Today’s 45 km cycle ride started with an early morning train ride to Vught in the Dutch province of Noord-Brabant.
For a change of scenery I wanted to explore the National Park Loonse en Drunense Duinen, so I planned a nice circuit starting and finishing at Vught station.
The route was varied, with paths alongside the canal, sand dunes far away from the coast and picturesque lakes and forests.
It was around 09:40 by the time I left Vught and headed towards the Drongelens Kanaal.
The sun was bright, quite warm and everywhere was already very busy with hoards of weekend cyclists.
At the 20 km mark I found a nice coffee stop, ‘De Roestelberg’, seemingly in the middle of nowhere.
Fuelled with cappuccino I continued on my way through extensive heathland, dunes and forests until I arrived back alongside the lake known as ‘Ijzeren Man’.
Before heading back to the station I took a brief detour through the forests where I came across Kamp Vught.
This was a Nazi concentration camp in WW2, and is preserved as a memorial and sobering reminder of past atrocities.
From here I made my way back to Vught for the 90 minute train journey home.
Cold beers followed at ‘De Admiraal’ with Ans.
This was a nice day out for me and an experiment in using the train for one day cycle rides.
Economically it’s viable as I have a 40% discount rail card and the bike costs €7.50 for the whole day.
It’s a lot of train travel for a 45 km cycle ride….makes more sense to make a much longer ride, maybe with an overnight stop.
However, using the train occasionally will broaden my horizons and allow me to explore further from home.
Today’s featured image is of heathland at around the 22 km point on today’s ride.
