Traveling by bicycle to Germany

Since I first moved to the Netherlands, one of the things that caught more attention the most is the number of bicycles in the country and how the Dutch use them for everything. Really, everyday transportation, getting the groceries, carrying the kids to school and even moving (yep, I have seen that). This is possible because the country has very good roads and many many km of bike lanes.

Last summer, I was staying in the Netherlands and my bf and I did not have any plans, but we knew we wanted to do something, like a mini-holiday, but without spending a lot. That is when I had the brilliant idea of biking to Germany! It was something that I had never done before, we would have a good story to tell afterward and it just seemed exciting at the time to put everything on a bike and just cycle. So we decided to do it.

Of course, at the time we did not really think of the obvious aspects of this plan that would make it very difficult. For e.g.: I am not the fittest person in the world. In fact, I can be quite lazy (being from Rio, where you take the car for everything, even for a 5/10 min walk) and I had not biked in more than 2 years. Next to that, I have never been good with distance, so I should have known that it would take much longer to arrive at the German border than we anticipated. Lastly, it was very likely I would get lost at some point during this trip.

But anyway, we booked some cabins (in campings) near the places we wanted to stop, packed of stuff, got ready and one day very early we started biking.

During the first KM, it was fun and I was curious to see the countryside so I didn't even mind my lets hurting... But when we did around 25km I felt super tired and I needed food so we stop at a 'restpoint'. It was just nice, on a farm, where you could sit, buy some products made there as well as some cake and ice cream.

When we biked around 40km, I was totally dying. I felt like I could not feel my legs anymore, so we decided to stop for lunch in the town we were passing by. After that, we still had about 20km to go, but for the last 10km, my boyfriend was basically pushing me from his bike. After all that effort and pain, we made it to the 60km and were done for the day but we were not at the German border yet. Think about someone being unable to walk properly: that was me! I could barely move my legs or feel them touching the group.

Day Number 2: We had to bike another 30 something Km - it was not going to be a good day for me!

With a lot of pain everywhere, carrying heavy bikes (with all of our stuff) and kind of regretting the whole idea, we set off to the German border! Now, you think that we cycled to Germany so we probably stayed there for a few days in a nice German town, etc. However, before the trip, we decided that it would take too long to do that, but as we still wanted to keep the main idea (biking to Germany) we settle for just biking to the border. And that is what we did.

We biked many kilometers out of our "route" to get to the German border and the only things there were: 1 house (a very German house) and the flags of Germany and the Netherlands.

If we had more time (and had I had a better preparation for this trip that wasn't waking up one day and biking for about 60km)we would have probably stayed somewhere nice in Germany, but the plan was to go back to the Netherlands to find our next hotel/summer cabin. After that, we cycled for another 2 days (about 20KM a day) until we completed a full circle and arrived back at Heino (village where we started).

Looking back now, I appreciate that experience much more. It took a lot of effort and energy, but it was very liberating. The Dutch countryside is beautiful, and by traveling around it by bike, you get to see your surroundings in a new light. I biked through flower fields, corn plantations, and beautiful windmills.

Remember in the beginning of the post when I said that they have very good bike roads in the Netherlands? It is true! You can basically travel by bike throughout the entire country! Even when you are in big cities like Den Haag or Amsterdam, you will see some plates with a bike sign and a number next to the traffic lights. This is something else that makes traveling by bike in the Netherlands easier than in many other places: you have directions everywhere, so you know exactly which road you should follow by their number.

If you like nature or not, if you are lazy or fit, one thing is certain: if you have the opportunity to do something like this, you should give it a try!