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Every year I go on a weekend ride with a group of guys/gals from my work, we travel to the destination on the Friday, stay on the Friday night do a well organised ride on the Saturday, after exchanging all our stories on Saturday night (over a few pints) we then ride back on the Sunday.
This year we went to the city of Groningen in the North East of Holland, much closer to home than our last couple of trips (in the Eifel region of Germany & Luxembourg) but a nice place nonetheless (even if it is lacking the hills).
I know this is more than a couple of weeks ago but I've just been too lazy to post it yet
On Friday 5th of June I set off from home and rode about 25 minutes to the house of a mate of mine (George), his house was on the route to Groningen so I picked him up.
Anyway after about a quarter of an hour riding we reached the afsluitdijk where there were some road works on the locks, luckily being bikes we just rode through the traffic jam to the front of the traffic.
Anyway the ride across the afsluitdijk was as boring as ever, it's one long causeway separating the sea from the ijselmeer (the largest freshwater lake in Holland) but the occasional sailing boat gave us something to look at.
On the other side of the causeway we started our trip around the south of Friesland (the place where the black and white cows come from (Friesians)) here is the route
Our route took us through several of the Frisian "cities" (these are small towns/villages in the north of Holland that had city rights in the past, which allowed them to maintain an army/navy which was very handy to defend against the many marauding enemies).
Our route took us along Makkum (an old fishing village) , then a couple of nice windy roads that took us to Workum. We rode further to Stavoren, we had to wait for the boats in the lock to sail by before we could continue to the “city” center. we stopped here for a coffee and slice of apple pie.
It was perfect timing we stepped into the cafe just as it started to rain, by the time we had finished our second cup of coffee the rain had stopped, the only rain we saw all weekend, perfect timing :thumbup:
We headed off and followed some nice windy roads to Sloten In Sloten the sun was shining once again and we continued our route towards Groningen, the place we were staying for the night.
We arrived at the simplon hotel, our hotel/hostel in Groningen about 5 O'Clock in the afternoon, and we were greeted by a group who had already arrived and were enjoying a beer at a long table in the front of the hostel. After carefully parking the bikes (the car/bike parking area was pretty cramped and we had to pack em in like sardines)
That evening we all had a nice warm buffet that the hotel/hostel prepared for us, and after that we went out into the centre of Groningen (a short walk) to sample a couple of the local beverages :thumbup:
We returned to sleep in our large hostel dormitory (our group had 2 of these), about 10 bunkbeds full of snoring guys, its a good job we all had earplugs with us
This year we went to the city of Groningen in the North East of Holland, much closer to home than our last couple of trips (in the Eifel region of Germany & Luxembourg) but a nice place nonetheless (even if it is lacking the hills).
I know this is more than a couple of weeks ago but I've just been too lazy to post it yet
On Friday 5th of June I set off from home and rode about 25 minutes to the house of a mate of mine (George), his house was on the route to Groningen so I picked him up.
Anyway after about a quarter of an hour riding we reached the afsluitdijk where there were some road works on the locks, luckily being bikes we just rode through the traffic jam to the front of the traffic.
Anyway the ride across the afsluitdijk was as boring as ever, it's one long causeway separating the sea from the ijselmeer (the largest freshwater lake in Holland) but the occasional sailing boat gave us something to look at.
On the other side of the causeway we started our trip around the south of Friesland (the place where the black and white cows come from (Friesians)
) here is the routeOur route took us through several of the Frisian "cities" (these are small towns/villages in the north of Holland that had city rights in the past, which allowed them to maintain an army/navy which was very handy to defend against the many marauding enemies).
Our route took us along Makkum (an old fishing village) , then a couple of nice windy roads that took us to Workum. We rode further to Stavoren, we had to wait for the boats in the lock to sail by before we could continue to the “city” center. we stopped here for a coffee and slice of apple pie.
It was perfect timing we stepped into the cafe just as it started to rain, by the time we had finished our second cup of coffee the rain had stopped, the only rain we saw all weekend, perfect timing :thumbup:
We headed off and followed some nice windy roads to Sloten In Sloten the sun was shining once again and we continued our route towards Groningen, the place we were staying for the night.
We arrived at the simplon hotel, our hotel/hostel in Groningen about 5 O'Clock in the afternoon, and we were greeted by a group who had already arrived and were enjoying a beer at a long table in the front of the hostel. After carefully parking the bikes (the car/bike parking area was pretty cramped and we had to pack em in like sardines
)That evening we all had a nice warm buffet that the hotel/hostel prepared for us, and after that we went out into the centre of Groningen (a short walk) to sample a couple of the local beverages :thumbup:
We returned to sleep in our large hostel dormitory (our group had 2 of these), about 10 bunkbeds full of snoring guys, its a good job we all had earplugs with us
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