Netherlands 25: Riding from Duinrell to Rotterdam

Despite staying fairly close by, we’ve only actually been to Rotterdam twice over the years, prior to our 2025 trip. We first went there in 2013, when the kids were small, then three of us returned in 2022, making a multimodal trip there.

We had planned to stay in Rotterdam for a week, as part of our 2024 trip, but had to change plans when the accommodation we’d booked was no longer suitable. While we still want to arrange a stay in Rotterdam, in 2025 we decided a day out there would be good.

In line with what we often do, I’d be cycling to Rotterdam by myself, while the others would be using public transport, combined with a short cycle ride. With a round trip distance of 70 km, there was no way I was going to persuade the others to join me on the ride!

While it was going to take a little time to get there. With this being the Netherlands, I knew there’d be a decent safe cycle route, even in a fairly car-centric city like Rotterdam. Indeed, I was already familiar with a significant amount of the route, except for the area immediately around Rotterdam.

Instead of getting a Metro line E train from Voorburg ‘t Loo like we did in 2022, the others decided to cycle to nearer Voorschoten station, then use regional NS sprinter trains to get to Rotterdam, via Den Haag. This would turn out to be not be such a good idea.

Riding to Rotterdam

Setting off from Duinrell, I initially followed the same route I’d done to the Burgemeester Waaijerbrug bridge, crossing the N44 towards Voorschoten station, then continuing towards SnowWorld, through De Nieuwe Driemanspolder.

Watch full-length video at normal speed Riding from Duinrell to Rotterdam

Once across the bridge, I was now in new territory, as I’d not ridden through here before. Initially, the route took through a largely agricultural area on Nieuwkoopseweg, on quite a narrow road, with no protection and some close passing vehicles. Not the best.

Things improved as I made my way to Pijnacker, which was a much more built up area, with decent cycling infrastructure. While riding along Klapwijkseweg, there was a large group of schoolchildren on the path, some on their own bikes, and others on bike school buses. This was fantastic to see and so much better than schools using actual buses.

I was travelling roughly following the route of the Rotterdam Metro Line E, which run between Den Haag Centraal and Slinge, passing through Rotterdam Centraal. This included passing under the N470 Strikledeweg, in a large underpass, before continuing further along the metro line.

After passing through Rodenrijs, I continued west across a more rural section, which took me under the A16 motorway and past the end of the runway of Rotterdam The Hague Airport. After passing under the N471, I was now at the outskirts of Rotterdam.

There was a definitely a drop in the quality of the cycling infrastructure on arriving in Rotterdam. The cycle paths were a little narrow and dated, by Dutch standards, with long wait times crossing roads.

Things did improve though, as I made my way towards Rotterdam Centraal. Then things improved dramatically as I arrived on Coolsingel. This street was significantly improved in 2021, as covered by Bicycle Dutch.

While I’d been along Coolsingel in 2022, this was the first time I’d cycled along it. I was really impressed, both with the quality of the path and with the number of people using it. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s giving Utrecht’s Vredenburg a run for its money soon!

I made my way along Coolsingel, until I arrived at Blaak, where I turned left and made my way to Blaak station to park up. The station features free cycle parking, which is sunken below the street level and has stairs and ramps going down.

Cycle parking at Rotterdam Blaak station

While it wasn’t that busy, I struggled a little to find a spot to lock my bike, as all I had was a D-lock. Typically, people use chain locks in the Netherlands, if anything, which are easier to lock with. The standard two-tier racks in the Netherlands aren’t that D-lock friendly.

After finally locking up, I headed to the Markthal to meet up with the others.

Approaching an underpass under the N44 Rijksstraatweg — Van Zuylen van Nijeveltstraat

Wandering around Rotterdam

I ended up having to wait a little while for the others to arrive, which was a surprise, as I had expected them to beat me there. It turned out there was lots of disruption on the Dutch railways that day around Den Haag and Rotterdam, which meant delays.

After they eventually arrived, we stopped for lunch in Markthal, one of the most distinctive buildings in Rotterdam, which has many different offerings for food and drink. After lunch, we then set out for a wander round the city.

Leaving the Markthal, we headed out onto Binnenrotte Plein, where the market was in full swing, with lots of stalls and people wandering round. You see fantastic markets across all cities and towns in the Netherlands. It’s such a shame in the UK, we’ve lost so many of our markets.

"Everyone is Dead except us" by Ben Zegers, in front of Laurenskerk — “Everyone is Dead except us” by Ben Zegers, in front of Laurenskerk

From there, we continued to the cube houses, where part of the group went for a look round the Kijk-Kubus Museum-house. We went round this during our last trip to the city, so I was happy not to, but I’d definitely recommend it, if you haven’t before.

After the cube houses, we made our way down to Oude Haven, the old harbour area in Rotterdam, which is a taste of what the city would have looked like before the bombs of WWII destroyed much of the old town.

From there, we headed out for a wander through the Maritime District towards the Maritime Museum. Last time we were here in 2022, we had a fantastic boat ride around the harbour network on a slightly underpowered electric boat.

Once at the Maritime Museum, we wandered round the outdoor museum at the harbour at Leuvehaven, then continued into Port Pavilion. The interactive exhibition features a huge satellite map of the port of Rotterdam to explore.

A friendly guide in Port Pavilion tooks us round the map, pointing out key features and interesting points on the map. We carried on our conversation and I explained our many visits to the Netherlands and how much we enjoy cycling there.

It turned out, he’d also done plenty of cycling in the UK, so we carried on, discussing the vast differences between cycling in the UK and Netherlands. I had to eventually end the conversation, as everyone was waiting for me!

We wandered back towards the centre, until it was time to head back. We didn’t get round as much as we’d hoped, with the travelling time taking up a chunk of the day, but it was still great to be back in Rotterdam.

Riding back to Wassenaar

With it time to leave, I collected my bike from the cycle parking at Blaak station and made my way out of Rotterdam. To get out of the city, I followed the route I came, initially along Blaak, then onto Coolsingel.

Watch full-length video at normal speed Riding from Rotterdam to Wassenaar

With it now being the evening peak, with people heading home from work, the streets were much busier than when I arrived. This was particularly true along Coolsingel, which was very busy with people cycling.

Queueing at the lights at the junction of Blaak and Coolsingel

Continuing onto Schieweg, I soon arrived at the outskirts of the city as I made way back to near Rotterdam The Hague Airport and along the cycle path next to the Rotterdam Metro Line E.

While riding along through Pijnacker, I noticed the WijCKmus near a roundabout. This giant sparrow sculpture marks the location of a new neighbourhood built around Pijnacker Zuid Metro station, called WijCK.

The WijCKmus in Pijnacker, by artist Frankey

According to this page about the project, WijCK will supposedly combine the intimacy of a village with the vibrancy of the city. It is big enough to have a lively street scene, yet small enough for residents to run into familiar faces.

Visualisation of the new WijCK neighbourhood

Four green residential blocks will form a close-knit, car-free living environment complete with vibrant courtyards, communal facilities and a central square. While they say car-free, it appears a massive car park is included in the development!

In some ways, it’s not that dissimilar to Lumina Village on Talbot Road, Stretford, near the Old Trafford Metrolink stop. Though WijCK is on a smaller scale and by the looks of it, with more interesting buildings, public realm and use of green space.

I made my way towards the A12 motorway along Nieuwkoopseweg, then instead of continuing over the Burgemeester Waaijerbrug bridge and past Voorschoten station, I headed north west along Libelsingel, through Leidschenveen.

This is a route I’ve done a few times, which ends up crossing the A4 motorway, then running parallel to N14 Noordelijke Randweg. Though, along this route, I ended up passing the Westfield Mall of the Netherlands, somewhere we’ve never been to, and I’m happy to keep it that way. I see it’s as much of a car sewer as shopping malls in the UK.

Passing the Westfield Mall of the Netherlands

Once on the N14 Noordelijke Randweg, it was just a short ride to the N44 Rijksstraatweg, then took the back route through Wassenaar, to meet the others at Jumbo, before heading back to Duinrell.

On the cycle path next to N14 Noordelijke Randweg

Unsurprisingly, the others had even more troubles with the trains getting back from Rotterdam. As I didn’t have the key for our cabin, I had no choice but to wait for them. They did arrive eventually, so we did our shopping and headed back to Duinrell.