7th stage: from Utrecht to Bocholt

Last day of our 'Tour de NL', from Utrecht we head towards Arnhem. The bustling Utrecht from the night before is deserted this morning, just before eight o'clock 😉.

Earlier, I tried to straighten my hair in front of the mirror in the room, not that easy ...

The function of the hostel's garden is not entirely clear to me; on one hand, it is used to store bicycles, on the other hand, we also found people there whose condition I couldn't quite assess. I also don't understand how this may be related to the plants found there.

We leave Utrecht straight and find very good bike paths again.

Along the way, we drank coffee here and there and reached the 'Hoge Veluwe', a beautiful, slightly hilly forest and heath area west of Arnhem. Here we reach the 'roof of the tour' with a staggering 50 meters - almost annoying, this climbing after days in the 'flat country' 😀.

And so we reach Arnhem, where we treat ourselves to an American frikandel bun at the spotless and new train station, and for time reasons, take the RE19 to Empel-Rees, from where we return to Bocholt by bike after a short hour ride.

Time has passed quickly. The Netherlands is beautiful and offers great nature, great landscapes, good accommodations, lively cities, an interesting history, friendly people (where else do you experience a saleswoman in a bakery loading a overwhelmed man with two cakes and bread, pushing the stroller to the car and talking kindly to the child?), courteous road users, and of course the best cycling network inside and outside the cities.

A 'Tour de NL' is a great thing!

(And one last time, a note to the city and bike path planners in Germany: if you want to know how it's done, just go to the Netherlands and find out.)

Dear reader, we are pleased to have shared our experiences on this tour with you. If you enjoyed it, we are even more pleased (feel free to pass it on to city planners who don't know how to build bike paths ...)! We wish you all the best and God's blessings!

Tot ziens!