Judy tries trikes

Next week we have cycling holiday customers who asked for recumbent bikes to ride. They were delivered today so Judy and I took them for a test ride around Assen.

Most customers hire normal Dutch upright bikes from us. For the distances covered each day on our holidays they are ideal. We can organize many other types of bikes if given enough notice, and of course customers are also welcome to bring their own bicycles.

See it for yourself ! Drenthe by bike

We upped sticks and moved here from the UK because this is the best place in the world to cycle. There is no-where else with the number of cyclists that this part of the Netherlands has, and no-where else with such wonderful facilities for cycling. Assen, where we now live, is the capital of the "cycling province" of the Netherlands, Drenthe. Groningen, a few km North, has a higher cycling modal share than any other city in the world.

The weather in May is generally marvellous for cycling, and it carries on right through the summer. Last Sunday was an absolutely beautiful day. Our children rode with their friends to the beach, while Judy and I went out to plan a new route for our cycling holiday customers. We took a few photos and a bit of video while we were doing it. As ever, we barely saw any cars, and also as ever, there were thousands of other people cycling !

Come and see it for yourself on one of our cycling holidays.

We passed many cafes, pancake restaurants, and also you often find people selling things informally outside their homes.

In this case, an old bakfiets was parked next to a small country road, loaded with countryside produce.


A country estate on the route. This is the location of one of several museums on this route, and this location also has a petting zoo and a cafe.


This windmill still produces grain and oil in the traditional way. You can look around and buy the produce made in the window

You can also see it in the video.

Keep away from the fellow who owns an automobile

Judy and I went for a another great ride through the countryside yesterday afternoon and having heard this wonderful Irving Berlin song sung by Ada Jones (recorded back in 1909), I made a bit of video to go along with it. As I have mentioned many times before, it's always a pleasure to cycle here precisely because you get to "keep away from the fellow who owns an automobile" virtually all the time, as you do on all of our holiday routes.

As usual, we were in no hurry. Our holidays are taken at a relaxed pace.