Hi there!!<BR><BR>I am trying to plan a 10-12 day trip to Europe in mid-July. I am pretty set on the Netherlands and Belgium thus far.<BR><BR>I plan on visiting Amsterdam, Delft, Haarlem, Utrecht, one of the National Parks, and then Brussels and Bruges in Belgium.<BR><BR>I will be driving from place to place.<BR><BR>I LOVE to bike, and would love to know what you all consider the most scenic routes and areas in these two countries. <BR><BR>I would love to see windmills, tulips and flowers, beautiful old buildings and small towns, and forest.<BR><BR>Also, which National Park in the Netherlands would you recommend?<BR><BR>Thank you SO much for your help!! <BR><BR><BR><BR>

I'm not a biking expert, but have done a few shorter biking day trips in both countries.<BR>The absolute favorite, which I've done twice is riding north out of Brugge along the Damme Canal and the Krinkeldyke. You must stop and have a wonderful lunch at Siphon, a wonderful upscale &quot;roadhouse&quot; out in the middle of nowhere. You can also stop and go through a working windmill, turn off the main path and circle through some delightful little farm towns, and also stop to see the town of Damme. You can ride all the way to the Dutch border.<BR><BR>The other trip we did backwards, and that is riding along the sea between Hoorn and Enkhuisen in Holland. The best way is from Enkhuisen to Hoorn, and let the usual wind sort of help push you. We went the other way and were really riding into strong winds, which I understand is quite usual. Since you are driving, you can go to Enkhuisen and get bikes there and ride to Hoorn, then take the bikes on the short train ride back to your car in Enkhuisen if you don't want to ride both ways.

Patrick<BR>How long does it take for the first trip (exclude lunch time)? How is the landscape ? flat / uphill? <BR>THanks.

There is a book that you can get called<BR>&quot;Europe by bike 18 tours geared for discovery&quot; by Karen &amp; Terry Whitehill. It has several excellent tours suggested for both Belgium and the Netherlands. I have used their book as a reference for the bike trip we took from Linz to Vienna in Austria, (The absolute best biking you'll find) and it provided pretty good data.<BR>Let me know how your trip goes because that is one I plan sometime in the future.<BR>Have fun!

Hi everyone!<BR><BR>Thanks so much for the replies!!<BR><BR>We are VERY excited now!!<BR><BR>However, Austria does sound very interesting - I looked up some info. and it looks even more scenic than Holland &amp; Belgium.<BR><BR>We are now going to look into Austria for our biking trip (perhaps combined w/ Switzerland).<BR><BR>Thanks so much again!! I will post a separate question related to Austria...

In reply to the question about the Damme Canal trip -- you can go as far and take as long as you want. Including our hour and a half lunch, we left Brugge about 9 AM and returned about 2:30, but we stopped a lot. Or you can go even further and return later. It is simply a matter of going as far as you want and allowing time to return. And I don't think we went up a &quot;hill&quot; more that 3 feet high -- incredibly flat territory.

All towns that you mention are in the Western (Amsterdam, Delft, Haarlem, Brugge) or central part (Utrecht, Brussels) of the Netherlands &amp; Belgium.<BR>Most National Parks are in the East.<BR><BR>In the West you can expect flat and open landscapes, and windmills. In the central and Eastern areas you will find more forests, winding roads and some hills.<BR><BR>In Holland you will find many cycle paths, partly on a free alignment through the fields. In Belgium cycle paths are not so common, and mostly limited to a separate lane on the side of the busier roads. I allways try to avoid them.<BR><BR>I criss-crossed both Holland and Belgium with my bike. Some of the most beautiful spots that I can recommend:<BR>- the cycle path through the Ankeveense Plassen (lakes South-East of Amsterdam);<BR>- the many cycle paths through the Veluwe forest (especially around Hoog Soeren);<BR>- the Meuse valley near Dinant and the beautiful road to the Abbey of Maredsous.<BR><BR>As for the National Parks: I recommend the Hooge Veluwe and nearby Veluwezoom parks. Beautiful landscape, limited access for cars and a very good infrastructure for biking.<BR><BR>But most of all, to make the best of your trip you will need a good map. With a map meant for car travel you will miss many beautiful spots that are aside of the bigger roads.<BR>I suggest you buy 1:100 000 scale tourist maps of the areas you want to visit. For Holland the ANWB maps are very good. They are available at virtually all tourist offices and bookstores; maybe you can order them from abroad. <BR><BR>These maps show you all the small cycle paths through the countryside, and the most scenic small roads are marked. Why not let you surprise, rather than only follow pre-cooked roundtrips?<BR><BR><BR>