Bike trip in Zuid Holland

Yesterday was the day when I finally understood I am crazy. The nice was sunny and at around 5.30 I decided to go to the beach by bike. The beach in Katwijk is only 10 km from Leiden, so I thought it could be a nice ride. I took my backpack with my camera and a long-sleeved T-shit and I set off. I had decided this ride was for fun, so I was relaxed taking photos of windmills, canals and other pintoresque things in the countriside. Finally, I arrived at the beach. It was the first time I went to this beach and it was nice.



In this area, the beach is always surrounded by dunes. The landscape is quite nice with sand mountains with greenish colours due to the vegetation. Well, I found a nice road in the dunes! It was my opportunity to have fun with my bike! In a country where everything is flat, some up and downs can be fun!!



After 10 km, according to the panels, I was really near Wassenaar and the landscape changed. There were not any more dunes but forest with small "lakes" (maybe with salty water...).





I was really surprised when I found out I was near Scheveningen, the beach town next to Den Haag. After getting over from the surprise ;-) I decided to continue and visit the famous boulevard. Before, on my way there, I kept on enjoying the slopes in the road and going near the sea from time to time.




Finally, I got to Scheveningen and went around the famous boulevard for a while. Of course, I took a picture of the pier and the beach...



It was around 8 o'clock and time I started facing reality. Anyone living in Leiden knows Scheveningen is not so near the city. Besides, I checked my backpack and I didn't have food, drinks or even money!! And it was getting dark!! And if that was not bad enough, I didn't really know how to come back to Leiden...

I decided to make for Wassenaar using a different road from the one I used before, this time, as far as possible from the sea. After 8 km, I found and indication saying Leiden was 14 km away! Anyway, I was happy as I was in the right way!! The only problem was it was getting colder and I was exhausted and hungry. However, I had time for some extra shots:

- Have a look how clean Dutch canals are... yes, the canal is the wide green thing next to the bike lane.



- Some cows in a really Dutch landscape.



- And finally, a windmill in the outskirts of Leiden.



I arrived home a little later than 9, completely exhausted and starving... However it had been nice. What started as a quick visit to the beach, became a 40-50 km bike trip in Zuid-Holland!!