Cycling in Belgium and the Netherlands

“Check it out. The flag is flying over the palace. That means the king is there,” one of our cycling guides from Trek Travel said as we rode up to the van, having completed our ride for the day in The Hague.

I was a bit flummoxed. Wait. Our hotel is here. And across the street, that’s the palace?

And it was. We were staying at the Hotel Indigo, and sure enough, directly across the street was a huge gate. Behind that gate was a palace. And according to the flag, the king was inside.

This palace, known as Palace Noordeinde, is one of three palaces at the disposal of the royal family. It is where the king’s offices are located. These are grand offices indeed.

Don’t worry, this missive is about cycling. I’m not headed down a rabbit hole on the history of the Dutch monarchy, but as an American, things like palaces that were originally farmhouses in 1533 are difficult to fathom. On the other hand, that’s part of the attraction of riding in Europe.

You get to see and experience close-up a continent where society has had much longer to evolve.

Cycling is King in the Netherlands

If this could be where American cycling is headed, there is reason for hope. Because in both Belgium and the Netherlands, bicycles rule.

I had heard about the unbelievable cycling culture in Amsterdam, but until you see it, step out of the way of the oncoming rush of riders along the street, and then ride those same routes, you don’t understand it. Now I do – or at least I’m getting it.

During a wine and cheese boat tour of the canals of Amsterdam, I asked the guide how deep the water is.

“Well,” he said, pausing for effect, “The standard answer is three feet of muck, six feet of water, and two feet of bicycles.”

He laughed at his own joke. But according to him, there are so many bikes in Amsterdam that a favorite sport for people who have overimbibed is to throw bikes in the canal. Men’s Journal once reported that 12,000-15,000 bikes are pulled from the canals every year by the city’s water authority.

It’s a kick to watch so many people riding bikes dressed in their work clothes. No helmet, scarves flying in the wind, and skirts and trousers fit for the office. One night, we saw two women in 4-inch heels riding in clothes that could only have meant they were off for a night of clubbing. On a bicycle. Maybe there is hope for society.

Tulips in the Netherlands

My wife Mary and I and friends Greg and Karen booked our trip with Trek Travel in early May, hoping to find the sweet spot when the weather was a bit warmer but the tulips would still be in bloom. We missed the tulip splendor by that much.

Tulip day started with a van ride to the Keukenhof Gardens. These are a must-visit attraction in the Netherlands. The gardens were in full bloom with more gorgeous varieties of tulips than you can imagine. It was rainy in the morning, but the overcast and drizzle gave the venue the feel of a living watercolor. We nailed the date for the gardens.

Not so for the fields surrounding the gardens, where we missed the show by about a week. If we had been there a bit earlier, we would have ridden through fields of blooming flowers as the tulip stock put on a show.

In full splendor, these fields – as large as cornfields at home- put on a matinee of red, yellow, purple, and orange as far as the eye can see. Instead, we saw only green, as the flowers had already done their thing for the season.

No worries, though. We had seen plenty of blooms and still had a 37-mile bike ride from Keukenhof along the North Sea and to The Hague, or Den Haag as it is pronounced by locals and tourists who are more in the know.

It was amazing to roll into that city and see all the colors and ambiance, then to arrive at the Hotel Indigo and realize that the palace was across the street. Talk about riding in high cotton.

Windmills in The Netherlands – Kinderdiijk

If you’re in the Netherlands, windmills are bound to come up. According to anyone with a basic knowledge of history, the Netherlands only exists because the enterprising Dutch discovered a way to pump water out of the wetlands using wind power, thus creating dry land upon which they could live. “God created the earth, but the Dutch created the Netherlands.” It was a quote we heard over and over.

That doesn’t change the fact that it’s still an engineering marvel. Not only that they did it, but that they did it with the small bit of technology available hundreds of years ago.

At Kinderdiijk, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, we saw firsthand how the new and old technology worked. Today, it’s all run by computers. Back then, it looked as if it was impossible.

It’s Just Different on a Bike

Our group of cyclists arrived at the site in a van, where we took tours of the windmills until we were completely bewildered. We learned about how they pump the water, and saw how entire families live inside them.

Then we got on our bikes and rode through the site, majestic windmills spinning around us, with a cool May breeze in our faces. That’s what makes bike vacations special. While other folks got on their buses and rode to the next stop, they did not have the chance to feel as we did, like we were a touch closer to the history and scenery, the difference, as I said, about riding in Alaska between watching something in a movie or being there in person.

Not fair to the bus crowd, perhaps, but the sensation all the same.

On to Belgium. Cycling in Brugge.

After the Netherlands, we crossed into Belgium on our bikes. The crossing sounds exciting, but there was no fanfare. Not even a guard asking for our passports. Our guide stopped us as we rode along one of the many beautiful canals in the region. “Take a picture, you are now crossing into Belgium,” he said. I remembered crossing into Canada from the United States on my bike ten years earlier and having to wait in line to show my passport. This seemed a bit less daunting by comparison.

On the other hand, we were riding beside a canal that took us straight into historic Brugge or Bruges, as it is often spelled.

A few words come to mind. Beautiful. Medieval. Beer. Waffles. Cobblestones.

“The Nazi’s refused to blow it up.” We heard this from multiple guides. The Nazis occupied Belgium during World War II. They were ordered to decimate everything as they retreated at the end of the war. However, Brugge, with its canals and central square, was so beautiful that the commanding officer couldn’t bring himself to do it.

I can see why.

The city is magnificent. From our downtown hotel, The Pand, we explored the city, which, according to Google, dates back to 1128. Its famous central square boasted shopping and restaurants mostly geared to tourists. But the energy was infectious.

Its Venice-like canal system made it feel even more quaint. Canalboat tours allowed us to see the city from the water, as swans floated in an out of our pictures as if on queue. Another welcome attraction – the famous Zot Beer brewed by De Halve Maan brewery, which boasts a unique 3.3 kilometer beer pipeline, transporting beer from the brewery to the bottling plant.

In early May the city was full of tourists, which we gleefully dodged on our bicycles as we made our way over the cobbles and through the narrow streets of the old city. Once again, I feel a bit snobby saying it, but it’s just better on a bicycle.

Brugge to the Atlantikwall (Atlantic Wall)

The highlight of our riding from Brugge was a 42-mile route to the Atlantic Wall Museum, which showed how the Nazi’s had dug in to protect the coastline from Allied attack during WW II. (There’s also a less well-preserved WW I museum there as well.) The day was chilly, and the wind was strong. My notes show that there was a headwind all the way back to Brugge.

But the site is memorable. This is not a bunch of foxholes. There are preserved bunkers that took us through an underground network of tunnels, showing radio rooms, living quarters, and heavy artillery installations. It remains as a small example of the German defenses stretching from Norway to the French-Spanish border that ensured the allied forces could not come ashore on the European mainland.

The cycling was typically flat. The elevation gain was a meager 169 feet over the 42 miles. But I remember thinking that hills are better than headwinds any day. (See my Strava data and more photos here.)

As interesting as the museum was, I was equally intrigued by seeing life in a small European country. As we rolled along in our group, we had to stop repeatedly for drawbridges. It was obvious engineers went out of their way to make them as beautiful as they were functional. I found myself wishing we would pay more attention to such cleverness in the United States.

A Brugge Bike Shop

I was in quest of a bike jersey to commemorate the trip to Belgium and found it a difficult proposition. With so many cyclists and Belgium’s reputation as the home of the most dedicated fans of world tour cycling, I expected a bike shop on every corner. It’s just not so.

With some searching, we found Exceller Bikes. A cool shop where you could get coffee, beer, bikes, Brooks leather saddles, matchbox-sized replicas of Wout van Aert, and yes, bike jerseys.

I gleefully took a jersey that said Flanders on it, and a van Aert replica to go.

Today, the tiny Wout van Aert models adorn the bookshelves in my office. It’s not that I’m a huge fan of the famous rider, but when in Belgium… Plus, he won a stage of the 2025 Tour de France, and I felt a bit smug knowing I was repping him a bit on my shelf.

Ironically, the shop owners told me that they rarely see pro cyclists in town because they hate riding on the cobbles!

Kudos to Trek Travel

This was our first trip with Trek Travel. We had done numerous trips with Backroads, while Karen and Greg had also toured with VBT Bicycle Vacations. So we were curious how Trek would stack up. Using Backroads as the bar, we found Trek to be its equal in every way.

The accommodations were wonderful. The restaurants were well selected, and the cycling route choices were as good as I could have imagined. Trek Travel provided three guides, who were funny, engaging, and knowledgeable. One, a former biological engineer, told us over beers that the interview process for this job was by far the hardest job-related thing he had ever done. He detailed the process that went on for days, as the company searched for weaknesses in his character and demeanor. We all have those, but when it came to our guides, none presented itself during our trip! These guys are real pros.

We all rode Trek Domane bikes, which were excellent. They came equipped with Shimano Ultegra Di 2 components. The bikes were perfect for the flat landscape we would be riding. If I had to guess, I’d say they weighed about 20 pounds. The ride quality was excellent – similar to the Pinarello Prince, which is my bike at home.

If you can’t tell already, I’m a bit snobbish when it comes to defending my choice of bicycling vacations over more pedestrian options. Mary and I have ridden through Zion National Park, Glacier National Park, and the epic Going-to-the-Sun Road, as well as through California’s Wine Country. In 2024, we rode across New York State along the Erie Canal, camping along the way. We also did a Backroads trip through Alaska.

Cycling is the way we choose to enjoy our time off. If we go to the beach for a week, we take our bikes. If we go to the family cabin in Vermont? Same thing. (By the way, if you’re in Vermont, you really need to ride the bike trails around Burlington and across Lake Champlain using the bike ferry to carry you the two hundred yards through the cut in the trail that permits boats to pass through.)

Cycling through the Netherlands and Belgium was an amazing and memorable experience – especially on a bicycle.

Want to see videos of our adventures? Click here.