Cycling in & around Assen, North Holland, July 2009

 

The plan: To go and see one of the friendliest cycling cities in the world …

 

Eurostar now allows you to take your bike along with you but at £20 per bicycle, per trip, it can work out a hefty sum. On Belgian and Dutch railways the charge is about 6 euros per journey. For us it would have been £124 for our two bikes from London to Holland and back, so hiring bikes at the Dutch railway station on arrival was a cheaper bet for us. At 37 euros a week that’s exactly what we did with a child seat thrown in and helmets not even discussed. The bonus with hiring is that you’ll get a nice traditional Dutch sit-up-and-beg and so blend into the bicycle tapestry which is Holland – where there are no helmets or Lycra in sight!

 

Dutch bike shops do not sell helmets, not even for children, and you will not find racks of cycling specific clothing or any other fancy fad – that includes mountain bikes. Even in Halfords there is not a mountain bike to be seen, only Dutch style bikes. The Dutch and British Halfords bike shops could not be more different with the stock they hold and it would be a breath of fresh air if they had the same here – “seems like we like all fur coat and no knickers” while they are “belts and braces”.

 

We happened to arrive in Assen just as the Fiets-4-Daagse (Bikes for 4 Days) event was starting. It’s held each year in July and you can sign up to do various rides starting from 40KM+ around the Drenthe region. The 13,000 cyclists doing these rides ranged from children to senior citizens with everything in between. The one thing is you will never get lost even if you do not have a ride map as the fiestplan (cycle paths) are signed at all junctions with km to the next relevant towns in each direction. These are often found on a cute little mushroom at floor level.

 

The roads and cycle paths are of bowling green quality even when going into the countryside – could this be possible in Britain? Towns do tend to like a bit of Pave here and there but even that was quite acceptable. As a rule if the road is the width of two lanes you will have one centre lane for the two way motor traffic and a wide cycle path on each side of this central lane. Even on the N roads, which are like our A roads, the cycle path is quite often as wide as the carriageway.

 

We passed cycle path block paving repairs on the main road to Norg and the cycle path was diverted into one lane of the main carriageway with traffic control lights thus reducing the carriageway to one lane - this would be rarer than a UFO sighting in Brent!

 

As stated before mountain/road bikes/BMX/fixed wheeled bikes are a rarity, the main kind of bike being three speed or single speed sit up and beg made by Batavus, Gazelle and Sparta. There are a fair amount of families using Bobike or GMG child seats back/front and in between, and Steco buggy racks to carry the pushchair on the rear rack.

 

Older riders who have a walking stick carry these in a 2” tube which is strapped to the front fork for easy access - these cyclists have trouble walking but on a bike they glide along effortlessly! We also came across an O-Pair wheelchair bicycle with the wheelchair in front of the rider which detaches from the rear bicycle at your destination point. Hand cycles were also seen as well as cargo bikes of all shapes and sizes.

 

The rear bicycle rack is just another extra seat for your friend/boyfriend/mother/auntie/uncle/grandmother or child to sit on and chat to on the way into or out of town, nothing like a free ride. Everything possible is done by bicycle with the municipality workers all on bicycles too.

 

What about bike security in Holland? Nearly all bikes are fitted with a rear frame wheel lock - riders pull up, drop the stand, turn the key and push the locking lever down and off they go. Locking to an object is quite rare and D Locks etc even rarer still. Most cyclists use panniers of the Basil variety with them rarely removed from the bike rack – they come out of the shop, flip them open, load up and off you go. Talking about the shops, even in the inside malls cyclists take their bikes in and park outside the shop – do not think Brent X would be agreeable to that!

 

Bicycle parking can be a bit of an issue is some places because of the amount of bicycles they need to accommodate. All railway stations have parking which just appears full whenever you look at it – for example Groningen Station has an underground bike park which has bicycles as far as you can see. Main stations tend to have a bicycle shop attached and they quite often have inside parking with racking systems so as to accommodate double the bikes for each space. When we walked round one to have a look at Assen a suited businessman rode in and found a slot right at the beginning and by the look of his smile and gestures to us could not believe his luck.

 

When you walk around you see bicycles leaning and tucked into every alley and corner and who knows how many bicycles are actually abandoned. Cycling is such an established part of transport culture in Holland that the “broken bike effect” is an issue that warrants concerted response. We heard that some municipalities in Holland remove inappropriately parked, abandoned and damaged bicycles, but in Assen we saw plenty of forlorn bicycles waiting for their saviour.

 

We did a self arranged holiday staying at a hotel in Assen but you could also book a B&B, numerous campsites in the area or use a guided/non-guided tour with Hembrow Cycling Holidays in Assen.

 

When taking the train back towards Brussels to pick up the Eurostar do not look out of the left side windows as the train comes into Brussels Central Station – you may get an eye full of “working women”.

 

To finish, not everything has a bicycle on it as cycling is just like putting the washing out, not everything is orange as you might wonder, but they love cheese toasties with Gouda cheese – yum yum!