Summer in the city brings about more possibilities and one of the nicest things we did on a visit to Amsterdam was to spend a half day cycling into the surrounding countryside. The Netherlands is pretty ideal cycling country, in my view, as it’s flat so it’s great for us who simply want a leisurely ride and not the Tour de France. So we joined a guided group and headed out.
We chose a ride out to the Waterland area north of Amsterdam, which is around a 35 km return journey. There are other bike companies that may offer tours to other sites. Most of the itineraries sound like a lot of fun so it’s up to your personal choice. The only part of the ride that may be a bit uncomfortable for some was the ride from the city centre to the wharf where we took a free ferry over the IJ. Once on the north side of the river, the area is much less built up and with a lot of greenery so there’s minimal issue with traffic or crowds.
The Waterland is so called because of the preponderance of water in this area. Much of it is grassland but there are historical villages and idyllic pastoral scenery with grazing cows and sheep.
We stopped at a very picturesque village – Ransdorp. The village church tower was built in the 16th century but never got its spire due to a lack of funds. We climbed up to the top of the tower where there are great views of the whole area.
Next stop was Durgerdam, an old fishing village. We had lunch at the De Oude Taveerne, which has a great bar with a beer tap that goes back more than 100 years. There are terraces out over the water with dining tables as well.
On the way back to Amsterdam we passed through Schellingwoude, another historical village. We didn’t stop but from the looks, this would have been a nice place to take a look.
From hereon we were almost back to the city – hopping back onto the ferry and over to the urban masses. This was a great way to see the Dutch countryside if you have limited time. While we joined the Yellow Bike (website is http://www.yellowbike.nl/en/) company for this tour, it’s actually not too difficult to do a self ride. And if there’s more time, a full day could take you to Edam, home of all the cheese. By the way, if you’re looking for windmills, there were a few we passed by.