Fired up by tales of other intrepid cycle tourers, who were making their way round Europe, or even round the world, our original plan was to do a grand tour of Holland in two weeks. The distances involved suggested this would be perfectly feasible, and finding accommodation along the way wouldn't be difficult, so how hard could it be? Once reality kicked in however, we soon realised that, in order to do this we would have to cycle roughly 50 miles per day ( as the crow flies ), and do this every day for two weeks, leaving us no time to actually enjoy the places we were passing through. This was no race, and we had nothing booked, so deciding to have a holiday rather than killing ourselves simply trying to cover an impressive mileage we set off south from Ijmuiden towards Haarlem for our first night.
Instantly on car free cycle paths, we were soon relishing the pleasure that is cycling in Holland. Although very densely populated, there are a fantastic number of wooded places, and thankfully the cycle network takes you on a meandering route through some of the nicest scenery on offer. Huge beech woods, with trees only just thinking about autumn, led us onto green pasture where this part of Holland seemed to enjoy everything equestrian, and a coffee and cake stop, the first of many.I must admit I had had a bit of a nervous start in Ijmuiden, with a fully laden bike that I wasn't quite used to yet. Strangely though, after a couple of hours you seemed to forget that you were so heavy, and we seemed to be flying along! Our route followed LF1, the North Sea Route, and took us through the northern fringes of the Zuid Kennermerland National Park. Characterised by sand dunes and sparse forest, this park stretches from Haarlem down the coast for around 15 miles and is a haven for wildlife. Heading for one of several campsites indicated on the map, we eventually settled on one which looked basic but tidy, about 5km along the coast road out of Haarlem.
Unfortunately there were no Nature Campsites in this area, so we had no choice but to go for one of the more touristy ones, catering primarily for caravans. The first shocker was the price - 14 Euros per night, not including your showers for which you had to pay a Euro a pop. So 18 Euros down, we set off in search of the tent area to pitch up. If the campsite had been dirt cheap then I wouldn't have minded the fact that the grass was not really grass, but bumpy scrubby ground not really ideal for pitching a tent on ( well actually that's a lie as decent grass to pitch on is to my mind a minimum in any campsite, but more about grass later ), but we only intended to stay one night so it was bearable enough.
Our arrival at the campsite was pretty early, having only covered about 21 miles, so we set off for Haarlem with lightened loads for some food and a search for a supermarket. Despite the fairly dismal forecast, the sun was shining and we spent a lovely afternoon wandering round the small and compact city after leaving our bikes somewhat nervously in the market square. I say this as our bikes stand out like sore thumbs in Holland. Nearly everyone rides 'sit up and beg' Dutch style big bikes with satchel type panniers or baskets on handlebars, so our mountain bike and hybrid looked very odd locked up next to all of these. We worked on the premise that everyone owns a bike so no one would steal ours, although we had heard that risking this in Amsterdam or Rotterdam could result in a nicked bike within about ten minutes! Being our mode of transport this would be a real disaster.
Haarlem is a beautiful city, the capital of the province of Noord Holland and known also as 'Bloemenstad' due to it's importance as the main hub or centre of the tulip bulb growing industry. A long and rich history, dating back to pre-medieval times, is reflected in the architecture, with the city shaped by siege, the Black Death, fire, trade and war amongst other events. We found a lovely little pub (Proeflokaal In den Uiver) and sampled a couple of the local Jopen beers, eventually ending up eating chips and sauce outside a tiny little frite shop on one of the narrow pedestrianised streets.
So a really healthy start to our holiday!
A quick trip to the tourist information began to confirm what we thought we knew already, that maps were prohibitively expensive (particularly given the rotten Sterling exchange rate), and that the Rough Guide that we had was actually quite good. As usual they were about to close, and so we left to search for Albert Hein on our bikes before heading back to the campsite. Albert Hein - or Calvin Klein as it became known - is a fairly 'up market' supermarket found in certain parts of the country. The great thing about food shopping in Holland as a camper is that everything from meat to cheese to ready made salads is conveniently packed in handy portion sizes. Perfect for us, as we'd probably have to do shopping most days to avoid carrying more weight. We also discovered, after paying up to 4 Euros in the bar for a small beer, that they sell for about a third of that price in the supermarket, and the range is pretty good. So several bottles of beer were duly added to the basket and we set off back to camp.
Blessed with a lovely evening we ate outside the tent and enjoyed a stroll before turning in. One of the slightly disappointing things about camping in Holland is that, no matter where you are, you are never far from a road which is so different from camping in Scotland where the silence at night is deafening. That said we slept like logs and woke ready to really set off on the adventure.
Now don't ask me, or even Al for that matter, why we decided to continue our cycle south down the coast into an oncoming wind threatening to gust to 60mph. Neither of us can remember agreeing to this madness, when common sense would tell you that going north would be the sensible idea! We had spent time in Friesland to the north previously, so perhaps wanting to explore new pastures was the reason, but neither of us will admit suggesting this.
We continued our route out to the coast road, where we were met with pretty ferocious winds as we turned south. Luckily it was dry, but there really was no escape from the wind, and we averaged about 6kmph for a good few hours. The first stretch of coastline is populated by pretty soul-less modern holiday resorts, which offered few sheltered places to stop for coffee, so we continued down the straight wind battered road towards Zandvoort before the path headed off once more into the sand dunes. These offered a bit of respite from the wind in places but it was heavy going. Elegant elderly ladies, on their way to do their shopping sailed past us in the northerly direction and we cursed ourselves for being this crazy. The route was fairly quiet, with everyone being sensible enough to stay in that day, however the cyclists we did pass were always going with great ease in the opposite direction.Eventually, having crossed into Zuid Holland, we reached a little beachside oasis where we filled our tummies with soup, sandwiches and coffee and rested tired legs. Thankfully after this point the path headed inland, so we got a little break from the wind, and we found ourselves cycling through endless bulb fields as we headed for Leiden. Unfortunately most of these were no longer in bloom, but it must be a spectacular sight to see in high summer as the ones which were still flowering were vivid and packed with rows and rows of flower heads.
It turned out to be a lovely site - with lovely grass! - and cheaper than the first one. The owner showed us to a specially selected pitch out of the wind, and slightly elevated in case it rained again, and apart from a couple of caravans were the only people there, perfect. We were offered the use of a table and chairs, so felt really set up, and after a quick trip back to Calvin Klein managed to have our dinner and a couple of beers in the evening sun before turning in. Bedtime for the majority of our trip was once it got dark, roughly 9.30pm at a push. One of the downsides of camping in the autumn.
Rather than staying in Leiden itself, we had located a small village called Warmond to the north next to a lake which seemed to offer plenty of campsite options. We had encountered a pretty heavy shower on the way, which meant the first chance to test out the waterproofs, and were keen to get somewhere to stay as soon as possible. Again no Nature Campsites were on offer so we went against all of Al's principles and asked the nice lady at the VVV if she could find us somewhere. She immediately called her friend and announced after a short conversation that her friend would be expecting us! We had no idea at this point as to whether this would be the kind of place right for us, or how expensive it was going to be, but felt it impolite not to turn up so off we went in search of the site about a mile and a half out of town.
The weather didn't really improve that evening, and the rain looked pretty set. Once we got back to the campsite it was fairly obvious that tea outdoors was out of the question. The only dry place we could cook was in the ladies shower block, which was also the dishwashing area ( a bit sexist if you ask me having this in the ladies! ), so we prepared our dinner and made the mad dash back to the tent with pots in hand. Our tent (a Macpac Minaret) is high enough to sit up in, so we arranged our Thermarest chairs - great inventions - and had our tea in relative comfort whilst listening to the rain on the tent outside. After wrestling into our sleeping bags, which nicely warms you up for the night, sleep came easily once again...................
The forecast for the next day was pretty rough, so we decided on staying another night and taking the chance to explore the nearby University town of Leiden. The birthplace of Rembrandt, Leiden again has a long history stretching back to Roman times. Packed full of museums and intersting architecture, it was a good place to spend a pretty awful rainy day. We dodged showers in between climbing to the castle, searching out windmills and walking along canals absorbing the traditional buildings. What surprised, or occurred to us as we people watched from a cafe, is how the Dutch take the weather in their stride much more than we do. They don't seem to mind the rain, and simply get on the waterproofs, stick their hoods up, and keep cycling. You don't see crowds of people running from the rain or sheltering in doorways, and their attitude seems to be 'Hey it's only water!'
Day 1 - Ijmuiden to Haarlem (21 miles)
Day 2 - Haarlem to Worden (26.5 miles)
Day 3 - Around Leiden (9.8 miles)
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