In this Pedal to parkrun community post, Julia Locherbach tells us all about her cycling adventure around the Netherlands to finally complete her alphabet, sharing lots of helpful information for anyone planning something similar…
As the saying goes “third time’s a charm” and that was the case for me completing Zuiderpark parkrun. It took three planned cycle tours for me to finally visit the event with its strangely shiny sports centre.
The run came at the end of a week’s worth of cycling through the Netherlands which started with another parkrun (Kralingse Bos in Rotterdam) to make it worth my while. This post details some of the logistics of how I did this and of course, some info on cycling in the Netherlands.
Rotterdam and Kralingse Bos
To make things “easier” I had decided on taking my Brompton folding bike. I say “easier” as that complicates on-bike luggage options and it’s not nearly as comfortable as a proper touring bike. But as Eurostar currently don’t take full-sized bikes and I was sort of locked into taking it, this was a sensible option. Why was I locked into taking the Eurostar? Because I had booked several trains during the pandemic and they now have a policy of not giving refunds. Instead, you can change your trains free of charge up until 7 days before departure. Since I had this one-way trip to Rotterdam, I figured I had to use it at some point.
At security, they didn’t’ even flinch when I turned up with my Dimpa-packaged bike and sent me straight to the line with the larger scanner. In Rotterdam I had booked into a hostel as I arrived late on the Friday evening. Interestingly, cycling through Rotterdam city centre at this time is not for the faint-hearted as there are lots of cars and people in various stages of drunkenness about.
The next morning, my first action item was to cycle to Kralingse Bos parkrun. It was a gorgeously sunny day and in the daylight and early weekend morning traffic, things looked a lot better. Luckily, I remembered that parkruns start at 9am in the Netherlands, so I was there in time. I had a chat with a few of the volunteers and quite a few of them are actually from the UK, so it was not an issue to have the run briefing in both Dutch and English.
The parkrun is a lovely loop on tarmac through a big park with lots of trees (bos = forest). Confusingly, there were lots of people in running/fitness groups which always makes we wonder why they chose to do this instead of a free 5km. The local volunteers said they have tried to recruit people and handed out flyers but not with much success. Having said that, there were quite a few first timers at the event, so there’s hope for parkrun yet.
After the event, I could not stay for the café visit as I had to check out. And so the cycling part of the holiday began!
Pedal to Zuiderpark parkrun
The Brompton’s disadvantages were manageable for what I had planned. Its 2 gears are adequate for the Dutch “hills” and distances weren’t that big, so taking frequent breaks was absolutely fine, if not positively encouraged. And a pannier on the handlebars plus a rack bag were enough to hold my luggage for a week’s cycling (mainly clothes and food).
I roughly followed a loop in South Holland, linking the LF Maasroute, LF Kustroute and LF Waterlinienroute (LF = Landelijke Fietsroute = national cycle route). I have maps of all the routes and they have the fietsknooppunten marked as well which help you easily navigate. As I prefer a belt and braces approach, I had also created the estimated daily routes in Komoot and transferred them to my Garmin watch, so I could fall back on that. That system worked fairly well and I never actually got lost!
For accommodation I stayed with a member of Vrienden op de fiets wherever possible. This is an awesome service – similar to warmshowers but established in the 1980s and mainly in the Netherlands. You pay a yearly membership of 10 Euros and that gives you access to a website with addresses of thousands of hosts. One night for bed and breakfast costs 25 Euro (price updated once a year). Depending on when you go (i.e. not in the holiday season or around public holidays) you can call a potential host on the day and reserve a bed for the same night. Note: it helps if you speak a little Dutch, especially in the so-called Bible Belt as not everyone speaks English
The weather was very kind with one exception which happened to be the longest day with over 90km. The long distance was partly due to trying to find a café that was open and would provide an opportunity to dry off – my paper maps and also Google maps listed 3 in a row that turned out to be permanently closed. I finally managed to find one in a council swimming pool where I spent a few hours until I felt ready to face the rain again (which had eased by that point). Luckily, all other days were either sunny or at least cloudy although the wind can be a hindrance even when it’s supposedly a tailwind.
I completed my loop on the Friday by arriving in Den Haag at a hostel that I had pre-booked as I knew I would definitely be there. I was early enough to explore the city a little bit and chanced upon a great ice cream parlour where they were queuing out the door. After 15 minutes I was rewarded with this:
The next morning I cycled the 2.5km to the Zuiderpark and finally got to do the Z parkrun! As it happens, I met someone from my running club who happened to be in town to visit their partner who works in Den Haag! There were various other people from Scotland – it’s a small world! Again, I couldn’t stay for the café afterwards although that was combination of the regular café not being available that day and my timetable.
The journey home
I had to go back to the hostel to quickly check out and then head to Escher in het Paleis, the MC Escher museum. This was my second visit and it was even better than the first time – I highly recommend it. To commemorate the visit, I bought something that kept me entertained for 2 weeks:
After the museum, I took the train to Amsterdam – I bought a ticket for my bike (6 EUR) even though I could have theoretically folded it and taken it on as luggage. But the bike plus two bags was a bit much to carry. Similarly, when I arrived at the ferry in Ijmuiden, I upgraded from foot to bike passenger. The overnight ferry to Newcastle-ish is a very convenient way to travel, if not the cheapest if you have to book a double cabin for one person.
At the other end, I cycled the 14km to the train station – a trip I have done several times now and that bit of NCN 72 along Hadrian’s Wall is a little piece of decent cycle infrastructure in the UK (apart from the masses of broken glass and the hills which were not all suitable for the little fully-laden 2-gear folder).
The final leg of the train back to Scotland was the least successful as multiple trains were cancelled, including the one which took me to Edinburgh – probably why it was so empty…