If I’m honest, I’ve already done this route to death already, so why am I back with another post covering a ride to the beach at Wassenaarse Slag? Well, largely as this was an evening ride, with a few nice shots of the sun setting over sea.
Continue reading “Netherlands 25: Evening ride to the beach at Wassenaarse Slag”
After having a really enjoyable time on our first family trip to Center Parcs at Sherwood Forest in November 2024, we decided to give another Center Parcs a go for our Easter trip in April 2025.
Continue reading “Center Parcs Elveden Forest”
With a big birthday to celebrate, in November 2024 we arranged to spend a long weekend at Center Parcs Sherwood Forest, arriving Friday evening. Center Parcs is somewhere we’ve wanted to go for some time, but with the high prices, we’d wondered whether it was worth it.
Continue reading “Center Parcs Sherwood Forest”
The final day of our Netherlands 22 trip came around and we packed up the car, saying goodbye to our holiday home in Zaandam. As with previous trips, we weren’t due to board the ferry back to the UK until the early evening, so we looked for something to do with the day, before we headed to Rotterdam.
Continue reading “Netherlands 22: A day out in Delft”
Located on the North Sea Canal, facing Amsterdam and below Zaandam is the area of Hembrug or Hembrugterrein. The name Hembrug originates from a train bridge that used to connect Amsterdam to Zaandam across the North Sea Canal, which was eventually replaced with the Hemtunnel and removed in 1985. The bridge was located next to the ferry, which we took when we visited Amsterdam.
Continue reading “Netherlands 22: Riding around Hembrug”
With the lovely sunny weather we were lucky enough to have during our stay in The Netherlands, we were keen to get ourselves to a beach, to have a swim and cool off. Our initial thoughts were to go to Castricum aan Zee or Strand Heemskerk, where we’d been in 2014.
Continue reading “Netherlands 22: The route to Zwembad De Breek”
By far the most famous tourist attraction in and around Zaandam is Zaanse Schans. This neighbourhood of Zaandam is an open air museum featuring a collection of old Dutch building, windmills and museums. While it looks like it’s been here for centuries, the buildings were actually relocated here between 1961 and 1974, from all over the region.
Continue reading “Netherlands 22: The route to Zaanse Schans”
Definitely one of the reasons for choosing Zaandam for the second week of our trip was its proximity to Amsterdam. Getting to Amsterdam from our holiday home is a relatively short 12 km cycle ride, with a free ferry journey in the middle. While that may be a little too much cycling for some, Zaandam is also well connected to Amsterdam by bus and rail.
Continue reading “Netherlands 22: The route to Amsterdam”
When we decided to stay in Zaandam, one of the first places we wanted to visit was NSDM. We’d been to NDSM once before, back in 2009 when it looked very different to now.
Continue reading “Netherlands 22: The route to NDSM”
On our Netherlands trips, we usually try to go somewhere new for a week, in addition to the week at Duinrell. For 2022, we found a lovely old Dutch house to stay at in Zaandam, in the Zaanstad region, near Amsterdam.
Continue reading “Netherlands 22: Around Zaandam”
Dom Cycling 