Cycling From Holland To Germany

This was no easy feat for two inexperienced cyclists. It was, according to Google, a 21 ( TWENTY ONE!!!) mile (MILE!!!) round trip, and this didn’t include our detours due to getting lost, and our diversions to get drinks! We set off from Nijmegen, Netherlands, and had a lovely route planned which would take us to Kranenburg, Germany. And so it began…

The Netherlands is super bike friendly, and for such a long journey we were basically never on the roads themselves, which made it really pleasant. At first we had a pretty long cycle through woods and farm- it smelt really bad but the views were nice!

The weather was pretty ideal for such a long cycle- not too hot, but definitely shorts weather. After we’d cycled through the woods and farms of the Netherlands, we ended up getting to an old disused railway track. This was what had attracted me to this particular route, because I’d heard it was a really nice scenic way to get there, and it’s quite unique.

We stopped for quite a while at the beginning of the track, and again quite frequently, to keep on taking photos, because there was so much cool stuff to see!

A bit further along, closer to Germany, we got to the town of Groesbeek, which I’d visited a couple of times before. It’s a really nice little town, with lots of farms. I stopped yet again, this time to say hi to some cows.

By now we were soOoOo close to Germany I could taste it in the air. Ten more minutes of cycling and we’d made it to the border! woo! It was crazy to see a tiny little sign signifying an entrance into a massive country! I knew there was no border patrol, but this was such little fuss it was incredible!

We kept heading up, and followed the signs to Kranenburg, which was a really small, fairly quaint, German town. Almost a village, it was that small- just a little high street with a few shops.

There wasn’t much to look at, so we explored the side streets and walked around the church grounds, which was quite nice..

But the most important part of a trip to Germany can obviously only be one thing.. beer! We stopped at one of Kranenburgs two cafes and ordered a large beer, which we felt was very very well deserved. It went down an absolute treat.

On our way back we actually stopped in Groesbeek for another beer, because honestly, the miles were getting to us! We even made a wrong turn back in Holland and took a horrible uphill route through the woods which we definitely hadn’t suffered on the way there!

It was a trip that was quiteeee hard work, but really rewarding, and I’m so glad we did it- not that I’d do it again… But I enjoyed the day massively, and it was v worthwhile.

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* Big credit to Dan for some of the photos in this post- http://www.dswaggon.wordpress.com , go say hi! *