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    🚴‍♂️ Epic Father-Son Netherlands Bikepacking Adventure: Zuiderzee Route! 🌊🌳



    Last summer, Ewan and I couldn’t resist the call of the famous Dutch cycling culture after our first taste of it. This time, we set our sights on the Zuiderzee—a sea that once shaped the heart of the Netherlands, now transformed into the IJsselmeer, a freshwater lake and home to one of the country’s most popular long-distance cycling routes.

    Our journey begins with trains to London and out to Harwich, followed by a ferry across to the Hook of Holland. From there, it’s over 400 miles of cycling, taking us to Amsterdam, around the IJsselmeer, and back to the Hook of Holland for our return trip home. Along the way, we even squeezed in a couple of parkruns!

    🚲 This year marks our 6th year of cycle touring together, and it’s our biggest challenge yet! With fully loaded bikes carrying our tent and everything we need for a week on the road, we’re diving headfirst into the stories, history, and beauty of the Zuiderzee.

    Join us on this unforgettable bikepacking adventure as we explore Dutch culture, tackle long miles, and create memories that will last a lifetime. 🌟

    Full details of the ride routes, campsites etc. can be found on our blog:
    https://www.alittleadventure.uk/bikepacking-the-zuiderzee-route/

    Hope you enjoy the film of our adventure, please like and subscribe to our channel: https://www.youtube.com/alittleadventuretime?sub_confirmation=1

    Chapters
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    00:00 Intro
    01:06 Day One – Ferry to Delft
    02:40 Day Two – Delft to Amsterdam
    10:40 Day Three – Amsterdam to Enkhuizen (start of Zuiderzee Route)
    15:53 Day Four – Enkhuizen to Workum
    27:26 Day Five – Workum to Marknesse
    39:34 Day Six – Marknesse to Elburg
    49:58 Day Seven – Elburg to Amsterdam (End of Zuiderzee Route)
    58:23 Day Eight – Amsterdam to Alphen ann den Rijn
    01:03:43 Day Nine – Alphen ann den Rijn to Delft
    01:13:42 Day Ten – Delft and back to the ferry

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    About Ian, Iona, Ewan and Family
    ===============================
    Each week on this channel Ian (Dad) and Iona share our little adventure experiences, often joined by Ewan (Iona’s older brother) and Ruth (Mum) too.

    Our weekends often start with parkrun. Iona is on a non-repeat parkrun tourism streak having now visited over 100 different places since she started parkrunning. But we don’t just do parkun and dash home, we love exploring the area and often use bikes and trains for our travels to keep our carbon footprint low and because it adds to the adventure too. When school holidays arrive, longer adventures are possible with Ewan and Iona both being keen cycle tourists and mountain climbers!

    So if you like heading outdoors and your idea of a perfect weekend includes parkrun, climbing a mountain or exploring new places on two wheels then we would love to have you join us on our adventures.

    We’d love it if you subscribed so you can follow our journey and hopefully be inspired to get out the door and have your own little adventures. Do like and leave comments on our videos too on questions you might have or ideas for places to explore or adventures to go on.

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    Standard Filming Kit
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    Fujifilm X-S20 with 18-55mm kit lens: https://amzn.to/45nb4NR
    GoPro Hero 10: https://amzn.to/3Jy1axA
    GoPro Media Mod: https://amzn.to/3JxeVga
    RØDE VideoMicro Directional Mic: https://amzn.to/45nb4NR
    SYNCO G2(A2) Wireless Lavalier Microphone: https://amzn.to/3rxcLZv
    ULANZ 59Inch Selfie Stick Tripod: https://amzn.to/4c73iKm

    Music from Epidemic Sound: https://www.epidemicsound.com/referral/o3mkb1

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    30 Comments

    3. @RealConstructor on

      I saw the water tower of Aalsmeer (the most beautiful water tower of NL), and you could have cycled along the biggest flower auction of the world. People working inside the flower auction actually use bicycles to get from one side to the other. But they also have sightseeing tours there, it is really impressive. Thousands of flower carts going their route to the many auction rooms automatically (if that’s still the case, it could all go digitally now).

    6. @rmyikzelf5604 on

      17:57 If you want to see really gigantic greenhouses, go to the 'Westland' region, just south of The Hague. Actually in between Hoek van Holland and The Hague. Miles and miles of them.

    10. @parmentier7457 on

      Amsterdam is the financial city of the Netherlands. The Hague is the political center. All those high office towers are Dutch ministry buildings. The Hague is also popular with Dutch people to visit, it does not have as many foreign tourists as in Amsterdam.

    11. @Wielie0305 on

      Wow. What a lovely video! And a great thing to do with your son. I want the summer back now. Btw Netl is closeby where I live. The guy who owns it sold his online platform to eBay for over 200 million euros for years ago. Bought this piece farmland and transformed it in the middle of the polder to dunes, little beach and beachclub. Also my mother in law is a schokker. A descendent of people of Schokland. Greetings and welcome back in the future 🧡

    12. @aristaeus2514 on

      Such a wholesome video!
      Nice to see the Suydersee from another perspective. Eventhough I am a bickepacker as well, I never considdered the route because it is so close to home and familiar, but this video showed me I am missing out.

    13. @ozzie2545 on

      Amazing video sir! the afsluitdijk maintanance should be finished before summer 2025. The only part not finished are the cycling paths over the locks atm.

    15. @pietjemol3420 on

      This must have been about 2 years ago or more. The gemaal at Monnickendam was changed in 2023, yet in your vid I can see the old gemaal. In the town of Monnickendam you passed the house I grew up in.

    16. @tvaandering on

      Beautiful video. And your son is a star with cycling more than 100 kilometers per day. And he will later look back on that father-son activity with great pleasure.😍👍

    18. @dikkiedik53 on

      Thanks a lot for this video, you brought back nice memories. Living just North of Amsterdam. At age 11 I went cycle camping with my parents and 9 yr old little sister on the island of Terschelling and we had to ride the Afsluitdijk too.. total 110km for my 9 yr old sis on her little blue Czech bicycle too!. A few weeks later back the same route, next year same vacation. In the 1980's I cycled the IJsselmeer around in one day.. the short route, only 275 km. In total I did the Afsluitdijk by bicycle 7 times ;-). Now 72 and still some 3500km cycling annually. Keep on riding!

    20. @duncanmclean5232 on

      Two of us are cycling this route in the summer. We’ll use the Fietsknoop App………….Using our ‘phones. What navigation format did you use? Your video is great and your son will be able to review it for many years to come.

    24. @SIG442 on

      3:31 That building the the bottom bit of a old mill

      Those are red sections, not orange. Red means cycling lane. We don't use orange :p

      You normally can cycle across the Afsluitdijk, however due to work on the dyke they closed it off for cyclists.
      However you can reach Kornwerderzand which is the only village on the dyke. Which has a casemate museum that is very interesting and a must visit location.

      25:39 That huge building to your right is where they make the huge ocean going yachts for rich people. On occasion you can see one or more or even see a helicopter landing there.

      I was born in Workum myself, have been living there for most of my life.
      The farmer you are camping at there I know personally, great people.

      26:41 Those buildings in the back are very new, I haven't been there for a few years now. I haven't seen those yet.
      For where you are on this beach, you can walk quite far without getting much dept to this water. All the way to the shipping lanes.
      You can very easily see this on Google Maps for example.

      The fountains are just in 11 Cities in the Friesland province. I wouldn't keep your hopes up, most of them are not working and they all were created by people who are not even from the Netherlands. So the locals absolutely HATE those things.

      Yes, we use our own language there called Frisian. It's actually a sister language to Old English, both used to be VERY similar.
      (Same line but in Frisian: Ja, wy brûke dêr ús eigen taal dy't it Frysk hjit. It is eins in sustertaal foar it Aldingelsk, beide wiene eartiids Hiel gelyk.

      28:58 That narrow house in the back (right side) was from a rich VOC captain. The current owner allows people to enter her home for 1 Euro per person and can tell a little about it as well.

      30:18 That memorial stone is where the Frisians defended and succeeded against the Hollanders.
      The test on the stone says (in Frisian text) "Rather dead then slave"
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Warns

      Amazingly well done for your son! That route is quite far and not many will succeed!

    28. @FacelessJanus on

      First off, Ewan congrats on your achievements. I bet none of your mates back home, could do these things!!!! There is just one negative thing about the video though. Imho, More input from Ewan is required. If more kids are going to be inspired to these type of things, it would be great to hear from Ewan about things like, what is a good bike, what are things he forgot to pack and regretted, or packed and found less useful to bring along, what he thinks about places you stayed, like were there enough things to keep him busy (playgrounds, swimming pool, other stuff), what would he recommend or not. His perspective or input on such matters, might help kids to convince their parents to do some bike packing.

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