Posted by Les Faber in The wonderful thing about cycling is that you meet some wonderful people. I think the global gene pool was generous when it created the “cyclist gene”.
Read about Days 1 (here), 2 (here), 3 (here), 4 (here), 5 (here), 6 (here), 7 (here), 8 (here) & 9 (here) of our Netherlands cycling adventure.
Case in point: While we were in Amsterdam, Marc (of Amsterdamize fame) suggested we look up David Hembrow during our journey through the Netherlands. David is a British expat who found the cycling culture in the Netherlands so attractive, that he decided to move his family (wife & 2 daughters) from Cambridge to Assen (more on that later). Not being shy, I simply sent David an e-mail letting him know that Helen & I would be passing through the area and that we would very much like to meet a fellow cycling Blogger. The “cyclist gene pool” was generous with David. Without knowing much about us, he immediately invited us down to spend a pleasant Sunday cycling around the Provinces of Groningen & Drenthe (mostly Drenthe).
We met David in Noordlaren (a small village) south of Groningen (the town). He proceeded to take us here and there to enjoy some of the best cycling we have had in the Netherlands. I am pretty good at finding interesting routes. David had me beat though. He took us to some obscure spots where we saw many interesting things (Can you say hunebedden?).
Amongst other things, David blogs about cycling. He also conducts very specialized cycling tours. If you find this area of the Netherlands of interest, or want to understand the Dutch system of cycling, I would highly recommend that you contact him.
David also blogged about our day together.
Here are some of Helen’s images from our superb day in Drenthe
Final thoughts: Assen is a beautiful (very under-rated) town. They cycle friendliness of this location is superb. Case in point. David recounted a story of a recent construction project where the town actually moved an entire canal to accomodate cyclists. Where else have you seen this type of commitment to cyclists & cycling?
It was great to have you visit. As you know, we liked it enough here to emigrate to this part of the world.
There’s a good reason why Drenthe is known as the “fietsprovincie” or “cycling province” of the Netherlands.
I would definitely agree with David – Drenthe (from our experience) should be known as the “cycling province”. Not only a very bike friendly province, with lots of different cycling terrains (including concrete bike paths) but also so many beautiful landscapes to enjoy. What more could anyone ask for? I would highly recommend this location to any cyclist.
Helen
Helen:
I would love to ask for a little guidance on cycling in the HOlland. We live in Colorado and I have an electric bike as I have one “challenged” leg from West Nile virus a few year back.
We are heading north from Brussles for a week trip to Holland in September and plan to cycle most days on rental bikes. I need flat — as in really flat — country. I’ve been looking at routes in Zeeland but would much rather go to more rural inland areas.
So here’s my question. Are there routes in Drenth, Gelderland, North Brabant or Limburg that you would recommend. We’ll probably settle on one place and do day trips out from there.
Thanks ever so much for your help,
Ann