Cycling Across the Netherlands | Netherlands Riding Days of our Rome-London BikePacking Adventure

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Want to travel Europe on a budget? Want to ride bikes in the cycling capital of the world? The Netherlands is a great country to explore by bicycle, even for beginner cyclists! If we can do this, you can do this!

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Do you want to explore Europe on a budget? Do you want to ride bikes in the cycling capital of the world? The Netherlands is the land of bikes, canals, and flowers, and is the easiest place to bike tour for beginners. There are so many bike paths. The land is pretty flat, and there are so many cute towns. The people are extremely nice, the history is very interesting, and the food is wonderful. This video is the Netherlands portion of our four month Rome to London bike packing adventure. We spent nine days in the Netherlands and six riding days. If we can do this, you can do it. [Music] Well, that might be the border. See the L in L. Look, our first That’s the roof. That one That one needs a little work on the on the cut. Oh, one garage door is higher than the other. And look, there’s the Husqavarna. Yep. The mower. That’s hilarious. There’s our friend. So, we got to Netherlands and now we started to see windmills. This one, I guess, isn’t really working, though. Welcome to Prone to Wander Europe Bike Tour. We’re in the Netherlands. Uh, it’s Thursday 13th of July. We’re heading to Shunhav, which is halfway between here and Amsterdam. I think it’s about 55 kilometers, so longer than our usual 43. Um, we had some kalachis, our first kalachis we’ve seen yet. They weren’t as good as the checks do. Um, at any rate, we’re about to head out of our nice little camping place. We’ve been trying to figure out all morning what do we do with our bikes when we’re in Amsterdam because we’d like to take a trip to Dusseldorf if possible. So, we think we found a place in Harlem. It’s not rated very highly. Sounds like our kind of place. Usually a hookah bar is involved somehow. We’ll see. [Music] We got in some rush hour traffic, didn’t we? That was hilarious. It’s crazy this morning traffic. We got stuck with comfortable. I think about 25 or so kids on bicycles were in a gaggle in the pelaton. It’s crazy. [Music] Wow. You want to trade? No, I don’t recommend it. Well, is this a good time, Susie? Is that fella going to pass this with this little kid in the front? [Music] [Music] Oh, stop. [Music] [Music] Betta Breida, right? Sure is beautiful still. Have we seen a hill yet? No. I think there was one by that parking lot that was a little flip. We must have a leak. had some interesting things today and we’ve had some not so interesting things today. Riding by this auto stress would be in the not so interesting category. [Music] [Music] Well, we stopped at that nice little place and the fella said, “Oh, you’re taking the ferry to Shun Haven.” I said, “Huh?” So, I guess we’ll find out in a little bit. I don’t want to move over to it. I’m just kind of going north. I was just thinking, I sure like this little piece of grass between us and the cars. I feel so much safer. Crazy like that. So, we continue on the long path. It’s interesting. At least we have interesting windmills occasionally. Haven’t seen one turning this one a little bit. [Music] I know. [Music] I need to learn about Limbs. They usually have these other contraptions kind of going up to the top. So, seems interesting. [Music] Oh, hello. This is beautiful Netherlands. We haven’t seen one of these windmills turning yet. [Music] I guess we do go on the ferry. Hello. I guess we do go on the ferry. [Music] Do we wait here or back there? I don’t know. You don’t know either? You’re touring. Come through here. Hopefully. So, this is the river le or ze ze I think it is. All right. And here’s the campground. But look at the area for the tents. Is this green patch right here under this beautiful tree overlooking this beautiful little beach? Woohoo. Doing her I just rode bicycles from Rome routine. Where did you come from? Oh, just down the road. That sounds so exciting. That’s what she’s doing, you know. And then I’m from Texas. Cowboy hat. That’s what she’s doing. Bye. At this beautiful place. This is uh Shunhaven Shun Shunhovven. It is just really beautiful. I guess this town is known for what? Silver smiths. Look at this restaurant down here on the water. Ain’t that fun? And this is a lock. I don’t guess they’re used anymore. Beautiful church tower. We’re going to keep touring this little town. We just finished dinner by the water. These little little water little features in the water. Art We’re just doing more touring of this beautiful town. some place. He Surprise. Anyone? Welcome to Prone to Wander Europe Bike Tour. Good morning. I hope it’s Saturday the 15th I think of July and we are in Shunhovven. Hovind, Netherlands. We’re leaving this morning. I’m in my pajamas. It’s still 10:30. That’s a nice morning. Um, at any rate, we’re riding about 42 kilometers today. Going close to Amsterdam, staying at a Welcome to my garden. Just getting ready. You can see the tent over there. You see right there? Look at that big You see the big boat passing right behind us? Tell me that’s not kind of incredible. We’ve had these passing oh every two or three minutes. They’re very quiet. Um they create quite the quite the wake. So we’re excited because we get to take a little side trip to Dusseldorf. Um, the wind’s blowing probably 30 mph from the south due north. Hot dog. Temperatures probably 70. It’s a little chilly. All right. So, Susie does on Saturday she does our tallying of figures. those are averages for cost per week, miles per week, rest days per week, how many hotels versus tent she’s been doing this morning. Maybe she can give you a little heads up on what she’s been working on. Hi, I was just doing some averages in my little book. Um, this week we did 245 km. Um our lowest number in a week was one week we did 81 km and our highest number was 274 km which is equal to 170 miles that we did in one week and that’s crazy. Um for expenses we still average $156 a day. We’ve had a low of about $100 a day in one week and then we’ve had a high of $259 a day for one week. But anyway, we’re doing good. Look at this fellow doing his remote control trailer. So, he’s using an app on his phone and there’s two little motors that attach to one that attaches to each wheel and has a little spindle that pushes against the wheel. I mean, he steers it back in with his phone. He would ever find these little paths if they didn’t have a computer program. I don’t think it’s possible. Look how pretty this is. Look at this backyard in the Netherlands along a canal. Look how gorgeous. We have planted all of these hydrangeas and some of them have ducks swimming in the little canal. So cute. So, this is the route that Kimoot’s taking us on today. Nothing like what we expected. Beautiful thatched roof homes and hydrangeas everywhere. Just not at all what I expected next to this little canal. Gorgeous. Oh no, they’re calling their names. Yeah. Yeah, they’re calling their names. Where’s everyone going? We’re getting home. Oh, from where? guys. Wow. [Music] All of the bicycles. Look at all of the bicycles. Where did we go here? [Music] I’ll just tell you that the bike routing has gotten exponentially more difficult. [Music] So, we’re trying to figure out what to do the end of our trip in the UK. We have no idea. We have to meet my daughter in Oxford, then we go to London for a few days, and then we have 10 days at the end, and we don’t know what to do. If you have any ideas, put them down in the comments below. this little park privately owned. I’m not sure. There’s some kids swimming in the water with some treats from the little pink area. But man, it is looking dark back there and coming this way. So, we’re going to course it’s 15 km, so we’ll never outrun it. But we’re going to try to make ourselves feel a little better, like we’re doing something useful. Wow. So, 30 minutes ago, this storm system was not here. It just came rushing in off the coast, and I think we’re going to get wet. Bye. Feel like I’m in Kansas. [Music] Yeah, it got windy. I’m going to go in front of you. Okay. Okay. Think we found the rain. Yep. You’re right. Hello guys. [Music] Hello there, turkey. I got a lot of pokes on my legs. How about you? Okay. I’m sure this is fine. A gate? I don’t see a gate. Here’s the gate. It’s already open. What? This is the gate. What are you talking about? It’s right here. No, it is not. Yes, it’s just open. No, Susie. So, do we keep going straight or we turn left? Looks like a green yard. Okay, this is where you can place your tent. Oh man, I got lots of those spines in my thigh in my shoe. My foot. Ouch. I should have just kept writing, but I got nervous. I couldn’t see him. Um, so it gets real skinny. Watch those pokey things here on the side that just jabs your back. How do we do this? That’s hilarious. And where should we go? Here’s the barn where you can find electricity. Mhm. That’s fun. Park here between the apple tree and the beautiful hedge underneath this shade. What do you think? Oh, that’s awesome. Well, it’s a lovely spot. We’re going to be medium soggy. Look at all the apples. These are both apple trees and there apples everywhere. Well, we just put the tent up. 30 minutes later. This is the This is what we look like now. 30 minutes later. Seriously, yours is better than mine. Here we are on a Sunday morning, 9:20. for a bus that we hope is going to come. First time on the highway in 3 months. Literally on the highway in 3 months. [Music] Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey, [Music] hey, hey. Heat [Music] [Music] [Applause] up [Music] here. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Good morning. We’re waking up in our lovely tent. There’s my lovely wife. Um we’re still in Amst Hook. Amst Hook right on the Amstel River. We are starting our journey again. We’re heading toward the Hook of Holland. We go 30 kilometers today. um to Leiden to Leiden where we have a hotel room again tonight. Um our tent’s a little bit damp. We’re going to get some rain today. It’s the way we like it, you know. Um I think it’s all flat and it’s supposed to be a high of 62 or three today. So, it’s probably in the mid50s right now on July 22nd, maybe. I love Isn’t it amazing that Susie has all the details? All right. Goodbye, Amster. I just show you. I’m going just show you what this looks like on my GPS. It’s kind of crazy. You see that? That’s all the uh canals off that main canal. And then here down here is the river. That crazy. Susie’s getting her GPS going. Goodbye, Apple Tree. All right. M still hook River or Mel River. Hello. We kind of miss our dog Cap. This little old fella. Hundry old fella. It’s a little bit blustery today. Isn’t that pretty? I don’t think they usually have that little artistic thing on the side, do they? a boat going under. Yeah, we’re going straight actually. Not not across. So, let’s just go. I’m pretty sure they’re not going anywhere. our route today. So this is our route today. In case we need to cut back along the Amstale still river still a tall wooden boat back there had a huge mask on it. Wonder what the history of these boat says. You [Music] huge hydroponics plant. Wonder what they’re growing in there. We have an acquaintance who lives over Troy who’s in charge of a water pumping system with a huge new plant in Temple, Texas. He was from the Netherlands. Murphy learned how to do his work here. So, I think we’ve learned our lesson here that you must grow peppers in those plants, hydroponics. [Music] close fell. I noticed. [Music] They’re going around going on. And uh the wind is coming from directly where that church is over there, which appears to me be exactly where the rain was. We’ll see. Entering light in here. I think we just have a few more kilometers to go. Um, it’s kind of a more modern city at this part. Anyway, it’s a university town, I guess. I met a lady at a restaurant a moment ago. She said her son lives here and it’s cool. We’ll see. [Applause] We are tree. Well, here we are in Leiden. Wearing our least used clothes in search of a laundromat. Uhoh. I’ll get it for you. Wonder if somebody was trying to steal them. Okay, it’ll take me a minute. [Music] I’m ready when you are. I know. I got to figure out. Oh, figure out where to go. I got mic back. Find a place. Hi I need [Music] but but it doesn’t have a gear. So if the wind blows this is slower than than the mills for an example slows down and is it still engaged or did you disengage it? Now at the moment it’s disengaged because it is not connected. The staves are not in between the the teeth. Right. But the it stopped turning. Was it just because the wind died down? Yeah. I don’t know why the No, the metal had one reason. Perhaps you wanted to reduce the the amount of sails because the wind is not um consistent. Yeah. Consistent. It fluctuates. So then he’s a little bit uh Yeah. Released again. Yes. And what is this one? Well, this is the brake system. Um, so in order to to be able uh to lift all this to to make um the opening here of a few millimeters, yes, it takes a of course a lot of uh high force. Yes. And that can be done by um this changes. So here you have to change. So this is the brake meter and this this is the brake. Yeah. Yeah. This is the brake system. These parts of white hood. Yeah. Yes. They are all around, right? It’s a drum brake. It’s a drum brake. Yeah. Mhm. The car industry took it from the middle. I bet. Mhm. 168600 already. So this I think my feet are too big for this job. Works better to have some smaller feet. It’s a bit uh angulated. Yes. Yes, that’s right. Okay. So it’s evolving. He told us they could adjust the rate of spin by adjusting the sails. The sails are actually material just like a sailboat. You could adjust those, but you had to do it manually. Stop the whole mill. Roll up the sail. Sunday, July 23rd. We ride about 35 km today from Leiden to the Hook of Holland where we’ll catch a ferry tomorrow. That’ll be the end of our EU experience. Head over to the UK for another month. Um, and today we have 26 mph winds in our face and about a 50% chance of rain. So, welcome to the Netherlands. What a beautiful place. This is the hotel. This is the bike storage area. So, there you have it. First step is always the hardest, isn’t it, Susie? Yeah. I think it’s [Music] We can just drive a little bit and then if it doesn’t like the direction we’re going, it’ll tell us. I think we’re supposed to go this way, but it was now. Okay, that’s okay. [Music] Yep. I think it I feel some mist in my face. Okay. Do you want to maybe get I don’t You’re behind me and I don’t know what to do. They’re beside me or something. left. Pardon me. Okay, we’re curing. We’re definitely not racing. Okay. Do you feel the mist? Not yet. No. Right there. We have quickly descended into our favorite traveling weather. How you feeling on your last last day in the EU? I can’t believe it’s uh we’ve been gone this long. I’m proud of us for getting this far. I’m ready to see some new land. And I’ve been wanting to see England my whole life. So, I’m excited. Are you going to miss the German language? No. I’m not very good at that. It’s hard. How did you feel like your your language acquisition progressed during our stay? I makes me wish that I had done more language study before our trip, but I can get by. Yeah. Yeah. And uh I can’t think of anything else to say. Okay. Okay. Bye. Just another day in the Netherlands enjoying the precious dew drops from heaven. Wish we had some of these in Texas. Well, we are on the outskirts of the HEG. I don’t know enough about it, but International Criminal Court like that. So, that’s where we are. [Music] went as fast as I can. I think these are the dunes that separated us from the the ocean. Any idea which ocean this is, Susie? Huh? North Sea, I think. North Sea. Okay, let’s see. So, I suspect this is one of those walls that they built and then pumped the water out to claim land. Yeah. Okay. After these ladies Well, we have been fighting this wind since the moment we left the hotel. It was really windy. [Music] There it is. Sounds great. Thank you so much. Something, please. All right. Sounds great. Thank you. Have a nice day. Nice to meet you. Look what you have done. I did do that. There’s a whole family of ducklings. You’re not nice. No, you’re not nice. Are they going to get in the tent? Shoot. Shoot that ball soon. Okay, we’re coming to you live from the beach at the Hook of Holland. It’s 65° with a wind of about 65 kilometers an hour. Netherland people are they’re tough life. Well, t’s coming in. Our body temperature is going down. Time to go [Music] adding I think just 3 km to the ferry and it’s a little bit sad. We have a relaxing morning. So anyway, it’s been so fun. Anything to say, Susie Q? I’m hoping the fair is not very rough because cuz I get seasick in the driveway going backwards sometimes in a raft. [Music] There’s a poop on the road again. So people that will have dogs don’t have to pick up their poop. People that have horses, well, it’s just fertilizer. [Music] That’s where we’re going. I think that’s our ferry right over there. Susie, um, I’m not sure which one we’re going to. [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Look what we have. Nice little bedroom and a window. [Music] Our own bathroom and a shower on a boat. Wow. [Music] kind of seems And ho, there’s the UK. [Music] Thank you so much. Enjoy. Have a safe trip. Thank you. Thank you.