In September 2024 I spent five days cycling in the Eastern Netherlands, mostly in Gelderland Province but with a couple of short incursions into Germany. I had booked a self-guided holiday with Dutch Bike Tours: they made all the hotel arrangements including baggage forwarding and provided detailed routes backed up with a road book (paper and downloadable versions) and gpx files for each day. The downloads were available in advance so I had the road books on my phone and the routes on my handlebar GPS. I cycled on my own – there were no other guests starting this trip on the same day as me. I took my own Specialized Diverge gravel bike rather than use a company-provided rental bike. They can also provide rented e-bikes.

Hotel breakfasts were included in the deal.

Getting there

Bike in back of car. Drive to Folkestone, le Shuttle to Calais, overnight in Calais (Holiday Inn, Coquelles), drive to start hotel in Doetinchem. The same in reverse for the return journey.

Day 1: 4 September

Route: Doetinchem to Nijmegen-Lent

Distance: 62km

Hotel: Van der Valk Hotel

Notes: Dull and damp when I set off, shortly turning to rain. Netherlands’ oldest windmill (15th century) in Zeddam; coffee at modern bakery at roundabout outside the town. Crossed seamless border into Germany just south of ‘s-Heerenberg, then crossed over Rhine bridge to follow elevated flood embankment. Rain stopped around 1pm. Continued along embankment, back into Netherlands, into Nijmegen, back over the river (here the Waal) to hotel.

Day 2: 5 September

Route: Circular ride south-east of Nijmegen

Distance: 54km

Hotel: Van der Valk Hotel

Notes: Dry but dull at first. Visited National Cycle Museum in Nijmegen. Followed pleasant and varied route through woods, villages and open countryside. Sunny and warm by the time I reached Plasmolen, a water-based recreational centre at the furthest south of the day’s ride, where I had lunch. Passing through Beek late afternoon stopped to visit the Kabouterboom, the Dutch tree with the greatest girth. Temperature now 28°. Arrived hot in Nijmegen centre – stopped for beer before returning to hotel. Evening meal in Osteria Pomodoro opposite the hotel.

Day 3: 6 September

Route: Nijmegen-Lent to Zutphen

Distance: 53km

Hotel: Hampshire Hotel ‘s-Gravenhof

Notes: Another varied and interesting route heading North via Arnhem. Thunder forecast for later so used faster and slightly shorter F325 express cycle route to Arnhem and coffee. Stopped further on at Rozendaal Castle for photos. Route then climbed onto the heathland of the Veluwezoom National Park. Stopped near the far edge of the Park at Coldenhove (a recreational resort) for frites lunch. Funfair had taken over Zutphen town centre. Dinner at De Revolutie restaurant. Thunder didn’t materialise.

Sidenote: Approaching Arnhem through the suburbs with a small canal on my right and a modern housing development on my left I spotted these street names: Bob Marleystraat, Bill Haleystraat and Elvis Presleystraat. I asked a random dog-walker about them but he didn’t know why.

Day 4: 7 September

Route: Circular ride north to Deventer and back

Distance: 43km

Hotel: Hampshire Hotel ‘s-Gravenhof

Notes: Another warm sunny day. In the morning I explored Zutphen centre on foot and visited the great church of St Walburga with its chained library of religious manuscripts and early printed books. Set off cycling at 1.30pm. Outward route on the western side of the Ijssel River, return route on the eastern side. Ice cream stop at Café De Kribbe. Visited working sawmill/windmill on outskirts of Zutphen; crossed river on foot-and-bike ferry. Reached village of Gorssel too late to visit the modern art museum MORE which specialises in modern realism. Dinner in hotel Brasserie.

Day 5: 8 September

Route: Zutphen to Doetinchem

Distance: 50km

Hotel: Villa Ruimzicht

Notes: My last day’s ride was another fine and warm day. It took me first east and then south back to my starting point in Doetinchem. Once again the route was varied and interesting, though today mostly through prosperous-looking farming countryside. I stopped in the small town of Vorden for coffee and applecake. My roadbook particularly mentioned Vorden Castle as being worth a visit and I’d seen a poster for it advertising a “British Weekend” on this day. It turned out to be a very big event: there were fields full of parked cars, exhibition gazebos by the dozen, cycle path diversion signs and security people at the entrance. I tried to pass through on the grounds of being British but I was politely but firmly told to follow the diversion signs which took me round the back of the estate. The castle stayed out of sight.

I didn’t want to get back to the hotel too early so I cycled slower and slower as the day went by. I managed to make the 50km last 3 hours and 18 minutes, and average moving speed of 9.6mph.

Bike and cycling notes

The quality of Dutch cycling infrastructure is legendary. The routes chosen by Dutch Bike Tours used exclusively the network of cycle routes between numbered nodes called ‘knooppunten’; at each knooppunt there are signs to the next accessible nodes in different directions. It’s possible to follow a route just by having a list of knooppunten, and indeed that was part of the road books provided. The signs are sometimes smaller and less comprehensive than the one in the picture and although in theory there are intermediate signs at non-knooppunt junctions this isn’t always the case, though a rule of ‘if in doubt go straight ahead’ is probably the best option. There are interactive websites and apps for smartphones which you can use to plot and follow routes.

I relied firstly on my handlebar gps which I’d loaded beforehand with the routes, and used the knooppunten as backup confirmation.

With almost no exceptions I cycled without interference from motor traffic. Main roads had separate cycle paths alongside. Minor roads in the countryside had either road markings or textured sides for cyclists; motorists respected these. In villages and towns cyclists can generally go where they wish and will be given priority by motor traffic unless road signs and markings say different. Otherwise the routes followed exclusive cycle paths (‘fietspad’) which could be hard surfaced (tarmac, concrete), gravel or hard-packed earth across country or through woods and forest, and very occasionally single-track mud or sand. Given the variety of surfaces I was glad I had taken my gravel bike with 40mm tyres and not my road bike.

The default Dutch bike has a built-in wheel lock and kick-stand and the default Dutch bike parking stand is designed to take one wheel (generally too narrow for a 40mm tyre), so bike parking at the hotels and elsewhere wasn’t always ideal. My advice is to take a good lock, use it whenever you leave your bike and try determinedly to find something solid to lock it to.

I only carried an emergency mini pump to get me going if I had a puncture (I was using inner tube tyres) but each of the three hotels I used had a track pump to lend guests. On one occasion, despite the pump having a dual connector I couldn’t get it to work with my Presta valves and lost a lot of pressure as a result. I topped up as best I could with the mini-pump. Bicycle shops will generally be happy to loan a pump; I didn’t check out whether petrol station pumps would work.

Finally

This tour was mostly in the province of Gelderland which has an official flag of three horizontal stripes of blue, yellow and black. I didn’t see this anywhere, but I did see many examples of another one – the one in the banner picture above. It was flying everywhere – on public buildings, in private gardens, at commercial sites. It is the flag of the Achterhoek, a cultural region covering much of Gelderland but extending into Germany. It even has its own language, Achterhooks, a branch of Lower Saxon. Wikipedia has a short article about it with links to further reading for anyone interested to know more. The flag-flying certainly left me with the impression that people in the region identified much more strongly with the Achterhoek than with Gelderland.