At 6pm we close the door behind us and leave our jobs at Bike4travel for the weekend. It’s time for another microadventure in the Eastern part of the Netherlands!
We ride the two kilometers to the nearest train station and within half an hour big city Rotterdam makes place for endless (and boring) farmscapes with grazing cows; Dutch wildlife! 😉 We pass Utrecht and Amersfoort and get off the train at Apeldoorn main station. From here we ride about 15 kilometers to Loenen. A world trip in this tiny country. The ‘Natuurkampeerterrein’ (Forest campground) campsite is very relaxed, just a few tents are scattered around a large grassy field right in the middle of the forest. After we’ve taken a shower we pop the bottle of wine we brought and have a snack as the night falls.
We wake up to the sound of birds singing and slowly start packing and have ourselves a luxurious breakfast with ‘poffertjes’ (tiny Dutch pancakes) and coffee. The sound of my iPhone gets us going, it’s Cycling Dutch Girl Mirjam. She lives close to Loenen and asks us to come by and have a coffee. An hour later and after cycling only 20 kilometers we already have our first break and drink coffee with Mirjam and little Tara in her beautiful house! What a lazy Sunday! 😉
By the time it’s 12:30 we decide we should be heading off again, otherwise there won’t be much of a microadventure this weekend! We say goodbye and ride off towards the IJssel river, where we use the ferry to cross to the other side. It’s a zigzag ride on car free forest tracks and since the weather isn’t that good, there aren’t a lot of other cyclists… we love it.
Dark clouds as we ride towards the IJssel river.
70 kilometers later we stop in Halle at another Natuurkampeerterrein, where we are the only ones! Dutch holiday season is over and everyone is back to work. After a pasta dinner and another bottle of wine (tiny bottles.., I swear!) we watch a movie on Elmar iPod in the tent, just like we did in South America when we camped in the middle of nowhere. 😉 Being outside all day made us sleepy and soon all we see is dreams of future cycling adventures projected on the inside of our eyelids.
The next morning it’s a bit colder and we start with an extra jacket. Today we ride to the train station of Nijmegen, where this 2-day trip ends. I’ve managed to find more quiet car free tracks and we even cross into Germany for a few kilometers.
With views over the Rhine river and Emmericher Ward we have lunch as the sun peaks through the clouds. A bird of prey is overlooking the area and circles in the distance. We cross the Ooijpolder and end up right in the center of town. Feeling good and happy we did another micro adventure this summer! What’s next?