Bicycling in the Netherlands - A trip from Gouda to Kinderdijk and back
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- čas přidán 15. 07. 2023
- We're biking in the Netherlands, which is very different than biking in Canada, mostly because there is lots of infrastructure for bikes and the people want to bike (and walk) and get along without using a car. We went on a 21kim trip to Kinderdijk from Gouda (and back) - partly to see that we can still do this and partly to go to Kinderdijk when it was not raining.
There is a reference in the video to floating cows in Geithoorn so here is a link to a web page about that heavenly-holland.com/floating...
Little corrections:
The ditches between strips of land are not for irrigation. Due below sea level up seeping groundwater has to be drained away. These ditches are connected to bigger ones, with pumps the water goes to higher laying canals to end up at a place like Kinderdijk, where all the excess water gets collected, where finally it gets pumped into a higher laying river. Due mass amount of water and difference in height many windmills and several steps are needed.
Thanks for the info. It makes a lot of sense.
Another correction: it's Giethoorn, not Geithoorn. @4:10
As for the cows on boats: czcams.com/video/5xNk47Bq9Iw/video.htmlsi=lpMeuHk9TfSI4bUw&t=112
Wow, compliments for your pronunciation of Dutch place names! I enjoyed your video!
Thank you for the complement. Both of parents are immigrants from the Netherlands and I grew up speaking a mixture of Dutch and English.
Technically, the Kingdom of The Netherlands consists of 4 countries. The Netherlands, Aruba, Curacao and Sint Maarten. The Kingdom not only borders Belgium and Germany, but also France. Sint Maarten consists of a Dutch and a French part.
The Netherlands also consists of the special municipalities: Saba, Sint Eustatius and Bonaire.
Thanks for the clarification. I didn't know about the special municipalities.
Nice ride. You could have made a circle by riding from Kinderdijk to the ferry crossing at Bergambacht.
Next time maybe. We really weren't in shape for this one so extending it further might have made it more challenging.
Glad you liked it here :-) - btw google maps is terrible for bicycle trips, it usually takes you next to big roads when there are better routes available.
I remember using a biking trail electronic guide on previous trips but we found that GMaps worked fairly well. It is possible to change the settings in the app so that you can take a number of different routes, not just the 'fastest'.
Nice video, sorry for the heavy winds ;o). The Netherlands borders only Germany and Belgium, and has been a part of BeNeLux sinds 1944 (created in wartime London). It's more or less a predecessor of the European Union. The Lux is for Luxembourg, not Liechtenstein.
Thanks for the info! I knew when we were saying it that it was wrong. I knew about BeNeLux as well but was not able to dreg it out of my head at the time. We've had a lot of experience with winds while biking in the NL. On an earlier trip with family members, we encountered very heavy winds while travelling along the N307 from Lelystad to Enkhuizen. At the end of the day we were very happy to check into a couple of rooms in the local hotel.
@@EastMarshAcres I'm used to struggling against the wind my entire life. Part of living in the Netherlands. I'm from the South myself, but have lived in the Hague for a number of years. Riding along the coast with heavy winds is something special. I can imagine how tired you were after the Lelystad to Enkhuizen trip, especially when you're not used to it.
lived a couple of years near gouda as a kid.
use to bike from moordrecht to gouda every day to school, right on top of a dyke road where the wind always seemed to come from the front. rain, storm, ice or snow didn't matter.....and no helmet, we yolo from the age of 6 hehehe
Yes, we always wonder about the no helmet thing. In Canada, it has become expected for those who ride bikes (there aren't many).
@@EastMarshAcres its a few things combined. in my opinion at least.
proficiency is one
most kids learn to ride a bike at the age of 4/5, at six they ride indepently of their parents to school, at 8 they are able to do little tricks and speed through forest trails, at 9 they can maintain a wheelie indefinitely.
and when they reach the age of 12 it has become second nature or like an extension of your body.
like what would happen if you start riding cart at the age of 4/5, you become a proficient car racer.
i rarely fell or crashed my bike after my preteens.
and since everybody is proficient and has vast experience riding a bicycle, traffick is more in tune with cyclists.
also cycling is not a statement or a political thing as it can be overseas ( as in US), thus it will not enrage or trigger people in cars, which help keep accidents down.
infrastructure is maybe the biggest reason.
i mean, how unsafe have you felt riding a bike on those streets?
while cycling in a pretty unfamiliar country with its own traffic rules that deviate from home?
i thought you did allright without to much exciting traffick moments.
third reason, tuff love.
falling and getting bumbed and burnmarks comes with the territory.
i.e. every kid here will, at one point, try to steer crosshanded.....(seriously, dont try it!)
that is a learning experience. get that tooth trough your lip, or those stitches in your knee.
help learn the boundries of bike physics.
there will be very little life threathning accidents on a sepparated bike lane or the inner city bike streets with a max of 30.
most routes are sepparated from higher speed traffic nowadays.
its like keeping our kids on their bikes in all weather circumstances, you try to wrought resilient clear minded adults out of them!
which is hard enough without them being whiny about every little scratch they pick up in their life.
it helps them socialize and keep their tiktok heads grounded with reality!
dutch parent:
"sure you can dance, sure you can sing and get 100k followers on your tiktok insta snap account...but can you get your behind on that bike and to school? now!
yes it rains, yesterday it hailed! so what? "
@@eelco_de_haan I agree with the infrastructure and higher value for biking in NL. In Canada, there is barely any infrastructure anywhere and providing infrastructure is almost always a municipal responsibility. This is typical in Canada where distributed responsibility is the norm rather than the exception. It's built into the constitution of the country. There is also very little respect given by car drivers for bike riders. I have had numerous close calls riding city streets. On the other hand, in my experience, bike riders here are not always observant of traffic conventions, codes or laws.
Finally, I still think that wearing helmets is a good thing. We wear them here and when we return to NL for an extended stay, we'll bring and wear ours. The reason? Regardless of tough love, our heads are incredibly fragile and easy to damage. Regardless of how proficient the rider is, accidents can and do happen and it is difficult and/or impossible to recover from most brain injuries. I, personally, won't go there.
@@EastMarshAcres first off, not rying to be a smart ass, just very dutch. so my apologies in advance if i am being too direct and blunt;)
but i have read a few research papers that ultimately have led to the conclusion it, in fact, is not securer than without.
depends of course on many factors, but if you check most boxes, biking is one of the most safest ways of transportation.
as helmets can give a false sense of security, which could lead to more reckless behavior through that false sense of security.
which touches another point;
it has limited protection.
also when you take into account the questionable quality standards it has to pass to be a "bike helmet" by local regulation.
do they genuinely protect you more when falling at bike speeds?
droping of your bike it's the same force when running and tripping ....i don't run with a helmet, or do a steeple race in protective gear.
if your speed biking or riding a pedelec, sure!
would be very sensical to wear a helmet at 50 mph
but those are quality helmets that start at 200/300 dollars.
most "bike helmets" that are targeted at recreational cyclist are just barely sufficient, but a great way to make money on bike regulation.
regulation that is on itself subpar, as it is treated as a side thought in most countries.
in all my 45 years i know only of one bike fatality in my neighborhood, that was when i was 11 and a woman got hit at night by a drunk speeding car.
and there no helmet would suffice..
infrastructure helps more than any helmet, like not sharing the road with high speed traffic you have to adjust to on your unprotected bike.
i saw enough footage of bike accidents in NA, where a helmet wearing bicyclist is tossed meters in the air because he shares the road with an enraged driver driving a 60 mph car in his back wheel...
yeah than i understand you don't dare ride a bike without.
even though a helmet would do near to nothing in such a situation.
if we follow that notion of taking away all "unnecessary" risks, we could argue that wearing a helmet in a car would also need to be instituted by law asap.
this is not canada, not the states, this is another country, thus with another culture and other set of values than in NA, so we see things different, react slightly different, and give value to whole other things we consider important.
here we have a long tradition of riding bikes and using it as a valid main form of transportation.
our infrastructure is designed to be able to do most daily business on bike, public transportation or by even by walking. as it tends to give more freedom and QoL to people.
why would we keep those helmets off if it would be such a risk?
it would be very counter effective to get people on bikes, when people left and right die off due to brain damage after bike accidents.
people would barricade the streets and protest.
also wouldn't our biker death toll be rising instead of lowering, since we stepped back of the Americanization of our infrastructure since the 80/ties?
we don't build car centric suburban islands that are barren of services, shops and leisure areas for a reason.
i like to don't have to worry too much when my kid bikes to school, playground or to friends.
and yes our children walk and play unsupervised, on their own, sometimes even miles away from their home.
also something we thought was important.
while overthere you get childcare visits for being a bad parent....
so again culture difference, just another way of doing things.
finally, if we would implement that, we loose a lot of people riding bikes that still do now.
i.e. "oh no i am not wearing a stupid helmet, i take the car".
or "i can't pay a 100$ helmet just for riding a bike. i rather buy a second hand car for 500$"
and all that green and limited space has to e plastered with apshalted roads for all those cars.....
not even accounting the rise of health issues if people stop cycling.....before we know it we are on par with North America on the obesity scale!
and thus would kill x times more people than if we just keep helmets off!
so ultimately it is pragmatism originated out of humanism; what has the most effect without the least drawbacks for our society, and still keeps citizens safe.
our solution in this regard is no helmets.
Thanks for your opinion.
There are 23 million bikes for 17 million people. Many have 1 (luxuary or E-bike) for commuting, as employers usually provide secure parking. Furthermore 1 (crappy) bike for day to day errons and 1 more (racing- or mountain bike) for leasure activities.
Yes, we noticed this behaviour when we lived in NL for extended stays (several months at a time). The bikes seen on the weekends were not the bikes that were seen during the week. How extensive this behaviour is a matter of contention though as I've seen lots of different estimates regarding the number of bikes in NL vary greatly.
Nice film ruined due to poor equipment
thanks but I think you sort of missed the point. If we wanted to use really good equipment we wouldn't have had the same experience. It's rough and ready, yes, but the enthusiasm and gratitude that we had for being able to do the trip and then share it is what we wanted to do.
That's what the director of the p*** movie I was in said 😥