Biking the Netherlands
, 3 min, 435 words
In June, I had the wonderful chance to travel to the Netherlands for a combination of business and pleasure. Of the ten days I spent there, four were at FemEx and the remaining six were spent biking around, primarily in Gelderland but also to some extent in Utrecht, Flevoland, and North Holland. It was a lovely trip, made more lovely by the amazing hosts of Vrienden op de Fiets who were kind enough to take me into their homes and feed me during my travels.
Also, all those people who talk about how awesome it is to bike in the Netherlands aren’t exaggerating at all. Bikes have priority: cars yield to them, pedestrians yield to them, and any highway worth its salt has a separated bike lane next to it. On top of that the country is fairly flat (the largest hill I climbed was under 800 feet of elevation change) and towns are close enough together to reasonably ride between them. To make things even easier, there is a network of numbered cycle points that makes it even easier to navigate: just remember the order of points you need to hit in order to reach your destination, and there will be a sign pointing you in the right direction at every junction.
Here’s a general gist of what I did: black lines are trains or cars I took to various places, while blue shows my approximate bike route. Other than that:
- Houses are the approximate locations I stayed.
- Little purple Bohr model of the atom is where FemEx was located.
- The airplane is…you guessed it, the airport.
- The little bike in Amsterdam is Waterlooplein, where I bought and later sold my loyal bike.
- Since it seemed more fun than just listing various happenings, I’ve also added a few starred locations; click for more information.
And in case you wanted a sense for what I looked like while riding around with all of my luggage…
