Heeeey guys,
Welcome to the third chapter of our tour! 🙂
Day 3
Goodbye Rotterdam!
Breakfast time, crying time. I don’t know why but we never get used to English breakfast. We’re grown up with Cappuccino and Brioche or Latte/Tea and Biscuits and the very idea to eat an egg or some beans at 7.00 am kills us. But it’s okay, to travel is to discover new thing, new people, new culture: okay we’re jocking, we found bread and marmelade 😀
Before to leave Rotterdam we wandered around and again, the first thing you can notice is multi-culturalism.
We have a lot to learn from Rotterdam: about one third of its inhabitants is of foreign origin and the mayor is from Marocco. We can say that Rotterdam is one of the most multicultural city or maybe the first of holland and this is due to his port, one of the most important in the world.
We saw a lot of Feyenoord’s flag in the city and we remembered that the society has here.
For a casuality we watched a video on facebook that speak about the winner of the Eredivisie title: The Feyenoord! Wow, that was the day before we reached the town! After 18 years they won the title! Is it because we were going there?! 😀
We left Rotterdam with the promise to come back and dedicate more time to the city.
Road to Utrecht: Gouda
On our way to Utrecht, we decided to stop and visit Gouda, a small city famous for its craftworks and of course cheese and stroopwafels.
We really suggest you a day trip to this city. A lot of old buildings and pretty canals. Plus the city is totally cyclable with the exception of Kleiweg and there is a lots of parking for the bikes.
So, after a very tasty hambugerandGoudacheese-based lunch and a quick stop at the AlbertHeijn to buy some biscuits ( biscuits with cinnamon = life), we left Gouda to reach one of our favourite city of holland: Utrecht.
We don’t know who we have to thanks (really??) but from Rotterdam to Gouda the rain has stopped and an incredible heat killed us 😀
We have a funny video where we stretch out the sweat from our t-shirt 😀 A must see!
Utrecht
Before this trip we did another one a little bit smaller in October: Amsterdam-Utrecht via Breukelen and Maarssen and Utrecht-Amsterdam via Hilversum and Naarden.
The first time we have been in Utrecht we stayed at the Stayokay hostel in the centre of the city. This hostel have a privileged view on the medieval centre and is perfect for who is traveling on a budget.
Why we love Utrecht so much , one of the most unsung city according to Lonely Planet?
We don’t really know, maybe for its central canal, the oudegracht, the Dom tower wich is the tallest of The Netherlands, or its houses. It’s a weird feeling, in italian we use to say that this city is a “bomboniera”, a bombonnière, for the charm. You can walk and get lost in its cozy shops, small streets or in its unparallel “movida” in the city centrek.
As we were saying, we arrived in Utrecht around 6.00 pm, but this time we booked a room at the 13th floor of Nh Utrecht Hotel. The view was amazing, we could see Utrecht from the top at one km of distance.
Time to sleep now,
see you next week guys, stay tuned for the last chapter of our trip: Back to Am via The lovely Naarden!
Wish you good trips and nice rides! 🙂
Byee,
Arthur and Bruno – BikesPhilosophy
Bikes Philosophy 
I have visited Holland a few times but I have yet to cycle Holland. Thanks for the report and photos
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Holland is a paradise for cycling 🙂 You’re welcome!
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