very well, but Belgium and Holland are very flat, and I was able to coerce the bike into a suitable gear and just left it there for the entire trip.

The knooppunt system worked really well for the most part, but I still went off course many times:
- as others mentioned, the signs can be easy to miss if you're looking at the scenery
- The odd time, it was unclear to me which road the arrow was pointing at
- about a half-dozen times, construction had completely blocked the route, forcing a detour.

These aren't complaints, just an observation that you have to be prepared to stray from the intended path at times. When I did ask locals for help, they were always willing to show me the way. In fact, very early in my trip, the route led to a dead end with a canal on one side and a high barbed-wire topped fence on the other, and no choice but to backtrack about 1/2 km. On the backtrack, I flagged down an older gentleman on a racing bike, explained my situation, and he said "Come with me!" and we rode together for several kilometers and had a nice chat. He got me to a good spot, gave me directions and sent me on my way.

My GPS turned out to not be very helpful; perhaps the route was too long for it to handle, but it wasn't able to draw the route on the screen, so it wouldn't show me the turns. It knew when I was off course and by how much, but it couldn't tell me how to get back on course.

Cycling in Belgium and The Netherlands is every bit as good as people say. In both countries, I rode a lot of kms in rural areas, and initially, I was marvelling at the nice wide bike paths they had...until I realized that I was not on a nice wide bike path, but a very narrow rural road. That was quite common in both countries - rural roads barely large enough for a single car, but car traffic was very infrequent - more likely to see a tractor than a car, and more likely still to see folks on their bicycles.

The cities and towns were very beautiful and charming, though I didn't spend a lot of time in the towns along the way. I rode a bit further on my first two days to give myself a shorter trip on the third day so I'd have time to spend in Amsterdam. I arrived in Amsterdam at around noon on the third day, dropped off my bike and backpack at the hotel I would stay at, and walked to the museum district. I spent quite a bit of time in the Rijksmuseum, but by the time I got the Van Gogh museum, it was too close to closing time and the line-up to get in was still quite long, so instead I just wandered around the city and people watched.

Transportation cycling in Amsterdam is indeed nothing short of incredible. Bikes reign supreme, and there aren't enough superlatives to laud the bike lanes separated from both car and pedestrian traffic. The couple times as a pedestrian that I absent-mindedly wandered into a bike lane, I was scolded by a chorus of bells. People signal their turns well, and watch out for each other, negotiating right-of-way with eye contact. As a bike commuter, it was amazing to behold, and something to envy.

The next morning, I rode to Schiphol airport, purchased a cardboard bike box for 23 Euros (thanks for the tip @Doug64) and flew home. The humongous bike box was quite a hassle to check in, particularly at my connection at Heathrow, but even at Schiphol, the baggage handlers looked dubious, like they'd never seen their own bike box before. But, the bike arrived home safe and sound, my faithful steed over almost 350 km.

Some pictures from the trip that I'm sure thousands of people have taken before follow.

My bike by the first knooppunt in my planned route, just north of Brussels in Vilvoorde:


Bicycles get their own signals here.


A broodautomaat (bread vending machine) in Belgium:


From Kinderdijk:


A rural road in Holland. Most rural roads were paved the whole width, but were still very narrow like this one.


A very typical scene from Dutch towns, this one from Gouda:


In front of the Rijksmuseum:


A woman carting her kids in a Bakfiets. This kind of bike wasn't terribly common, maybe one in 200 (or less), but I didn't have to wait very long to get this picture.

fietsbob

Did you go into the Rijksmuseum? it's worth several Hours.

chasm54

Glad you enjoyed it. To my mind, the Netherlands is perhaps the most truly civilised country in the world.

dongringo

Glad you enjoyed your trip. Interesting how that GPS route planner sent you on roads when there are bike paths everywhere...in Holland anyway. What route did you end up taking?