Last week of this big trip

The Randstad is the conurbation in south Netherlands containing almost half the population of the country in its cities and towns, including Rotterdam, Den Haag and Delft and lots of others. I stayed for 3 nights on what I consider to be a stereotypical Dutch place – a peaceful small-holding on a polder feeling very rural, with dykes and windmills, animals and crops, yet within easy 12-15km cycling distance of major urban centres. I didn’t pay for electricity, instead relying successfully on my solar equipment despite quite alot of overcast weather, so all this felt very simple and pared back. I was the guest of a very lively hare which entertained me in its mad jumping and darting way.

The impression I have of the city centre of The Hague was perhaps not done justice given my whistle-stop cycling through, but was unexpectedly quite a contrast with the beautiful Delft, which we had visited 15ish years ago when coming over in a previous campervan to support Luke in a racket tournament nearby. Whilst being a very lively sizeable town with many students, the latter’s historic centre is like a mini version of Amsterdam’s. The main square which banned car parking in 2004 is a cafe-sitting public space heaven. Cycling to this town was across more agricultural/leisure-amenity land and woodland past market gardening & logistics businesses and waterways. Delft photos:

Scheveningen is the ‘seaside’ for this conurbation, beautiful beaches and loads of cafe/relaxing locations.

 

 

 

I used bike + metro for a visit to Rotterdam’s centre which was as expected a bustling modern metropolis, its centre had been completely bombed in WWII. The architecture is an interesting mix.

For the last 4 nights I moved to what is an island just to the south of Rotterdam, although you’d have to really zoom in on the maps to see the water around it. The tourist bumf calls it ‘Voorne Putten’. Another beautiful area – cycling goes without question, waterway leisure provision, lovely little towns and villages and also North Sea beaches and impressive dyke/dam engineering. I chose this based on a youtube vlog of a bikepacking trip which recommended particularly the town of Brielle, and found a 4-star campsite with an ACSI rate of 23eu just a little ferry ride across the water or via the bridge a few kms away. The fortified small town of Brielle is lovely to visit, relax by its canals and watch the world go by. What’s so impressive is that the surrounding area of Rotterdam oil-refining and ports, which would be a hellscape in other countries is just across a beautiful canal from here, and you’d never know it’s there :).

 

As with Amsterdam, all these really heavy industrial spaces are in reality very close to urban living amongst nature. I think in the UK the equivalents are surrounded by miles of extensive no-access, ruined, unused no-man’s land.

 

 

A taste of this area:

So as well as trying to hold off physical aging with the bike and walking to toilet blocks, I have worked hard at building new neural networks to keep the brain plasticity going!! Driving here meant running the gauntlet again of Europe’s largest sea port motorway madness, although this was always needed to get to the Hook of Holland (or P&O Europoort) for my return journey tomorrow. But I have also done the learning curve of understanding the amazing and reliable numbering system of the bikeways here, and used the FietsKnoop app to plan my routes. I count myself no longer a novice at this.

After about 6 weeks, I am happy to be going back home to family & friends with other good things including campervan stays planned for the Summer.  The van has once again been fantastic as well as my bikes, England’s performance against Croatia was a definite improvement, and Andy Burnham’s win to hold off Reform – news in this very morning is great news for me. I am as ever thankful.