Netherlands 22
2022 saw us return to The Netherlands and Duinrell for the first time since 2019, after the pandemic put paid to our plans for 2020 and 2021. We arrived on the overnight Hull to Rotterdam ferry, with our usual haul of bikes on the back of the car.
We normally spend a week by ourselves before meeting up with friends and family at Duinrell, but this time we reversed it, spending the first week at Duinrell, followed by a week at an Airbnb in Zaandam.
From Duinrell, we rode to Vlietland, Wassenaarse Slag, Katwijk and Noordwijk and Leiden, and made a multimodal trip to Rotterdam. In Zaandam, we stayed in a lovely old Dutch house on a canal, which came with access to two boats. From there we explored NDSM, Amsterdam, Zaanse Schans and Hembrug, before a final day out in Delft on the way back to the ferry.
Around Wassenaar and Valkenburg
2022 saw us return to The Netherlands and Duinrell for the first time since 2019. We had planned to go in 2020, then 2021, but as with everyone’s plans, that all went out of the window, with the pandemic.
The route to Vlietland
By the Monday of our first week, the weather was brightening up. So after having a day on the rides in Duinrell, I persuaded the family to get out on the bikes to Vlietland, not too far from Wassenaar.
The route to Wassenaarse Slag
After riding to Vlietland earlier in the day, we decided to make the most of the good weather and head to the beach at Wassenaarse Slag. Now, I’ve covered this route previously, in 2017 and 2018, so this will be a relatively brief post.
A multimodal trip to Rotterdam
Now, we’ve been meaning to go back to Rotterdam for some time. It turns out we’ve not been there for a while, not since 2013 in fact, so we were definitely due another trip. Seeing Bicycle Dutch’s post on the improvements to Rotterdam’s Coolsingel definitely made me want to go back for another visit.
The route to Katwijk and Noordwijk
After another day of hanging round the rides and pool at Duinrell, I was keen to get out for another ride. This time, I decided to head north, initially to Katwijk and then on to Noordwijk. In terms of distance, Katwijk is about a 9 km cycle ride from Duinrell, and Noordwijk another 6 km.
The route to Leiden
Since we’ve been going to Duinrell, we usually try to fit in a ride to the city of Leiden when we stay there, and 2022 was no exception. I’ve previously written about our trips there back in 2015 and 2017, so this might be quite familiar. Though with this being The Netherlands, there’s always one or two new things to see along the way.
Around Zaandam
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.
The route to NDSM
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.
The route to Amsterdam
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.
The route to Zaanse Schans
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.
The route to Zwembad De Breek
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.
Riding around Hembrug
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.
Zaandam by boat
As I mentioned in Around Zaandam, our holiday home was conveniently located on the Hanenpadsloot canal and we had access to two boats, which gave us opportunity to get out on the waterways in Zaandam during our stay. So once we were shown how to use the it, we were keen to take the boat out on the water, which we did a couple of times.
A day out in Delft
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.