Recreational evening ride

While I am enjoying my summer holidays I prepared a ride for you to enjoy. This way you could virtually take a summer ride in the Dutch countryside. This was just a short ride (14.5 km) before dinner on a Sunday evening in July from the city centre of ʼs-Hertogenbosch in the direction of Sint-Michielsgestel and back again. Enjoy!

billet en français

Starting point: Markt (Market Square) right in front of city hall. I am very glad when I see how sharp and detailed the images are nowadays when I use the GoPro.

Many of the small streets in the city centre are car free or at least nearly car free. This street has a parking ban. Residents do complain that car drivers go much too fast when they use this street that I wrote a blog post about earlier.

Even with the average width of a Dutch cycleway you have to ring your bell every now and then when people really use the full width like on this bi-directional cycleway near ʼs-Hertogenbosch.

For on-coming traffic people usually do give enough space. This is a minor country road that is also used by motor vehicles, but their volume is much lower than the number of people cycling.

I cycled around a building and then went back to the road again only to show you this nice entrance to a country house that has recently been restored. The historic estate is called “Haanwijk” which would translate as “Rooster wick”. It explains why there is a rooster on top of the gate.

Back on the main road you can see that the estate has a very old wall all around it that is currently also being restored.

Riding in the Dutch countryside means that you will see all sorts of infrastructure. Also narrow dirt-paths like this one. I was quite happy that it wasn’t busy here. There is no way you can pass at a distance of 1.5 metres here. Fortunately the virus is not so contagious outside and in such short passes.

This road is again also for motor traffic, but because it only gives access to one farm house the volumes are extremely low.

I did encounter a few motor vehicles this ride, but only a handful and the drivers gave me enough room to pass safely.

I was wondering whether this was a local, because I knew that this road was to end at a bollard that you can only lower when you have an electronic pass.

The driver clearly didn’t have such a pass and so the bollard stayed up. When I looked back after passing this car, I saw that the driver was driving backwards to make a 180 degree turn to get back where she came from. This is how you keep traffic volumes low, also in the countryside.

I made a small detour to pass this (man-made) lake where people can swim and go for other recreational activities. Since it was about dinner time on a Sunday when I passed here there was almost no-one left.

The small detour past the lake also took me this way: the best entrance route for ʼs-Hertogenbosch with the city’s cathedral towering over the fields that reach all the way to the old city wall. Exceptionally, the historic city “centre” is actually on the south edge of ʼs-Hertogenbosch.

Once I reached the city centre it was busy again; many people were having dinner outside.

Including on the Market Square near city hall. Which meant I was back where I started. A very enjoyable evening ride.

This week’s video: a 45 minute recreational ride in summer.