Day 14

Day 14 Rutten-Harderwijk 120km

This morning I decided to take the long route - weather conditions forecasted to be favourable. The morning was overcast, cold and no wind - perfect for cycling along the dikes while listening to Les Mis. Reached Urk mid-morning and found haring (yippee! ). In the afternoon, the sun came out and so did the wind. And so did the humans. Did not realise it's a 'Sunday' here, so people are not working and shops are closed. In Elburg found more haring, but too many people. Reached Harderwijk in good time, as in the sun had not set 😅

Day 13

Day 13 Adorp-Groningen-Leeuwarden-Rutten 67km ride

It was easy to find my way in the morning from Adorp to Groningen - just follow the stream of cyclists. One last ride around town before taking the train to Leeuwarden, and then cycled down to Sneek and Rutten. The Friesland is famous for their cows, and some mooed at me while I was taking their picture. The day was sunny but cold, just a bit windy. I can't believe only two more days to reach Amsterdam.

Days 3-12

Oops I have been quite bad at updating the blog. Right now I am in Adorp, and cycled a total of 803km. 3 days left, and it has been quite an adventure so far. 

I spent a good deal of Day 3 at Keukenhof. Cycled to Leiden and took the train to Rotterdam, and cycled to Rottekade where I spent the night.

On the way to Rottekade.

Day 4 I made my way to Gorinchem, passing by beautiful Dordrecht. 

Bike on ferry crossing, one of many that I took during my trip. 

Day 5 was from Gorinchem to Eindhoven. It was very windy and raining. Midway at 's-Hertogenbosch, my tendon was swollen and it was raining pretty heavy. So I took the train to Eindhoven - good thing I did as later I heard it was quite a thunderstorm that afternoon. 

Resting at park in Eindhoven.

This has to be my most memorable day - day 6 from Eindhoven to Lanaken, Belgie. It was a long ride, mostly against strong winds. And I only reached my destination at 11pm!

Day 7 I cycled to Maastricht and around the town. Then took the train to Nijmegen, and cycled to Bemmel. 

Day 8 went from Bemmel to Deventer. I made some changes to my route after getting some recommendations from my hosts. Deventer is a pretty town, small and walkable, but I just cycled around it.

Day 9 I took the river route from Deventer to Zwolle, then made my way to Giethoorn. Lovely picturesque town, too many tourists in the day though.

Day 10 was spent cycling around Giethoorn and neighbouring areas, around 30km.

Day 11 cycled from Giethoorn up to Nietap, where I stayed by this big beautiful lake. 

Day 12 was spent cycling to Groningen and decided to park my bicycle and explore the town on foot. Good call - there was a funfair! Finally in the evening made my way to Adorp for a quiet night. 

Day 2 Schardam-Lisse

Got so lost that I overshot to Noordwijk. Did about 135km in all. Amazing changing scenery all the way.

First glimpse of the flower fields and more of that later during the ride. 

Day 1 - Amsterdam-Schardam 60-70km

Day 1 was full of wrong turns. Finally learned to read the signs, but even then missed it sometimes. The views were lovely though. No regrets in taking this adventure.

Vrienden op de Fiets member card arrived

And so did the map and guide book. Now I can really start planning the day-to-day route. Friend has advised on doing 1 day break for every 3 days cycling. On actual start location, Rebecca has made a different suggestion instead of Arnhem. Still in discussion... 

Campaign page is up!

I have setup the fundraising campaign page, and campaign starts on 3rd March 2015.


http://www.peoplegiving.org/web/guest/campaign-page?campId=144


My chosen charity is Teach for Malaysia, as it aims to provide education to high need students across Malaysia, which is something Malaysia sorely needs right now.

It all begins with a conversation

Telling a friend at work about my vacation plans to go cycling in the Noord-Holland region in the Netherlands around May 2015. Then he suggested doing a cycle for charity. Sounds like a great idea, since I will be cycling anyway, why not raise funds for my favourite charity while at it?

I started looking at routes and Netherlands is just full of cyclist-friendly routes. There are many themed routes readily available, designed to showcase the best of the country. The Tour of the Netherlands, or Ronde van Nederland in Dutch, is the ultimate cycle route for the holiday cyclist, promising 1300km of cycling fun. Sounds interesting, right?

The route starts at Arnhem, and follows the border around the Netherlands, passing Eindhoven, Den Haag (The Hague), Haarlem, Harlingen and back down to Arnhem. The plan is as follows:

• Travel Kuala Lumpur - Amsterdam
• Spend a good night's sleep in Amsterdam
• Pick up rental touring bike - Wheely Dutch Bike has offered me a great rate for bike and pannier
• Travel to Arnhem by train and start cycling
• Cycle for 2 weeks to complete the Ronde van Nederland
• Stop by Keukenhof to view the beautiful flowers
• If I can make good time, take the ferry to Texel or Vlieland
• End at Arnhem and train back to Amsterdam

For accommodation, I signed up with a Dutch organisation called 'Vrienden op de Fiets' (Friends on the Bike) that promotes active travel by offering cheap lodgings to people engaging in non-motorised travel. Membership is 10 Euros for overseas member (8Euros for the locals) and there are thousands of lodgings scattered around the country. I'm waiting for membership card, guide book and bicycle map to arrive sometime this month - very worth it!

Things to do in the upcoming weeks:

• Select a charity and set up a fundraising page - all funds raised will go directly to the selected charity - all costs for the trip will be my own expenses
• Book flight ticket
• Finalise day-to-day route
• Train! I need to get used to cycling up to 100km daily

Ride on....