WORDS & PICTURES BOB DONALDSON Arrivée153Autumn2021
Living off the flat of the land
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a cheesy tale f dutch delight
WHILE WET AND WINDY, I was now familiar with the quiet road that led to Gouda which wound its way through the apple and pear orchards that lined the Ijssel. At one point I stopped, stooped down, and picked up a large, juicy and freshly fallen apple from the roadside. Autumn storms have their advantages! A quick circuit of the pretty town of Gouda (cheesy fact: twinned with Gloucester) and then on to the town of Delft just 40km further west. As you’d expect, it has a fair number of gift shops selling the distinctive white and blue crockery, but what really caught my eye was a huge cheese shop. After snapping a few touristy shots I headed north towards
Bob Donaldson was quick to volunteer to drive his son to a new job in the Netherlands in August last year – and equally fast to load up a bike, book two weeks off, and get ready for some serious time in the saddle in “cycling heaven”. Here’s his story of a 1,500km tour across a fabulously flat landscape – with cheese… lots and lots of cheese
Den Haag, passing a huge greenhouse, many kilometres in length, growing salad vegetables. The sheer scale and industrialisation of Dutch agriculture can take some getting used to. I skirted around Den Haag and several other towns until I reached Leiden on immaculate cycle paths. More cobbles, twee shops, an impressive church and then I was whipped out of the other side of the town and blown back across the pancake-flat land with neatly laid out, verdant fields, and back to Utrecht. At 151km it had been my longest ride of the tour so far, but had felt more like 200km because of the wind and rain. This had been my fourth day of cycling. On the first day I rode out to Amsterdam and back. It was just over 100km from my base in Utrecht and I was immediately impressed by just how easy it was to get around on bike: segregated cycle lanes ran parallel on both side of most main roads; crossings and intersections designed to give priority to cyclists, often changing to green as you approached. Truly I was in cycling heaven. The following day the wind had abated
