How to Navigate the Netherlands | NL by Bike – Day 5

Eindhoven Tour 👉 https://youtu.be/gpRO7vIM_VQ

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0:00 Fietsknooppuntnetwerk
0:42 Numbered Junction Network
1:57 How it works
2:56 Eindhoven
3:50 Tunnel of Silly walks
4:05 Bear pit, Berenkuil
4:30 Starry night bike path
5:10 Node Network
6:15 First impressions
6:54 Using audio prompts
7:38 Getting lost
8:21 Dirt bike paths
8:52 Traffic calming
9:27 Varied Infrastructure
9:48 Entering Limburg
11:37 Bicycle node network thoughts
12:28 Nijmegen
14:35 Roman Cavalry mask

If you’ve ever been to the Netherlands, you may 
have noticed these numbered signs, which isn’t surprising because it’s estimated that there are 
as many as 150,000 of them throughout the country, making up a comprehensive web with the purpose of 
guiding those rolling on two wheels. And today, on day five of my trip across the Netherlands, 
one of those two wheelers will be me. I begin my day in Eindhoven with the final 
destination of Nijmegen over 70 km away. Instead of relying on Google to help me navigate, 
I’m using the bicycle junction network. It’s a simple yet brilliant idea. a fine mesh network 
of cycling routes that covers entire countries, guiding you effortlessly from junction 
to junction. But perhaps surprisingly, it isn’t a Dutch invention. The system was first 
developed in the 1990s by a Belgian named Hugo Bollen, with the inaugural network opening 
in Belgium in 1995. It actually took until 1999 for it to spread to the Netherlands, first 
into Lindberg. However, once it did, it quickly flourished because today both the Netherlands 
and Belgium are crisscrossed by these cycling routes with the system continuing to expand into 
France and Germany. But in the Netherlands alone, there are more than 9,500 junctions that make up 
this interconnected web. And now more than half of Dutch cyclists regularly make use of it. The nodes 
are carefully selected to include the safest and most scenic paths, often using low traffic roads 
or fully separated bike lanes. At each junction, you’ll typically find green and white clearly 
marked signs displaying the node number at the top, followed by connected nodes, each accompanied 
with an arrow pointing in their general direction. Just follow along towards the next node, 
and you’ll find signs placed at eye level, which repeat after most intersections to 
confirm you’re on track. You can follow pre-planned routes perfect for day trips or 
multi-day adventures, often themed around Dutch culture or landmarks. For instance, I happen to 
pass through a stretch of the Van Go route today. Or you can take advantage of the systems 
flexibility and create your own journey. And making that easy are the maps you’ll find 
at nodes showing the surrounding network. Just decide on the sequence of node numbers you want to 
follow, jot them down, and set off. But for longer and more complex trips, technology comes in handy. 
I opted for feats, which is available on Android, iPhone, and browser. For example, I’m just 
starting outside of Eindhoven. You can either select each subsequent point or simply select 
your destination. For me, that’ll be N Megan. Kaiser Carol Plane. That looks like it’ll be a 
nice spot. And boom, you have a route. You can print it out if you like. Some people will even 
tape the series of numbers on the crossbar. You can use your phone like any other navigation 
app. Or if you’re one of those gifted people, just remember them, I guess. Now, I’d like 
to head out straight away, but before I do, there are a few things I still need to showcase 
in Eindhoven. And if you haven’t seen it, there is a separate video where I toured the city with 
Roy Symons, author of Fietspad, in which we played a game where we went looking for the good and bad 
of Dutch design elements. It’s probably one of my favorite videos I’ve ever made. And in one scene, 
we came up to a large intersection. I get this out of focus drone shot. I put the GoPro down for a 
time lapse. All good except for one thing. Let me slow that down a bit. Yep, that’s me taking 
off. And I didn’t notice until after we finished our tour, but it seems luck was on my side. It’s 
there. It’s it. It’s still there. Oh my god. It’s still recording. Oh my god. It’s I guess not your 
own. Well, I’m going to have a great time lapse at this intersection. You are. Roy accompanied 
me on my way out of the city where we got a mini art tour. First was this tunnel plastered 
with the face of the legendary John Cleese, paying homage to the classic Monty python skit. 
I’m afraid that the Ministry of silly walks… We also saw the Flying Pins before arriving 
at the Bear Pit where we found this really neat roundabout surrounded by murals. And this is 
actually where you can see Step into the Arena, an annual graffiti festival where artists replace 
the old with the new. But that is where we parted ways. And I figured there was no better way to 
top off this mini art tour than to see something that pays tribute to the Netherlands most famous 
painter, Vincent Van Gogh. This here is the Starry Night Bike Path. At over 600 m long, this path 
has thousands of colored stones that are charged by daylight, meant to showcase elements of 
the famous painting. Unfortunately for me, only visible in their full glory at night. 
But that didn’t stop me from trying something. I’m wondering if I can get down on the ground like 
some guy in World War II looking at a map and see if any of this glows. Oh, wow. Cool. That actually 
worked. It wasn’t the brilliance that you’d get at night, I’m sure, on a really dark night. 
But if you want to know what it looks like, here’s a photo from Roy’s book. But now it was 
time to begin the longest leg of my trip so far. Feeds gave me a list of over 40 nodes. too 
long for me to remember. And without a printer, I just simply made a mental note of the first 
few numbers and off I went. And before I even reached my first node, I came across a little 
bonus for lessons from the Dutch bingo. Roy’s going to be happy about this. Knocked one off 
the list. Bicycle pulled from the canal. Just a minute later, I made it to my first node 
successfully. Van Go route. And there’s an 81 and a 34. We’re looking for 34, which is a 
right turn. A right turn’s easy. So, this is a node. This is 35 that we’re at. And we need to 
go to 34. There we go. Oh, this is beautiful. I don’t mind the wind today cuz I’m a little bit 
warm with the sun out. This is perfect. Holy. So far so good. It’s been super easy. We 
passed three nodes already. It’s such a relaxed experience. There’s something about 
it when you’re following Google. You have the phone on your handlebars. You’re constantly 
looking down to make sure you didn’t miss a turn and you’re going the right way. 
But here, it’s it’s all all 100% heads up experience cuz you’re trying to pay 
attention to where these signs are and you’re naturally just looking around, taking 
in the environment. What a wonderful system. 62 63. All right, I’ve hit a node. I think I’m at 63 now. 
And I don’t remember what comes after that. So, what I’m going to try now is that it has audio 
prompts. What I’m going to do is I’m going to put one of my wireless earbuds in one of my ears 
and just listen and see what happens that way. So, I don’t even know what number comes 
next. Well, I’ll check the next one. 93. So, I got to double back. Okay, 
let’s try it out. The next node is 92. You’re approaching node 92. Stop sign. A good boy, right? Got to win. 
Are you still on track? So, I made a wrong turn. And I was supposed to 
go straight through here, which wasn’t very obvious. And all these signs made me miss the 
node sign. So, I just uh in my ear just said, “Are you still on track?” So, then I was like, 
“Well, I’m just going to turn around and see if I can find the sign.” And there it was. 
So, that’s helpful. Welcome back on track. Okay, so I’ve essentially reached the halfway 
mark. Uh, I only had two times where I went off track, but it’s like, “Hey, are you off 
track? You have track in your ear.” So, you just turn around and you’re like, “Oh, 
there’s the number.” And it’s like, “Welcome back on track.” Easy peasy. Now, we’re going cross 
country. Got some dirt roads here. Oh, it’s like sand almost. Feel like I’m going to wipe out. Holy 
shnikes. So, as they say, when in the Netherlands, do as the Dutch do. And that means when you see 
a bicycle desire path, you take it. That simple. Speak pad. This is the bicycle path, I guess. 
Okay. You say so. Here, I doubled back to look at this crossing. So, this is an edge lane road. 
I was coming from the other way. But from here, it directs you onto the side. Wants you to yield. 
from the yield has a raised raised crossing and it’s narrowed to slow on drivers. Then you cross 
the street onto the two-way cycle track. So that that’s how you get cyclists onto the other 
side of the street. Oh, this guy’s flying. Holy 58 56 straight ahead. a real big mix 
of infrastructure along the way. You know, sometimes it was a separated bike lane, sometimes 
it was a shared road with maybe an edge lane road, maybe. Sometimes it was just a a country 
highway. And here we’re on a fietsstraat. These routes are comprised of so many different 
types of infrastructure that also included this fast cycle route, the Mass Wall Pad, which led 
me to a bridge with a beautiful and wide bike path. This is the aptly named Maasover. It crosses 
the muse and connects Coke in North Brabant with milk in Limburg. So here we are about to cross 
a bridge and cross into a brand new province. We’ll call it we call it call it call it. And 
ladies and gentlemen, we’ve made it to Limburg. Bit anticlimactic, but it’s about to happen again. 
Now we’re leaving Limburg and we’re going back to Gelderland right about now, but we’re going to 
stay this time. We’re not just passing through. So yeah, I was only in Limburg for a little more than 
5 minutes. You might be thinking that’s cheating, Nick. And you’re right, it is. But don’t worry, I 
will be back. Oh man, the smell in there in that forest. Just that Oh, fresh smell in nature 
now. It smells like petrol exhaust. We’re by a road now. That was lovely. That was that was 
something absolutely beautiful. So, after I don’t know like 60 70 kilometers, I finally reached 
civilization. Went through a few small towns, but uh we’re here at the edge of Nijmegen. I believe 
I just went by university there. And uh yeah, a lot more people. And we’re getting close to rush 
hour now, about 5:00 p.m. in the afternoon. and uh yeah, life, people, happenings. So, now that I’ve 
entered town, I I found it already a bit harder to keep track of the signs. There’s just more going 
on, so it’s harder to pay attention. Despite the visual overload, it was pretty straightforward to 
my final node. This is it. This is the node. I’m just going to pull it here. So, there it is. Uh 
not 45. Uh it it didn’t feel as long as it was. I think it was uh 3 and 1/2 hours if that with the 
stopping you know it’s it’s a bit longer but it for whatever reason I don’t know is because I was 
paying attention to the signs or what didn’t feel that long it was a nice trip in fact towards the 
end it got really nice there was that forest oh my god I smell incredible anyway one thing I loved 
is how straightforward it is no trying to remember or even read a plethora of Dutch street names or 
towns just load up the route and away you go the numbers will guide you on your Hey, that being 
said, you have to be paying attention because without the lady in my ear telling me when to turn 
around, I could have easily put myself way off track. This is the city center basically of Nagen 
and my hotel’s on the other side of it. Going to go check it out. Nijmegen is the largest city 
in Gelderland and boasts being one of the oldest cities in the country dating back to Roman times. 
It even celebrated its 2,000th birthday back in 2005. Now, sadly, I arrived too late for the 
market that takes place in the square under the shadow of the old way house. But regardless, great 
vibes in the city center. And if you know me, you know that I love a good bridge. And I Megan 
has plenty spanning the wall. I just had to check them out. The first is De Oversteek, the crossing 
in English. It’s the longest single arch bridge in Europe. While the name the crossing made it seem 
like they spent all the money on the design with none left for the naming committee, it actually 
derives from an assault across the river at this location by American paratroopers during the 
Second World War. And a daily sunset march takes place across the bridge where 48 street 
lights illuminate one by one at the pace of the march. Each a tribute to the 48 soldiers who died 
in the crossing. At the south side of the bridge, you can find a burgeoning neighborhood in the 
former industrial area that has a sports park, public pump track, brew pubs, and restaurants. 
I mean, I wouldn’t mind coming back here on a sunny day for a pint. On the east side stands the 
much older Waalbridge, which remarkably survived the war. It was originally blown up by the Dutch 
during the German invasion, then rebuilt by the Germans themselves, and later nearly destroyed 
again by retreating German forces, only to be saved at the last moment by Dutch resistance. Many 
historical photos from that time exist, some even showing signage for a foot in psychopath. Next was 
the aptly named Spoorbrug. Sadly, the name, as far as I can tell, lacks any significant connection, 
but it makes up for it by hosting a museum. I have a lot more to say on this bridge tomorrow. So, 
today I simply crossed it to get myself to another bridge, the Lentloper, which connects the village 
of Lent on the north side of the wall to the small island of Veur-lent. It has a raised section 
for car traffic and lower sections on either side for pedestrians and cyclists. But what really 
makes this bridge interesting are the two walkways underneath that connect either side. What you are 
greeted with once you cross this little island is a must see if you ever visit Nijmegen because this 
sculpture is actually modeled after a real Roman cavalry sports helmet that was discovered in a 
gravel bed on the south bank of the wall back in 1915. Believed to be nearly 2,000 years old, masks 
like this would have been worn by elite cavalry during games, something like Roman jousting. The 
masks are often made of iron, bronze, brass, and silver with custom features such as the diadem at 
top this one displaying five distinct figures. You can see the original on display at the Valkhoff 
Museum. But I quite enjoy the view from here because from this vantage point, I could see where 
I’d be rolling out first thing tomorrow morning.