04.03.25 Early spring ride in the Netherlands

Naarden - Vinkeveen - Breukelen - Naarden, 73km

Time to revive my cycling - and my cycling blog.

Due to circumstances we ended up in the Netherlands unplanned for a while. And the weather was so beautiful that it became tempting to start the cycling season. I have some ambitious plans for the summer, and starting to build up some basis seems like a good idea.

The mornings are still quite chilly (with night frost), so I started after lunch. While there are no leaves on the trees yet, the meadows are green and flowers are coming.

I wonder about the extreme concerns about safety. When there are road works, to guys are directing traffic, even on quiet roads. I saw this in Japan some years ago, now it is the same here. Is that really necessary?

Moving on through the beautiful Dutch landscape. The Netherlands are really beautiful, maybe easier to see when you don't live there. And on a wonderful day like this. And on a quiet mid-week day. Some advantage of being (somewhat) retired.

In the vicinity of Niewer Ter Aa

In this area I also had a nice rest on a bench in the sunshine. Thinking of the snow at home.

Also close to Nieuwer Ter Aa

Typical Dutch way to keep the willow trees along the canals

Crossing the A2 - this is also the Netherlands. The motorways are never far off

And then crossing the Amsterdam-Rhine channel by bike ferry. I've crossed this channel numerous times, there are quite a few bridges. But the ferry was a first time. Even free! 

More flowers along the road (in a park, in fact)

Almost home after a great bike ride in early spring

Coming home, my new Ortlieb frontrunners have arrived.
Now I really start to be prepared!

Statistics:

73 km, total time 4:45, active time 3:58 which gives a moving average of 18.1km/h. No ascent to mention.