Netherlands

Self-supported bicycle trip in

The Netherlands - 2023

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Day 3 - Friday (Liberation Day)

We rode 35.5 miles today from Scheveningen to Schiedam

Today's theme was jenever.

We started our day with a short diversion from the planned route and rode up the street to the Oranjehotel. It is not a hotel. It was a prison used by the Nazis, particularly to imprison members of the Resistance prior to their executions or shipment to a concentration camp. (Prisoners included Father Titus Brandsma, Corrie ten Boom and members of her family.) The prison is now a museum and national monument. Today is Liberation Day in the Netherlands, and although the museum did not open until 11 am, we wanted to start our day there and pay silent tribute to persons who went through the horrors of WWII.

From the Oranjehotel, we got back on our planned route for the day, which took us first to the beachfront at Scheveningen and some whimsical bronze sculptures along the waterfront known as the "Fairy Tales by the Sea." The figures depict scenes from fairy tales from all over the world, with an identifying sign and QR code posted near each one. I recognized a couple of them - "Hansel and Gretel" and "The Mouse and the Lion."

Further down the boardwalk was a more poignant sculpture, "The Fisherman's Wife," showing a woman looking longingly out to sea.

On the outskirts of Scheveningen, our route left the street and went off into the dunes. The west coast of the Netherlands has miles of dunes, protective barriers against the North Sea. Bicycle, equestrian and pedestrian routes wind through the dunes, up and down over the hilly portions. Cyclists can choose from a network of trails, and the routes are paved for the entire distance. In places, the dunes have substantial growth of trees and underbrush, and in other places, they are composed of shifting sands, constantly changing in the often breezy conditions. There are other things in the dunes, too, such as old bunkers or gun emplacements which form the Atlantic Wall, the defense lines built by the Nazis (or in some cases built by the Dutch but swiftly occupied by the Nazis in 1940.) Near the town of Monster, the Dutch have encouraged the creation of a "new dune" by constructing an artificial strand just off the coast and then letting Nature do the rest of the work by filling in the space between the little island and the mainland.

We made our way south toward the Hook of Holland, pausing briefly at the Eetcafe Zout on the edge of Monster. There we found a welcoming place for cyclists and families. The cafe had plenty of outdoor seating arranged around a kids' playground with sand, toys, and things to climb on. For bicyclists, the cafe provided sheltered parking for bikes, complete with an air compressor for pumping up tires and plug-in ports for electric bikes.

We routed our ride to the Hook of Holland, a tip that juts out into the sea just north of the Nieuwe Waterweg, the shipping channel created when the Oude Rijn began to fill with silt. This is technically the terminus for the westbound riders on the Rijnfietsroute, a long-distance cycling route that follows the waterway of the Rhine River.

Since this is the mouth of the shipping channel which leads to Rotterdam, there were plenty of interesting things to see. We watched several massive tankers, container ships and ferries heading out to sea.

As we rode eastward toward Rotterdam, we came first to the community of the Hook of Holland, and directly beside the bike trail we found the Kindertransport Memorial. It was decked with wreaths of flowers and other tributes, likely placed there today (Liberation Day) or yesterday (Remembrance Day.) The sculpted figures there recall the thousands (primarily Jewish) children who left the Netherlands without their parents for safety in Britain and other locations. Most children from the Netherlands departed from the Hook of Holland. Other places (e.g., Berlin, Gdansk, London, etc.) also have Kindertransport memorials.

I had read that the Stena Lines ferry terminal at the Hook of Holland had a commemorative plaque inside one of its buildings, noting that this was the point of departure for Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands in 1940 at the beginning of the Nazi occupation. We wanted to see the plaque, but there were a couple of Stena Line buildings at that location, and we weren't sure where to look. So we asked a man who was coming out of one of the buildings if he might know. At first, he thought we were asking about the Kindertransport memorial, but once he understood we were asking about a different comemmorative work, he said had lived in the Hook of Holland all of his life but did not know about this plaque. But he would go back into the Stena terminal (from which he had just exited) and ask. Shortly he returned with the information that the plaque was just inside the door nearby the ticket counter. "Funny," he said, "I have walked by this every day since it was placed here, and I never knew about it." We thanked him and went inside to see the plaque. It was placed there in 2005, on an anniversary of the Queen's departure.

We continued east along the waterway, pausing briefly to watch one of the Stena ferries leave the port. Behind it, a second ferry was being loaded for a later departure.

After a short distance, we came upon the Maeslantkering storm surge barrier, a massive gate which can be closed across the Nieuwe Waterweg when conditions require extreme measures to protect the inland regions. We could see the stark white supporting arms of the barrier even when we stood at the westernmost tip on the Hook of Holland, but they are about 3 miles from that point, indicating how massive they are. From the bike trail, one can ride up a long ramp to an observation point for a better view, and we did that.

A little further east as we continued our ride more or less parallel to the Nieuwe Waterweg, we encountered the construction site for the Blankenburg Tunnel, a 950-meter long motorway being built underneath the Scheur River. Construction began in 2018, and completion is scheduled some time next year.

Our day's ride took us into the center of Schiedam for our lodging at the Stadtvilla Mout, a hotel located on one of the city's canals. Our GPS system guided us in via a complicated series of moves to cross major roadways, rail systems and canals, but we finally rolled up at the door of the hotel around 5:00 pm. After we checked in and unloaded our bags, we took the bikes to a location about a block-and-a-half away (like most European cities, Schiedam doesn't really have "blocks"). There were secured them with locks - inside a locked garage.

Back in our room, we showered and did some laundry, then hung the damp clothes up to dry. The hotel receptionist had given us a recommendation for a dinner spot on the opposite side of the canal from the hotel - the 1714 Drinks and Bites. It was a good choice. We enjoyed a nice dinner and helpful and friendly service. The head waiter/bartender was very receptive when we asked him about jenever. This is a local product which is said to have originated in Schiedam. The British tried to imitate it, though their efforts resulted in a different distilled product they call gin. Jenever is similar but not the same. Since we intended to order dinner, the bartender said he would return with jenever samples after we had our meal. And he did - we tried three different versions of the beverage. One of them, called "Black Nazareth," was more akin to whiskey, having spent a little time in an oak barrel. The bartender explained that the name was at one time a nickname for the city of Schiedam due to the number of coal-burning mills located there in the Industrial Age.

We were full from dinner but wanted to see a couple of the Schiedam windmills before we retired for the evening. There were two or three of them located close by, so we walked around and photographed a couple of them. The streets were remarkably quiet, but it was nearly midnight, and we were tired, so it was a short stroll. The windmills in Schiedam are exceptional though because they are perhaps the tallest windmills (of this type) in the world.

Tomorrow our route will take us from Schiedam, through Rotterdam and across the river - or actually a couple of rivers - to Dordrecht.

Orange Hotel - it is not a hotel (former prison used by Nazis)

The Herring Eater - one of several of the whimsical fairy tale sculptures on the beach at Scheveningen

The Lion and the Mouse

Each sculpture had an identifying sign with a QR code to look up more details

One of the fairy tale sculptures at Scheveningen

Sculpture at Scheveningen - "The Fisherman's Wife"

A sign on one of the paved trails in the dunes

Apple pie at the Eetcafe Zout at Monster

They are onto us!

Steve at the Hook of Holland (where the modified course of the Rhine empties into the North Sea)

Remnants of a WWII bunker - the Atlantic Wall. - now with soft-serve ice cream!

The Kindertransport Memorial at the Hook of Holland - for the thousands of Jewish children who left without their parents

Kindertransport Memorial

On the Kindertransport Memorial

Plaque at the Kindertransport Memorial

A plaque in the building for the Stena ferry line at the Hook of Holland, comemmorating the departue of Queen Wilhelmina from the Netherlands in 1940

The bike trail at the Hook of Holland runs along the channel, beside the roadway and rail line. Steve is watching the departure of one of the huge Stena ferries.

Stena ferry leaving port

At the Nieuwe Waterweg (the New Waterway, part of the Delta Works project). The waterway provides a shipping channel to Rotterdam, one of the world's busiest sea ports.

Maeslantkering storm barrier as viewed from an observation point along the bike trail. The barrier provides a means for the Netherlands to protect inland regions from devastating floods.