Bike The Netherlands

Boarding between 3 pm and 4 pm. We'll go for a short demo ride to get familiar with the bikes and cycle paths. After dinner, our guide will go over the next day's itinerary and the rest of the week.

We leave Amsterdam early in the morning. We'll take a ferry to the Amsterdam's North quarter where we'll be cycling through the rural area of Waterland.  We'll then visit the former isle of Marken.  Marken can only be visited on foot or on bike. The route continues to Monnickendam.  We continue our way along the Gouwzee dike to Volendam.  From Volendam we sail north to Hoorn where we'll go for an evening walk.

We continue our ride with a wonderful view over the Markermeer on our right and West-Frisian villages on our left-hand side.  The trip for today ends in Enkhuizen, a town which came into existence when two adjoining villages merged. We'll end our day with a visit to The Zuiderzee Museum which shows the history of everyday life around the Zuiderzee until the middle of the 20th century.

Today's ride starts on the IJsselmeer dike and is then left behind to go through a nature reserve and some typical West-Frisian villages. Then Medemblik comes in sight, the oldest city of West-Friesland (1289). At Medemblik we get on board and sail the IJsselmeer and Wadden Sea to the isle of Texel.

The isle of Texel, which is one municipality, is the largest of the Dutch Wadden islands. Texel is 12 miles in length and approximately 5 miles wide. Texel is highly appreciated by bird-watchers. In springtime about 80 different types of birds breed here, mainly in the dune areas, but all in all about 300 different species have been sighted on Texel. A tour around this island with its numerous cycle routes is well worth the effort. You can choose between round trip routes of 22, 30 or 39 miles The guide will cycle the 22 miles.

The ship takes us back to the mainland to the city of Den Helder, the Dutch naval port, situated at the mouth of the Noord-Hollandskanaal.  Today’s route takes us through the dunes. We pass by the unique nature reserve Het Zwanenwater, with its lakes and boggy hollows in the dunes. A little further we cycle on the Hondsbossche Sea Dike, with a spectacular view of the North Sea. We enter the area of the Schoorl Dunes, where we will find the highest dunes in the country. During the last century many pine trees were planted here so now it is a rather woody region. Bergen is an artists’ village which attracts many painters, writers and architects. Our destination for today is Alkmaar, also called the City of Cheese. Its weigh-house was the first in the country for weighing and trading of cheese.

The last stage of the week takes us through the ‘droogmakerij’ land with the 17th century towns of Schermerhorn, Graft and De Rijp. In Zaandam, we will visit the world famous hamlet and open air museum of Zaanse Schans. A unique place where people live and work, with original houses and windmills from the river Zaan area.  The last stretch of the trip takes us through the Twiske, recreation area, where you may have the option of going for a swim.  Once we are back at the barge in Amsterdam it is time to turn in our bikes. In the afternoon there will be some time to go into town. After dinner, you may want to finish off your trip by going on a city walk or taking a trip on one of Amsterdam’s canal boats.

Amsterdam, end of the trip after breakfast.