#105 Amsterdam – Utrecht – Amsterdam = 98km

What can you do with two good friends and a weekend in Holland?

Of course, you can rent bikes (12 EUR for 2 days only, by the way) and cycle from Amsterdam to Utrecht and back. Only 98km in 2 days!

It’s easy, fun and great exercise! 😉

well, the story was..

We pre-ordered our bikes at Mike Bike Tour before arriving in Amsterdam, and following a tourist guide book on cycling routes in the Netherlands we just got on our bikes on the Saturday morning and hoped it will all work out well. And it did, despite the fact that the last time i was cycling was about 2 years ago. Not only Amsterdam but all country is a paradise for cyclists. Cyclist roads, road signs are so easy to follow that we rarely lost our way. And, it’s easy to cycle as the country is pretty flat, but, with a nice lovely, somewhat romantic at times, countryside scenery, it is a really enjoyable journey. You can cycle along the highways, but we chose the little roads through little villages passing farms and going through parks and forests. We did 46km on the first day and felt so great (excluding few painful knees and bums).

The next morning one of us did not want to cycle again (!!), but the other two did not want to give up so easily therefore democracy won and the compromise was reached: we will cycle only to the little town not so far from Utrecht where we can have a coffee and then take a train to Amsterdam. We got there much sooner than we thought and the cycling through the parks/ semi-forests freshened up us that eventually we all three agreed that we can continue further. Not all the way to Amsterdam, but to the next bigger town, from where we can take the train to Amsterdam. We got there so fast and it was already a half way to Amsterdam, when we realized that actually we can do it and cycle all the way back to Amsterdam. And we did it.

It was actually hard at times and sometimes you ask why you are doing this. But, once you complete it, it feels so great! 98km sounds a lot, but it’s not an impossible distance. Limits are in our heads only.

A friend from Italy just told me that there is a nice cycling route from Naples to Bari. Only 323km. I am thinking about this… 🙂

Price: 12 EUR for renting the bikes + accommodation in Utrecht;

Duration: 2 days but actual cycling was maybe 5 hours a day, not more. We were taking quite few coffee and photo breaks. 🙂

Amazingness: feeling proud of what you can achieve and complete, testing our limits – that’s amazing!

May 6, 2014