The Netherlands

I had a rest on the Dutch border which was on a quiet country lane – luckily there was a bench which straddled the border – half in Belgium and half in The Netherlands. The only way I knew it was a border was because of a sign, any other equipment that had been in place when borders mattered in the EU had long since gone.

Sitting on my bench I had two encounters with people – one was a strange old guy with a little motorbike who I could see coming towards me for ages from the Dutch side of the border. He saw the bike and came over to chat – but he only spoke Dutch and me only English, so he had a cigar and we tried our best to communicate – I still thought it was a nice welcome to the country. Once my new friend has ridden off into Belgium, I saw in the distance a lady walking along the side of the woods that ran along the border. She had a sled behind her which was attached to her waist and had two small wheels on the ground, already I was interested.

As she got closer I could see this sled had stuff on it so I presumed this was a nice to way to carry stuff, and she was on the way back from the shops. Again because of the sight of the bike she came over to have a chat also, luckily she spoke English. It turned out that she was walking all around the Dutch border and the sled had her clothes and a few other things on it. She was in her late 50s and this was her “big” walk of the year – last year she had walked from The Netherlands to Spain to Santiago de Compostela. If my first 20 minutes were any guide I had a feeling I was going to enjoy The Netherlands, they seemed extremely friendly – more so than I had seen in the UK, Belgium or France.

I had crossed the border near to a city called Tilburg and I had no maps for The Netherlands so decided to go into Tilburg and try and buy some maps – and maybe stay there if it got too late. I had a nightmare trying to find the way across the motorway that circles Tilburg but eventually made it in. I looked for a map shop, but then realised the time and decided to find a hotel or tourist information, I found a hotel – but it was too expensive for my budget. I went into the centre of town near the train station and looked for tourist information as I was standing with my bike between my legs looking a city map on a poster I suddenly realised I was being spoken to in Dutch. I looked around embarrassed to find a bald guy standing there with his girlfriend and said that I didn’t understand.

He just switched to perfect English and said “can I help?”, it turned out his dad had just got back from a cycle to Santiago de Compostela (it seems to be popular!) and this guy had been so touched to hear how many people had helped his father that he vowed to always offer help to any cyclists he met. I told him my problems and then he said he would show me where a map shop was and could then phone around some hotels for me as there was no tourist office in the city. I was really touched by his offer of help so we went to the map shop and then back to their house.

He tried four hotels but there were all above my budget, and then after a conversation with his girlfriend he offered me their spare room. Being a typical Brit and not wanting to put anyone out I said it was very kind but I didn’t want to trouble them. He offered again and said it was no problem, again I said that it was kind but I didn’t want to cause them trouble. He then offered once more but told me he would not ask again, it took me a while to persuade myself to be grateful and take-up their kind offer – and I said yes. We had a nice night – they made me a great traditional Dutch meal – with a soup and stew and things – it was great. Then we watched Ice Age – very relaxing and when I went to bed I was very happy with my first day in The Netherlands.

The next couple of days in The Netherlands were great – nice flat places to cycle, some nice camping in big natural parks, I really did enjoy it all. On my third or fourth day it was the 29th April (Queen’s Day) and I got to see the Dutch really party. I had been told that it would be a day of celebrations, but I really hadn’t realised how much longer it would take to travel through because of all of the carnivals. It was a nice ride though and it felt like the carnival was just starting in each town as I got there.

My aim was to get to Zwolle for the end of the day as it was a Friday and I had decided to try and take a rest each weekend if I was in an appropriate place. I found a hotel in the centre of Zwolle, had a shower and thenwent off to have a look around the city, great old city with a moat and old defences still in place. The centre was chaos though with parades, and floats and markets and bands playing in several squares and loads of beer – I think somehow I had underestimated Queens’ day.

I was stood watching one of the bands when I got chatting to a couple who lived in Zwolle, they could see I wasn’t local and wanted to find out why I was there (they are so friendly). I got on with them really well and it turned out there lived on an old boat on one of the canals, which they were slowly renovating. They were called Ruud and Marleen, Ruud was another cyclist who had cycled to (can you guess?) among other places Santiago de Compostela and other places. At the end of evening they invited me around to see the boat the following day, which I did on my way out of Zwolle. The boat was amazing – apparently the largest on the canals in Zwolle. It was an old cargo boat and they had two rooms on it a kitchen / all things room and a bedroom. Ruud showed me around the whole boat and told me all of his plans, I was intrigued as to how long it would take him to finish it – apparently 2 years. It was nice though he laughed at me with my plan to cycle to China and I laughed at him with the seemly impossible task of renovating the boat.

That afternoon I said goodbye to the Zwolle, Ruud told me that on my way out of The Netherlands I would cross their version of the Alps – a set of hills that were 80m high! There was awful rain that day, but it was not cold, it was the first rain I had seen since I had left the UK though. I was cycling along at one point – going what I thought was fairly fast when a 70 year old lady caught up with me and cycled next to me. We talked as we cycled – she was just going between villages, a trip she did most days – it was about 30 Kilometres and it was a very interesting 30 minutes we shared. I think I may have been slowing her down though as she looked at her watch eventually and said she needed to get on – and off she flew.

She was the last person I interacted with before I left the country that day – and I knew I was going to miss The Netherlands, would Germany be as hospitable?