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A One Week Bike Trip in Holland

Day 3 - On the road to (Den Haag maybe?)

Route Map

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It was now about 9 AM so we headed over to the ANWB, a short distance away, to get the maps I'm looking for. We had to wait, since they didn't open 'till 9:30 AM. We did get the maps for the first leg of our journey (f35.70), then headed out of Amsterdam on our bikes.

The route we picked, along N5 and A6, bypassed most of Haarlem and took us straight to the sea, getting there a little after noon. (We had intended to take a shorter route down to Zandvoort, but somehow missed the turn.) We followed the bike baths down to Zandvoort, were we got lunch of hamburgers and such at a little seaside cafe (f9.00). There was little activity on the beaches, I guess because it was still earlier in the year, and the weather wasn't all that warm (though it was sunny.)

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Lunch by the sea

We headed south, though the dunes on the bike path, well away from any roads. There were lots of paths in the area, and it seemed like we had to consult our map every few miles. And there were no public toilets. Early afternoon we started to pick up a light rain, and it was getting windier and chiller as we rode. We stopped at a little store in Noordwijk to get some things to drink, and decide that this would be a good place to call it a day.

We located the VVV office about 2 PM and got some information about places we could stay. We used a phone to call the nearby hostel and found out was about 4 miles back, out in the country - we had ridden almost right by it. Before riding back though, Matt wanted to check out a "pension". We located it in town, and I asked to see the room, which was upstairs, with a communal bath, for f40.00. I thought we could do better at the hostel, so we headed on back up the road (and wandered around on more bike paths again, that is, we get lost.)

The hostel was crowded with noisy kids and a rough-looking bunch of adults. The manager, who was very nice, showed us a room, but I thought we would enjoy a pension more, even though it might cost a little more. So we headed back to town. In town, we called the place next door to the place we had first looked at. The cost was f50 plus tax (each) for a room with shower, toilet, TV. Since it was now about 5 PM, we took it. Like every room we had on the trip, it was up a narrow flight of winding stairs, which made it a little difficult to get us and our panniers up at the same time - we ended up handing them up to one another, one flight at a time.

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