We undertook a 9 day cycle tour through the Netherlands to the place where Sarah’s grandfather had been stationed near the end of WW2 and also to his crash site in occupied territory. We love Cycle Touring and were keen to explore all the Netherlands had to offer as well.
We are Sarah and Paul of Velo Works. A small independent bike business offering hand built wheels and an online shop (shipping UK wide) in addition to local servicing and vintage bike restorations.
🇳🇱 To find out more about the background to this trip and how we prepared our bikes watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDHABdlZIpI&t=7s
Bikes:
🚲 Sarah’s bike is a Trek FX 7.1. Find out more about the 17 year upgrade that the frame had https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9VwW2jJ7vE&t=73s
🚲 Paul’s bike is a George Longstaff. Find out more here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4miHfx5veT0&t=172s
Additional Info:
⛑️ : Sarah’s Helmet is the @LazerSport Z1 KinetiCore in Matt Tyrian
🧥 : Sarah’s jacket is a Rapha @raphafilms . This is there Commuting jacket but I am not sure if they make it anymore. If you can get one I would HIGHLY recommend.
🧥: Paul’s Jacket is from Paramo @paramoclothing
👖: Cycling padded leggings from Madison Clothing : https://www.madison.cc/
👟: We are both wearing Shimano shoes from their gravity range. @RideShimano
🧳: Sarah’s Panniers are @ORTLIEBwaterproof and are 20 years old and still working like new. She also has a @Restrapltd Top Tube bag. Paul has @carradicenelson1615 panniers, a @Restrapltd bag on the top of the pannier rack.
🛠️: The majority of the tools we carried were @parktool
⛴️ : Ferry route was Harwich to the Hook of Holland with @stenalineukie which we would really recommend.
This video and trip would not have been possible without our contacts and friends; Reem, Jan and Philippa. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
Photos included have been supplied by all three of our friends.
Music and Sounds courtesy of @epidemicsound
– Bike Bell sound courtesy (Bell 14).
– Cotton & Strangers by Candelion
– Firebird by Of Water
Traveller by Wildflowers
32 Comments
Very brave Spring cycling in NL. Respect!
Excellent Chinese restaurant in Hoek van Holland!
Cycling on top of the dykes in the wind is no fun! No shelter.
A really great video – you clearly enjoyed your holiday in the Netherlands. 25 years ago I joined a Bike & Barge holiday from Amsterdam to Amsterdam via Texel; I was on my trusty Cannondale ST 800, whilst everyone else was on typical sit-up-and-beg Dutch bikes with those horrible back-pedal brakes. Even then, the cycling infrastructure was superb which made each day's mileage so easy. The UK really should give some serious thought to copying the Dutch cycling system.
Glad to hear that you enjoyed your cycletour in our little country 😊👍Welcome back in warmer weather 🤗
Ah, so you have had the Dutch Mountains. That's what we call the wind 🌬. Nasty
most off the time it is against the wind and we have four seasons in a day like rain and a little sun, but when it comes enjoy it……………………………
We also have fietsplan, it is a thing to get a good bike for cheap from your company so workers can go to work on the bike
5:20 Prununciation tip for ‘s-Hertogenbosch: just say, as if it were normal English, ‘ser toe-gun boss’. I’m not sure what a toe-gun is, but it will probably hurt.
Thanks to your grandfather, and those other heroes whom liberated our country. ❤
Nice and entertaining video, as you already mentioned a small rear view mirror would be a good thing, there's a lot of e-bikes nowadays in the Netherlands, it just makes it a lot easier to spot them coming up from behind you.
The wind is our mountains.
Gelderland is also wonderful for cycling more wooded area less windy.
our wind is our mountains
Welcome to the Netherlands.
Very nice video, loved the stories about your granddad. Also very well chosen music! When you come again, travel trough the more eastern part of the country. Provinces of Limburg and Gelderland have beautiful old cities, fantastic nature and …. even some hills!,
Fun fact, drivers in the Netherlands are also cycling so they know how to behave. And the wind is the Dutch mountains. Greetings from the Netherlands.
It was a nice insight of your trip visiting and tracking back your grandfathers steps from 81 years ago. The weather.. what can i say. If you come overhere in spring you can expect everything, rain, hail, a little snow up to sunny summer weather with 25 degrees celcius. But who am i to tell you. We both get the same weather, here as you get in the UK. Our country is only 150 kilometers straight east of the UK. So, the weather is the same. If the wind comes down from the North Sea, well.. you have noticed 🙂Thanks for sharing this video with us, and best regards from NL.
U two make a lovely couple and seemed like u both enjoyed the personal history cycling tour through our small, flat, green but dense country. And a salute to ur late grandfather for his war efforts from a former Dutch navy officer!
And as a remark, in the Netherlands most people driving cars will bike aswell so the closer space when passing by when u share the road with cars is normal for us, we asume/know the car driver already seen u bike and will take u in account with their actions, so we are not scared or spooked when that happens; just indeed normal for us with a distance of 1mtr between u and the car. And a lot of biking infrastructure is separated only some parts u share the road like rural roads and or in towns (and in towns we have the lower speedlimit for cars aswell offcourse which also increase safety for bicyles).
Hi!
How great you still have his logbook!
ALG B-85 Schijndel is one of many (temporary) airfields for 2TAF, others in the area are B-84 De Rips, and about 10 miles NW of Schijndel is B-88 Heesch (Nistelrode) where the 126 Canadian Wing was based. Like the area in Schijndel, it too has streets named after the airfield.
One of the reasons they did missions to the area around Zwolle and Hoogeveen is that the Germans had V-1 and V-2 launch sites there (there's a well-known wood near Ommen that has remnants).
Thank you for highlighting his story.
the wind is also known as the Dutch mountains
Lovely video! Happy memories of several cycle tours in the Netherlands, through some of the places you went to. I've been to Arnhem a few times as my great uncle parachuted there in 1944 and was captured.
You are always very welcome. And you cycle too.
Hey, you passed through my street, between Schijndel en Den Bosch.
Love the story.
I was thinking about the mopeds and e-bikes, because I’m never nervous about them when cycling.
I guess I just go by the principle of staying on the right and following ‘the rules’ which make me predictable for overhauling traffic; it’s their responsibility to anticipate when it’s safe to pass and as long as we’re all reading each others nonverbal cues there’s no need to worry.
I’m much more concerned about tourists and children and recent immigrants who will surprise the others on the road, often creating near misses. The occasional elderly person on an e-bike that goes faster than their mind who acts stupidly (men over 70 are our biggest category of traffic deaths at the moment due to this mechanism). And car drivers that sometimes see cyclists as obstacles instead of vulnerable people, because driving a car has terrible effects on our psyche.
Don't make the pronunciation more complicated than it needs to be: Biesbosch is 'Biesboss' and Den Bosch is 'Denn Boss'!
The disrespect us British riders get in our own bloody country is a disgrace. Ive ridden in many countries and lived in many countries, the USA – various states, Germany, Spain, France, Belgium, Holland, yet the only place i am scared to ride my bike, as i get older, is the UK. IF you are killed, the joke is this, they get 4 years. About the same time as the guys who chopped down the Sycamore Gap tree.
I am starting a database of lenient sentences for drivers who kill. The most shocking was 6 months in jail for killing a 10 years old girl while driving dangerously. This was just reported by the BBC last week (very early april 2026). Reading stories liek that sicken me cos i would do more time for smashing a wing mirror if i got hit and then lashed out
Mirrors on your bicycle handlebar…..you can see what is coming from behind. It is so relaxing!
We don't have hills but the wind instead. I love wind. Wind on your cheeks makes you fell you're alive,….
's-Hertogenbosch is old Dutch for "forest of the Duke". Just some useless fact you may enjoy.
Thanks to your grandfather for helping liberate my country.
Nice to tie your family history too a bike trip. I have to say: quite brave to do a biking holiday so early in the year!
Thanks for visiting our country, and thank to your grandfathers service!! About cycling on the roads, you have to take into account that almost all drivers are also cyclist, and vise versa, so there is a lot of trust. Thats why a car passing close, does not make us nervous that much.
Wonderful! Thanks for sharing this journey. Looks like a very Dutch experience with this weather and the terrible fast moving traffic on the roads and cycle paths. And a big thank you for your grandfather (and all the others) who risked and/or gave their lives for our freedom.
First of all I want to thank your grandfather for his incredible bravery and service to our country. 2nd I'd like to applaud your decision to go with pedalpower, that takes some guts, certainly in the day of electric everything. 3rd but certainly not least, the story combined with the biketour makes for excellent viewing, it was well documented and very interesting.