Bicycle Tour the Netherlands – Amsterdam to Rotterdam – Family Bike tour – Part 2

In the summer of 2017, our family returned to Europe to do another awesome bike tour. We started in Amsterdam and bicycled 800 km in a circle to Brussels and back to Amsterdam. This part of the bike tour takes us from Amsterdam to Rotterdam. The ride was 75km. This day has us biking the famed LF routes (Landelijke Fietsroutes). The LF routes are cross country bike traveling routes intended for multi-day bicycle tours.
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This bike touring video was shot using Gopro Hero and Gopro Session.

[Theme song] I like I like I like I like to ride my bike. Ok. We are going to restart this. It’s day one. Here we are in Amsterdam at the little Airbnb that we stayed in and today’s our first day of actual biking. It’ll be about 75 kilometers to Rotterdam

It’ll be through a lot of parks and I’m really looking forward to it. Go! Don’t worry about that yet. We’re starting to leave Amsterdam here. On the most beautiful little bike path. On your left. A la gauge. Hello. Say hello to the camera. Hello camera. We are turning right. Okie dokie.

Hello! Wooo! Beautiful bike path right now. Oh yeah. Alright. So we just got out of the city of Amsterdam and we’re riding on our way to Rotterdam. We’ve got about 60km left on our journey and it should take us to about 1 o’clock. It is currently 9:57.

With a brisk wind against us. Oh yeah. And a bit of rain. It’s all good though. And it’s 14 degrees. No crank it. [Music playing.] [Sings in Dutch.] Hoog Laag. Hoog Laag. Hoog Laag. Doe de dolle dans. Hi. Are they yours? No, no. My friends. They are very nice.

Right? That’s the only way. straight? Right. Good, because there was no option for straight that was right in the tree. This is cute. Left? Left? This way? Yes. The things is, Daddy, you know three songs off the new album? What? Left, right here! Left here. Ya, we’re good. We go left here.

It’s a maze of bike paths. That was super confusing. I have no idea which direction we’re going. Yeah, they lost us for a second, right? We’re on the path. . Grand Cafe it’s called. Right there’s a place. I think that’s it. Food and drinks. This works.

We spent most of this day biking on Dutch LF routes. The LF routes are an amazing network of bike paths that crisscross between the Netherlands and Belgium that are designed for multi-day bike tours primarily for recreational cyclists but also people do use these for commuting.

What’s really amazing about these bike paths is these aren’t little paths beside roads. These are paths that are on their own going through fields and parks and forests It’s truly one of the most beautiful and well-designed biking experiences you can have anywhere in the world. I’m getting it so it’s ok.

Amazing riding today most of them on the LF routes which is a network of bike paths designed for holidaying. All over the place you’ve got routes like this And little bits of section you can see you’ve got maps. All this stuff’s on google maps too. It’s pretty amazing.

Is Tantem now gone? Yep. I wonder how that happens? Wow, that’s cool. As we came in through the suburbs of Rotterdam we saw that it was definitely a city that had very impressive cycling infrastructure. On the other hand we also

Did see that it had some of the same problems that we still have at home. That is of course the car in the bike lane. Boo. And another. And another. And another. And another. Did Lisa make it? This is really good. It is. Ya.

We’re at Rotterdam Harbor. There’s this great bike path and what I love about it is if this was back home there’d be a railing here for sure but you could just ride your bike right into the water. But we’re not going to. We’re in Rotterdam. We’re here at De Balóntent. They say

They have the best meatball in Rotterdam. There it is. It’s a meatball. It’s kind of a loaf of a meatball. That’s too big a piece. Have you had some? Oh wait. First. Have you had a better meatball in Rotterdam? No?

So that must be the best in your opinion. So far it’s the best meatball I have ever had in Rotterdam. Wow. Ya, pretty good meatball. And it is pouring rain again. It is pouring rain again. All right so my Dad has given me ten minutes to capture the essence of

Rotterdam on the back of a tandem bike with nothing but a GoPro and a selfie stick. The essence the essence of Rotterdam. Let’s see how I do. That’s it. We’ve gone 75km. We’re exhausted and gotta find some food too. Alright. [Laughing]

I think if you’re gonna capture the essence of a city you got to know a bit about the history. So Rotterdam was bombed in 1942 by the Germans in order to pretty much tell them to give up in world war two and take control of all of

Holland. After that it has been completely rebuilt so cities are new. Not the cities, but all the buildings and everything is brand new which is really cool. I believe another big part of Rotterdam is the port because the port

In Rotterdam connects all of Holland to the Atlantic Ocean and the rest of the world. Goods come in to Rotterdam ownership out from Rotterdam. Ten minutes are up. I don’t really think I got enough time to do it. And I didn’t really get to see the downtown area of Rotterdam. I feel like

If I had more time I could do a much better job. But all things considered I think I did pretty decent. [Rotterdam blues song] We don’t speak any Dutch and it gets us worse table service. [Ukelele] Well, it’s the next day and my dad has given me a little bit of extra time

To capture the essence of Rotterdam. Yeah, and there’s no one really around so I don’t really know I’m gonna do that with other people. So there’s this tunnel we’re about to go into right now and it goes right under the river and

I think it might be have a big part to the essence of Rotterdam. Oh ya, we lost the GPS signal. This is where the GPS told us to go. Ya, let’s go in this tunnel. Tunnel! Wheeooo! Probably another really big part in Rotterdam because its ships go all over Holland.

And the railway, which you can see. I’m guessing those are railway tracks over there. And there’s some cargo cars over there. So that’s I believe another really big part of Rotterdam. Well, we just left the city of Rotterdam and I don’t think I got all the footage I needed

But uh I’m hopeful that I can make some stuff out of it back at home. [Theme song]