A Saturday ride through quiet countryside

I went for a ride through the countryside yesterday. It took just an hour and a half to make a ride from home, through one of the heaths nearby, and back again. In Drenthe, it's very easy to find somewhere quiet to go for a few minutes:


There are many stiltegebieden or "silent areas" within easy cycling distance of Assen. Even though they are just a short distance from the city, they are about as quiet as it is possible for anywhere to be. The cycle paths don't stop at the city boundary, but continue in all directions through the countryside, so every location can be reached without having to ride on busy roads.

On the way out of Assen I came across a bridge which was opening for a boat. There was soon a queue.

Heading into the heath. This is the start of the stiltegebied. When you stop, you have only the sounds of nature to listen to.

If passing cyclists make the cycle path not quite quiet enough, there are places to walk to and seats to sit on where it is even quieter.

It's like being in the middle of no-where

It was a very nice day, so lots of people were cycling.

Cycling is something the entire population does. On average, Dutch people use bicycles just short of 6 times a week.

Even though this is only a 15 km ride from Assen, it feels remote, as if it is much further away.

The building in the background is in the city.

Some of the cycle paths in nature areas are made of crushed shells. When you read of the 29000 km of cycle paths in the Netherlands, note that recreational paths like this are not included in the total.

Some have been upgraded to concrete.

All sorts of people ride. Here a group of women on racing bikes have stopped at a cafe.

My bike on the other side of a field full of poppies

We came to live in this part of the Netherlands because we found it to be both beautiful and wonderful to cycle through. Our routes go through all the most scenic parts of the area. Book a holiday and you can experience it for yourself.

Holiday - and a car free island.

We took a few days holiday last week. This time we went just a few km North from here and stayed on a campsite in the countryside. I'm not going to show you all our family holiday photos, but a few photos of what we saw are perhaps interesting.

Swinging bridge in small fishing village. Note that there is just one lane for cars. Drivers have to negotiate passage over the bridge, while leaving the cycle part of the bridge for cyclists.

This formed part of the cycle path which led from our campsite to the village.

Home-made sign outside another village telling the drivers the names of all the children who play on the streets which they are about to drive through.

We took a ferry to Schiermonnikoog, a small island (half the size of Guernsey) just North of the mainland. It's really a holiday island, accessible only by boat. It's almost completely car free - tourists are not allowed to take cars to the island. The main means of transport is the bicycle. This is a queue for the cycle hire at the ferry terminal on the island. The ferry takes a maximum of a thousand people at a time, and almost all of them join this queue for hire bikes.

The only obvious "cycle path" on Schiermonnikoog leads from the ferry terminal to the island itself. To the left of this path is a road used by service vehicles (for deliveries etc.) which do drive around the island, as well as the bus service between the ferry and the hotels in the village.

This cycle path is needed because there are a small number of commercial vehicles which come off the ferry and a couple of buses which take passengers to the village and directly to hotels. In our day on the island we saw just one private car in use. Therefore, apart from here, riding even on the "main road" is usually a car free experience. In other places other techniques are used to empty rural roads of cars.

Many small children ride their own bikes around the island.

More tourists enjoying cycling on the island.

Cycle parking near one of the coastal cafes on the island

A video giving some of our impressions of Schiermonnikoog. We had a great time. It's really a wonderful place for a relaxing holiday, especially with young children. But perhaps not really the place for a "cycling holiday". With a size of just 17 km by 4 km, it doesn't take long until you're back where you started !

Back on the mainland... One day, the boyfriend of my eldest daughter came to visit. He brought his bike by train and we met him from the nearest railway station, in a village 12 km away. Like all Dutch train stations, this one has a lot of cycle parking even though it serves a village of just 2800 people. There are enough spaces for one in every eleven residents to park a bike at the station (I also made a video). We've covered railway station parking many times before.

The journey between the railway station and our campsite was made entirely on rural cyclepaths like this one, which connect the entire country together, and maintain a level of subjective safety which makes cycling accessible to all.

Cycling sisters

David is away this weekend at Cycle Vision so I thought I would write the blog for a change. What he doesn't know won't harm him will it?

A few days ago I was cycling home from college and whilst waiting to cross the canal a young woman and a little girl drew up beside me. The little girl looked at me, smiled, and said "fietsen leuk" - "cycling is nice". I smiled, agreed with her  and asked if they had time to stop and talk to me, luckily they were happy to do so. We stopped on the cycle path and chatted for 10 minutes and I took photos.

I discovered that they are sisters, the older sister is 19 and has just graduated and the little sister is 5 and has Downs syndrome. They often cycle together on this special tandem which they have hired from the local council for 4 years. They pointed out the waist and foot straps which keep the little girl safely on the bike even if she decides to ride "no hands" or looses concentration. Both parents also regularly cycle with the little girl and they have bought her a trike for later on for independent cycling. It was nice to meet them both, I forgot to ask their names, so thanks to the lovely cycling sisters.

Bikes for fathers

Judy asked these two if they would mind posing for a photo a few days ago in the centre of the city.

The bike is what is known as a "vaderfiets" - "Dad's Bike". The concept is quite simple - it's a practical bike, with an extra seat fitted for riding with your children and pegs for their feet to rest on. How wonderful is that ?

The cover on the front wheel is of hard plastic and intended to stop small feet getting into trouble with the spokes. These are not after-market adaptions, but come as standard with a vaderfiets. As the advertising slogan has it, with one of these bikes "every day is father's day"

And what's so special about this ? Well, it says a lot about what cycling is about over here. It's not only an activity for young sporty people on their own, but also something you do in the centre of the city with your children.

Cycling has to be extremely attractive in order that people will want to ride like this with their children. A very high degree of subjective safety is required to make it normal.

The eternal uphill

Yesterday evening's ride home from work was a bit of a trial. Headwind the whole way again. It may be (very nearly) flat here, but flatness means nothing to get in the way of the wind, and headwinds are much worse than the odd hill. They're like an eternal uphill - you don't get to go down the other side.

On the way I came across this family on the way home from somewhere. They have three children. Dad was giving the youngest child on his own wheels a bit of help while Mum had the very youngest on a seat in front of her on her bike.

I've not idea how much of the 30 km from Groningen to Assen they were riding, but they felt safe because the cars were on the left of the trees.

See it for yourself. Cycling holidays in Drenthe.

If you're a regular reader of this blog you'll know that we upped sticks and moved here from the UK because it is the best place in the world to cycle. There is no-where else with the number of cyclists that this part of the Netherlands has, and no-where else with such wonderful facilities for cycling. Assen, where we now live, is the capital of the "cycling province" of the Netherlands, Drenthe. Groningen, a few km North, is the city with the highest cycling rate in the world.

The weather in May is generally marvellous for cycling, and it carries on right through the summer. Last Sunday was an absolutely beautiful day. Our children rode with their friends to the beach, while Judy and I went out to plan a new route for our cycling holiday customers. We took a few photos and a bit of video while we were doing it. As ever, we barely saw any cars, and also as ever, there were thousands of other people cycling !

If you want to see it for yourself, come on one of our cycling holidays.

We passed many cafes, pancake restaurants, and also you often find people selling things informally outside their homes.

In this case, an old bakfiets was parked next to a small country road, loaded with countryside produce.


A country estate on the route. This is the location of one of several museums on this route, and this location also has a petting zoo and a cafe.


This windmill still produces grain and oil in the traditional way. You can look around and buy the produce made in the window

You can also see it in the video.


We've several other blog posts showing cycling holiday routes and destinations, and a few more which you might like under touring and recreation routes.

Sinterklaasintocht

Saint Nicholas' arrival

If you're thinking this doesn't sound like it has much to do with cycling, please watch the video below...

Sinterklaas is a nice man with a red coat and a white beard who likes to give presents to good children in December. I suspect that my English speaking readers are with me so far, but the story departs from what you're probably used to.

Sinterklaas lives in Spain and travels by steamboat and on a white horse to places where the boat can't reach. He gives presents to children on his birthday, the 5th of December.

Our local paper told us a few days ago that when the Burgemeester (mayor) of Assen was in Spain this year to organise the dates for the Vuelta a Espana, he just happened to bump into Sinterklaas and mention that for the first time in 40 years it is possible to sail right into the centre of the city. Sinterklaas naturally was keen to try this out.

Today Sinterklaas arrived in Assen on his steamboat. There was much excitement, mainly amongst Assen's younger citizens, but also amongst their parents and grandparents.



Of course, there is only one way to get to a large event here, and that is to cycle. You'll see in the video how even a five metre wide bicycle road can't cope with the number of bikes when Sinterklaas visits.

There's a website about the Sinterklaasintocht in Assen.

These days, the Kerstman (Christmas Man) also tends to visit on the evening of December 24th. However, there is campaign to encourage people not to put up Christmas trees, nor other associated things at least until December 6th.

Night riding

When I went out this evening to visit a late opening DIY store, I took my camera in the hope of catching some typical night-time cyclists.

I'd not really thought of doing this before, as taking photos at night doesn't work very well. However, a few days ago I read a post on the American blog a few days ago which posed the question of whether night riding was "Safe or Insane?"

Over here, you'll perhaps not be surprised to learn, it's definitely "safe". The first photo shows a boy of perhaps about 12 who was cycling along on his own. The segregated cycle path provides a good degree of safety.

The second photo shows a family's bikes parked outside the store that I visited. There is one adult bike and two different size children's bikes. The one with the blue panniers probably suits a child up to 12 or so, while the smaller one behind has 20" wheels and I would guess is for children up to about 8 years old.

Note that children's bikes here come equipped for regular use because they'll get regular use. They come from the factory with carrier racks, mudguards (fenders to Americans), chainguards, kickstands, sensible tyres, a lock permanently mounted on the frame and... dynamo lights. All the things you need for everyday cycling. The manufacturers expect that children will cycle a lot and that they will cycle in the dark.

These bikes were parked outside when I arrived and still there when I left. There is proper cycle parked at the shop, but they clearly didn't want to use it, and obviously it's not dark enough to be wanting to ride home yet.

This photo shows another family buying Oliebollen (a type of donut. Delicious, but you need a good cycle afterwards to work off those calories) at a stall next to the DIY shop.

Again it's one adult and two children, with their bikes and intending to ride home in the dark some time soon.

Finally the last photo shows another cyclist who I photographed on the way home. This one doesn't have working lights. It is a legal requirement to have lights, but it's pretty popular for people not to bother anyway. Only about half of the cyclists I saw tonight had lights.

What's more, absolutely no-one had extra bright lights, or more than one set of lights on their bike. Also, no-one at all was wearing any reflective clothing. In fact, most people seem to prefer black clothing for their night riding.

It doesn't matter if it's day or night - cycling is safe here, and seen to be safe. As I've pointed out before, Dutch cyclists are substantially safer than those in the UK or USA whether or not they have lights at night. The environment has been made passively safe for cyclists, not relying on everyone to do everything right all the time. Lights and fluorescents have only a second order effect in comparison to having a truly safe environment. After all, how often are motorists known to tell cyclists that they've not seen them even in broad daylight ?

Our children also cycle after dark on their own. It feels safe to let them, and it is safe.

Sorry about the blurry photos. I turned off the flash on the camera to try not to swamp the photos and two of them were taken as I cycled along and I had to brighten them up somewhat in the computer to make anything visible. Oh, and in case you're wondering, my lights were switched on and working.

Everyone cycles

The Steco Baby-Mee is designed to safely carry a baby

Everyone cycles here. Yes, everyone. OK, so I have to admit that's a very slight exaggeration as there is a small minority who genuinely don't, but it's really a very small minority. Officially, 93% of the country's population cycle regularly (every week), and just 7% cycle "rarely or never."

I've only met one Dutchman so far who said he never cycles, and he was a fake - he continued on to tell stories about cycle trips he'd taken a couple of years previously.

Let's take our street as an example.

We've got neighbours in their 80s who cycle, both for fun on the weekend and to go shopping or to visit friends. The stats for the whole country show that even the over 65s cycle for 24% of their journeys, so perhaps this should be expected.

However, we also have very young children in the street, some born just over a year ago, and when they're not riding around the street on tricycles or in the trailer pulled by a big brother or sister, they are seen travelling by bike too. Even the youngest children travel by bicycle - you can buy child-seats for tiny babies in this country, as you can see on the left. It's recommended for four months and up, but I've heard rumours they're also used for newborns.

A Mamafiets with a front child seat with windscreen, a rear
child seat and a device for carrying a pushchair. The bike also
has a sturdy centre stand and an anti-flop steering damper.

There are also special bicycles sold factory fitted for carrying two children together with shopping and which have a special attachment at the back for carrying a buggy. Neither these nor the baby seats are rare devices in the Netherlands.

Some people in the middle of their careers end up working a long distance from home and find it hard to make all their commuting journeys by bike, but everyone here cycles at least some of the time, and a large percentage of them do so daily.

Virtually all primary school age children arrive at school by bike - they need to as the schools arrange trips by bike too. In primary school, children travel independently from an average age of about 8 and a half. Secondary school children cycle up to 20 km each way, most of them continuing even in winter (we were told on a Study Tour that the rate of cycling to a local secondary school drops from 100% of children to 95% in the depths of winter).

Most customers at shops arrive there by bike. Again, this also continues right through winter.

I've never before lived somewhere where people cycled in anything like the numbers they do here. In Assen the average number of bicycle trips per day per person is around 1.2 (It's 0.8 for the Netherlands as a whole - still very high compared with most countries), which explains why it always looks like everyone seems to be riding their bikes.

The environment for cycling here is such that everyone wants to take part. That's how it should be, and how it has been made. It's not happened by accident, but by policy, and the changes over the years have been dramatic. Dutch planners plan for cycling.

The child seat support shown in the photo is available from Dutch Bike Bits. It is manufactured by Steco, who make a large range of items including very popular front luggage racks.

Making cycling attractive

As I've written before, if you want cycling to be a popular means of transport for all, it's important that it is an attractive thing to do, and to be seen doing, not just something for young sporty types who don't mind a bit of danger.

Here we have a photo of a happy family on bicycles. Not just any happy family. This photo shows Prince Willem Alexander and his wife Princess Maxima in in a photocall with their three daughters. Tiny Princess Ariane rides on the back of her mother's bike while Princess Catharina Amalia and Princess Alexia are in the bakfiets ridden by their father.

They turned up for the photo call by bike. You can see more photos here.

With the right bike, in the right conditions, you can ride in nice clothes and wear any shoes you like. You can look good, just as this family look good. You don't have to wear special cycling clothing, and you certainly don't have to be a member of a tribe. You can be normal. It goes back to that pit canary theory. Some people seem not to understand this at all. Not yet, anyway.

There is a long history of the Dutch Royal Family riding bikes. Also, these photos have been picked up in some other locations too.