During our 2017 stay at Duinrell, we arranged a visit Stoomtrein Katwijk Leiden. We’ve been to Stoomtrein Katwijk Leiden once before and had a great time. This time, we were going with the other families we were staying with at Duinrell.

Stoomtrein Katwijk Leiden is a historic railway and museum situated next to Valkenburgse Meer. It’s on the way to Leiden from Duinrell, and is about 6km away on the bike.

Heading out from Duinrell, we took a different route to the one we usually take to get to Leiden. We normally follow the route along the canal, but this time our route took us through the centre of Wassenaar.

After starting off with segregated cycleways near Duinrell, we were soon riding on a stepped cycle track once we got on Van Zuylen van Nijeveltstraat. Positioned in between parking bays and the road, this is quite an odd setup and something you don’t see often.

The biggest issue with this is cars have to cross the cycleway to get to the parking bays. There’s the secondary issue of being in the door zone too.

To be fair, it feels slightly safer than just paint on the road lanes. But I can’t see why they’ve gone to the effort of adding the cycle tracks without moving it to the inside of the parking bays.

At the end of Deijlerweg, we were back on a better cycleway, a bidirectional route away from traffic. This was a good quality cycleway that’s obviously quite well used. Though it was also well used by people walking and people on horses.

It wasn’t long before arrived at Stoomtrein Katwijk Leiden. We parked up the bikes and headed in for an afternoon on the trains.

If you’re interested in historic railways, Stoomtrein Katwijk Leiden is a very enjoyable day out. You get to ride round on some historic trains, go round the workshops and visit the station, gardens and café/museum. You’re encouraged to wander and the volunteer guides are really friendly.

After an enjoyable day there, we headed back to Duinrell along our usual route back from Leiden.

Coming out of Stoomtrein Katwijk Leiden, we followed the cycleway around Valkenburgse Meer, which is always pleasant, though a little exposed. As the trains follow the same route, there’s a chance you might see one while you’re riding round.

At the end of the lake, we headed left and followed the route along the canal. At this point, it’s a mixture of very quiet roads and cycleways. The views along the canal are typically Dutch and beautiful, with boats and wildlife to see along the way.

Just a short distance from the end of the canal and on the outskirts of Wassenaar is a little farm. This is on the route back, so it’s somewhere we often stop at to feed the animals when we’re riding along.

As we reach Wassenaar, there’s a mixture of cycleways and roads as we head towards Duinrell. The cycleways are mostly segregated, though there is some painted lanes. The roads with no cycleways are pretty quiet, though are not dedicated fietsstraats (cycle streets).

After a lovely ride back in the afternoon sun, we were back at Duinrell in time for the evening.

Back to part 7 – The route to Wassenaarse Slag

Next to part 9 – The route to Leiden