I Tried Cycling from Amsterdam to Utrecht-Here's what I didn't expect

[@Klont123]

None of your suggested routes were the nicest. You need to take the cycling route following the vecht (east side). It’s without doubt the prettiest.

[@AlexRadler-bw9js]

Did this last year and it was like cycling through a dutch tourism-catalogue. Really beautiful.

[@RobbertMichel]

It would also be a lot faster then going all the way past Hilversum.

[@Nynke_K]

Super pretty but I think this route is best if you want to see normal life in the Netherlands!

[@raisan5989]

Yes you can make your own route using the "knooppunten"

[@thomasrealist6181]

I fully agree. Probably one of the nicest bike routes in The Netherlands and as far as I can judge, also a shorter one. For years I never checked maps also not in city's but nowadays I understand you also miss a lot. BTW the spot where you didn't understand the round about you made a mistake (or google maps) because the signs to Utrecht are not sending you to the left.

[@ronhoek69]

We don't have mountains but make it up for it with head wind. Usually changing direction when kids cycle back from school in the afternoon.

[@BabzV]

Yup, our Dutch mountains. 😉

[@jolotschka]

Except Limburg 😊

[@ronhoek69]

@@jolotschka Limburg (NL/B/D) is weer een héél ander verhaal ;-)

[@balaenopteramusculus]

@@jolotschka And the Utrechtse Heuvelrug he decided to cycle up 😂

[@cebruthius]

Headwind is not a problem with a recumbent

[@StartPlayFinish]

Notice to other travelers: Credit Cards are not commonly used in the Netherlands. Debit bank cards are the most common. It usually has the Meastro logo on it (and even then, if you are foreign, you have to make sure beforehand you are allowed to pay in-store with them and cant only use them at ATM's). Its not like credit cards aren't used at all but they are often only used in specific types of industries, like a gas station. A business needs to pay for their digital payment platforms and often it simply isn't worth it in the Netherlands to pay for multiple payment platforms as it costs a lot and its being used very little. 100% of the Dutch adults has a debit card. Only few people have credit cards, usually for big expenses, because The Netherlands isn't as debt driven like the US or other countries.

[@barvdw]

Maestro is in the process of being phased out, it probably depends on the country when it will happen, but my Belgian Maestro-enabled cards were both replaced earlier this year with a new Visa Debit and Mastercard Debit card, depending on the bank. So it's basically the same payment network, and the distinction between credit card and debit card payments will likely disappear. Maybe this little cafe had an older payment terminal, but I think international customers won't have to worry if their (Visa or Mastercard) is accepted in the near future. Anyway, this is one of the reasons I also carry a little cash with me at all times. Even the most trustworthy system can break down.

[@StartPlayFinish]

@@barvdw correct. Both Meastro and V-Pay are being phased out in the Netherlands. If your card expires the new card that will be send to you will be a Mastercard or a Visacard. Do note that these will still be debit cards and not credit cards. Until all cards have been replaced you can continue to pay with Meastro and V-Pay, which can take several years.

[@barvdw]

@@StartPlayFinish They didn't wait for the expiration date to replace the older Maestro cards in Belgium, my former cards were valid until 2027 and 2028, respectively, and yet, they were replaced. And yes, they are debit cards and not credit cards, but as they use the same payment network, I'd guess that credit card acceptance would be standard when the new payment terminals are being rolled out (or at least have a software update)...

[@Be-Es---___]

Tourists shouldn't leave Amsterdam. That's why it's there. To keep Tourists happy.

[@barvdw]

@@Be-Es---___ Tourists are great in homeopathic dosage, it's when they overwhelm the local population and the local infrastructure that they become harmful.

[@incalescent9378]

Utrecht = 👍 Entschuldigen = "Sorry" or "Pardon" Gracias = "Bedankt" "What a cute little town" = as a matter of fact, it actually is a city, the fourth in size of the Netherlands.

[@lorettabes4553]

Bedankt is casually said as 'Dank je wel' or 'Dank je,' but Thanks works too. Sorry, pardon, excuseer mij, excuus - all work as well

[@aiaesthetics1124]

@@lorettabes4553 “ga weg” works great for me 😂😂

[@cochazza]

There you have 2-3 stories buildings with rather large streets even in the center of "town". In Italy we have medieval or renaissance historic center with very narrow alleys and house of 4-5-6 stories. All of the building outside are taller than that up until the very outskirts of city and every space in between is crammed with cars. Basically most cities boomed only at start of the the 20th century when concrete and big social housing were a thing but cars not so much so we ended up with the worst of both worlds: packed, crowded cities with insufficient roads and parking space to make some more room and separate traffic decently. This situation has been let to rot up until recent times when every transfer during rush hour is a nightmare and cycleways in bigger cities are a savage dream

[@multifandomnerd1328]

@@cochazza keep in mind, a lot of the booming cities we had before the 20th century got bombed flat and rebuilt to be more modern. the further east you go the less necessity we have to build higher or close together, since there's less people there too

[@Annihilord]

To add to this list, they were singing "lang zal die leven" It's a birthday song, they were congratulating someone for their birthday, it means as much as: "we wish you a long life." The glass says"eeuwige jeugd" which means "eternal youth"

[@ConsciousAtoms]

In addition to your seat being too high, I also think you are cycling in too high a gear. It's better for your knees (as well as more efficient) to choose a lower gear and pedal with a higher frequency (in the 70 - 80 rpm range). In addition, it's better to pedal with the balls of your feet rather than the middle. The ball of your foot is made to carry loads, your arches aren't, so it's better for your feet. In addition, it is also more efficient as you can use your calf muscles more effectively.

[@irrichman]

Great tips. Use the old 'koffiemolen'. I like to ride between 70-90 rpm, I found even with wind in the back, the highest gears are usually not the most efficient for a bike trip. With the seat too low, you will feel quicker fatigue in the upper leg muscles, and maybe in other muscles like the glutes. Seat too high is bad for the joints, when using the ball of the foot to paddle, the ankles also feel it not just the knees. You can just adjust the seat whenever you feel discomfort, especially rental bikes have quick release saddles.

[@Fietsvlogger]

True, it is better to cycle with a higher frequency. It helped me a lot, cycling in a lower gear. The saddle looks a bit high indeed and those tight jeans might not be that helpful either. ;) Crazy though, that injuries can happen that quickly. My friend once had a rental bike that was a bit too big (saddle too high) and she got the same sharp pains in her knee. It took a while for her to recover.

[@rogerwilco2]

Indeed.

[@rogerwilco2]

Yeah. His legs are really moving at a very low frequency. Either the bike is providing a lot of assist, or he is messing up his knees.

[@raisan5989]

I have a chronic knee injury and I prefer to have my saddle a little higher (less bend of the knee at the highest point) but if you're able to paddle with the middle of your foot, I can't imagine your saddle being to high. I personally use the ball of my foot to paddle. If you have to move in the saddle from left to right your saddle is too high

[@bomcabedal]

Detail: that "stunning giant cathedral" (the St. Vitus Church, 11:37) was designed by Pierre Cuypers, who was also responsible for the Rijksmuseum and Amsterdam Centraal railway station. But then, he was primarily in the church biz.

[@ufob]

And Castle de Haar.

[@ohjajohh]

Dat is een leuk feitje waar ik ook niet van wist. Ik ben daar vroeger vaak langs gefietst, maar nooit geweten wie de architect was.

[@Charlotte-hv6ll]

It's so funny to me that you say 'Entschuldigung' cause in the Netherlands we just say 'Sorry'. It's a slightly different accent from the English one but with how well you pronounce Utrecht it probably wouldn't even be noticed (plus a lot of Dutch people might say it with an English accent anyway. And yes, I am aware there is no such thing as 'one English accent').

[@maximushaughton2404]

Years ago (80's), I was working in a backpackers hostel in London. One day this girl came in, and myself and the other person I worked with got chatting with her. After about 10-15 min's, I just could not place her English accent, and I had rules out all the English accents I'd heard, so I just had to ask her where she was from, she said Holland. I was a bit shocked, as I was not ready for some that spoke like they came from the UK, to be from another country.

[@TheJoaveck]

@@maximushaughton2404 We learn English at school from the age of 10. UK English, not USA English. And I think that's why in the 80's we spoke better English than nowadays with the influence of social media where a lot is American instead of English.

[@peterang6912]

Entschuldigung is german..lol 🤣🤣

[@ColoredIceberg]

As a Dutchman I like to say 'Entschuldigung' when abroad because it makes them think it's always the damn Germans causing them inconvenience.

[@eslek6644]

@@ColoredIceberg😂

[@ovief]

At 17:15 they were singing the Dutch version of happy birthday. Actually in the Netherlands there is quite a variety of birthday songs.

[@Treinbouwer]

Zolang je maar afsluit met lang zal ze leven.😂

[@Apollorion]

@@Treinbouwer Vooral als je de verjaardag van een man viert. /s . . . En vergeet je 'in de gloria' dan niet?

[@demooisteNAAM]

​@@TreinbouwerOf lang zal hij leven, voor jongens en mannen

[@lauralaura396]

@@Apollorion Ik vermoed dat treinbouwer het eerder had over dat er meerdere verjaardagsliedjes zijn maar dat je altijd moet eindigen met het 'lang zal ze/hij leven' liedje. Ter info, ik ben Vlaming, geen Nederlander. Maar ik heb al regelmatig situaties meegemaakt waar meer dan 1 verjaardagsliedje na elkaar wordt gezongen en het 'lang zal ze/hij leven' liedje is inderdaad vaak wel hetgene dat laatste wordt gezongen (met op het einde dan enkele keren "hiep hiep hiep, hoera!"). Geen idee of dit puur toeval is of een ongeschreven regel waar de meesten zich niet van bewust zijn, maar die ze toch volgen.

[@Apollorion]

@@lauralaura396 Bedankt voor je toelichting. Ik zag dat 'lang ze leven' niet als titel in. En mbt toeval of ongeschreven regel: de aapsoort die zichzelf in het Nederlands mens noemt, heeft een instinctueel voorkeur voor patronen boven chaos en dat houdt in gedrag tradities in stand. Op de schaal van subatomaire deeltjes is het nochtans zo goed als puur toeval.

[@maestroazzey]

As a Dutch civil servant concerned with cycling policies and traffic enforcement I couldn't help notice how often you actually cycled into a one-way cycle path from the wrong side 😂 We have that in a lot of places where the (peak) intensity of cyclists compared to the width of the cycle path doesn't allow for two-way cycling. You are ought to cross the road to the other cycle path (which will probably be one-way too), although most Dutch cyclists ignore traffic laws altogether... 😬 And I have to agree with a lot of the other comments that the route along the Vecht River is much more scenic than the route alongside the N236 and N417. If only you turned right just after you crossed the Weesperbrug and went towards Nigtevecht. 😄

[@EvanEdingerTravel]

I had actually chosen the western route for a more diverse experience! I wanted to pass through more towns than just have a scenic journey :)

[@waldogadellaa]

​@@EvanEdingerTravelthe route along the Vecht banks is the western one

[@evan]

@@waldogadellaa oops misspoke

[@lorettabes4553]

He seems to be cycling on the right side of the road the whole video to me

[@oranjepekingeend4166]

​@@lorettabes4553you even see a no entry sign at 13:53

[@nijntje666]

The wind is always a headwind in the Netherlands. Always. Not just for our grandfathers. Just always. Lol

[@Lillith.]

@@nijntje666 not true, I distinctly remember the two times I didn't have headwind.

[@derpeek]

I dont recognized the road. But you took the road via Hilversum. I prefer cycling along the river Vecht. Its shorter and more scenic. Like Old big mansions.

[@EvanEdingerTravel]

I'll have to go back for round 2

[@jolotschka]

He probably got no good cycling route app on his iPhone 😊

[@skin4813]

Yeah, the Vecht route is the nicest, the Amsterdam-Rijn channel the fastest.

[@macvos]

​​@@EvanEdingerTravelIt'll be even better with the saddle at the right height ;-)

[@nienke7713]

I'm only in my late 20's, but headwind both ways cycling an hour to school was definitely a thing I experienced 😅

[@relo999]

Headwinds are always the direction I'm facing on the bike. Weird...

[@BLiNNeMaNS]

yup, usually when doing groceries i plan ahead, pick a grocery store that won't give me headwind on the way back. I then have about 30 mins of shopping time to be close to certain the winddirection hasn't changed yet.

[@TheTekknician]

When I went to school from Franeker to Harlingen in my teens, I always, *always* was cycling against the wind. I still hear myself complaining why half a day later the damn wind turned.

[@Max-hw7xl]

i have forgotten stuff at home, turned around and had headwind again. forget Dr Evils plans for world domination, some supervillain has a wind machine for each of us

[@MsNimJ]

That bumpy road was next to the griftpark. I cyle there regularly and its the worst path in Utrecht :p its the trees pushing up through the pavement. Most everywhere else in Utrecht is good :p Edit: they were singing happy birthday at the end :D

[@BorghBorgh]

Yeah, and the way in along Groenekan is also not great. Alround back luck with the route into Utrecht

[@aseq2]

I recently moved to Utrecht. Bike paths here are definitely subpar compared to national standards, it's very noticeable. I've cycled for a few 100kms now and I've hit some spectacular potholes and as you said, a lot of tree roots. But it's annoying to have to watch the road all the time.

[@busybee3141]

Not the worst. The worst are in Lunetten..

[@Muck006]

@@aseq2 You can have a 100km trip from the southeastern corner of Berlin to the Spreewald ... but it's going to be a mix of compacted but sandy forest paths and roads with the occasional "meh" (super narrow) cycling path. It's still fun to do and might even make you come across a beaver / water rat blocking your path.

[@wimvantklooster]

"Wacht op groen" = please wait till the traffic light turns green.

[@ernavill3261]

Also, fietsenstalling = bike storage. As 'fiets' is the Dutch word for bike. However, it has nothing to do with your feet (as those are 'voeten' in Dutch) [I'll just add my comment to this one so they are conveniently grouped.]

[@FoggyMcFogFace]

@@ernavill3261 I think that was a joke because to and English person it kinda sounds like "feets and"

[@SharienGaming]

heh dutch being fun again - thats essentially "wait on green" thrown through the ringer a bit^^

[@ernavill3261]

@@FoggyMcFogFace I know, but the statement genuinely got me wondering where the word fiets came from, because I knew in English, French and German the word has a logical origin. EN: bicycle literally means 2 wheels FR: vélo comes from vélocipède and means moved by feet. GER: fahrrad means something like drive wheel. Yet the etymology of the word 'fiets' is not as obvious, and apparently even not known for certain.

[@myotherchannel2729]

@@ernavill3261 I thought it was a corruption of the French word "vitesse", but looking at my Etymologisch Woordenboek (De Vries & De Tollenaere, 1991 printing) they mention a modification of the French "velocipede" (vielesepee, flitsepee), with the final form appearing by 1870 in Apeldoorn, influenced by a couple of existing Dutch and dialect words - at least I think that's what it is saying - Dutch is not my first language!

[@JackMellor498]

The Netherlands is such an inspiring country in terms of great public transport to create alternatives to car dependency. I’d love to travel there someday. According to De Filmende Fietser, a Dutch cycle nerd based in Utrecht and cycling advocate, the Dutch despite not being a sovereign currency issuer relying on the euro, unlike us Brits with our pound, invest around €500 million a year on cycling infrastructure. Seems expensive, until you realise that the effects of building quality infrastructure that people can easily use prevents around 6,500 premature deaths and saves their healthcare system €19 billion.

[@RedbadvanRijn-ft3vv]

And import and use less oil. I use the car for big distances,and real bad wheater,,but stil love driving that thing. If i go to the supermarket,i am faster with my bike,than with the car to.

[@DenUitvreter]

Maybe, but much more important it saves us a lot time and traffic jams.

[@djphatb]

Public transport is just getting a bit expensive.

[@Draregkoeliekalie]

If all dutch people that use their bikes on their daily commutes our city centers would be an horrific traffic jam non stop.

[@gember1382]

Our public transportation is good, yes, but for average person it's sooo (maybe even too) expensive and during the busy hours it's very busy so you have to stand. Nowadays it's cheaper to go by car alone than take the train. And they tickets after going to get even more expensive in 2025, with the reason that nobody takes the train anymore....stupid

[@arthurvangenk1549]

Cute little town??? Utrecht is one of the biggest cities in the Netherlands 😂😂😂

[@Paul-qj4dr]

Compared to cities in most other countries Utrecht (and I would even say Amsterdam), are small.

[@fezmaster9938]

Guy lives in London and Utrecht has less than 500k people. I think his idea of what counts as a city is a bit skewed

[@xavierdarche4822]

@@Paul-qj4drEven in European perspective Utrecht and Amsterdam are large cities. Utrecht has about 375.000 inhabitants which would place it as fifth in France, just larger than Nice. 16th in Germany, just behind Duisburg. 8th in Italy, about as big as Florence. And in Spain it would be 10th, being bigger than Bilbao. Amsterdam is significantly bigger. With almost 950.000 citizens it would the 2nd city in France, 5th city in Germany, 4th in Italy and 3rd in Spain. It’s also important to understand that in the USA they would include a lot of the neighboring municipalities into the city. For Amsterdam this would be Amstelveen, Diemen, Zaandam, Haarlem and a few others. For Utrecht it would include Nieuwegein, Vianen, Houten, De Bilt and Maarssen.

[@ainmosni42]

I'm from Amsterdam, and even Amsterdam is a town tbh.

[@joffryvangrondelle]

⁠@@ainmosni42tuurlijk en london is een provinciaal stadje….

[@josee2000]

Having just done a bike ride between ottawa and montreal in canada, you have no idea how jealous i am of all these high quality bike paths. It makes a huge difference

[@KootFloris]

Do you know the KZbin channel: Not Just Bikes, it will increase jealousy, yet may also help convince local government to change things at home. (It's by a Canadian who moved to NL and looks at (bike) infrastructures around the world)

[@DanDanDoe]

@@KootFlorisI’d also advise Active Towns, as he tends to show more improvements made elsewhere without focusing on (urban) Dutch bicycle infrastructure.

[@KootFloris]

@@DanDanDoe great addition!

[@stephensaines7100]

Yeah, I'm in Toronto, and finding even low-grade bike paths into and out of Toronto is nigh impossible. Some would say "ah, but the Waterfront Trail!". Give me a break, the best trails in Ontario at least, are rail-trails, and none get you in or out of Toronto. The Nederlands looks like a dream.

[@KootFloris]

@@stephensaines7100 I am Dutch, and your dream is a treasured reality. And it came to be through tough fights fought by a cyclist union for the number of dead kids in traffic in the seventies, and in your case it might be for unliveable suburbs if you don't own a car (which is all young kids) and include number of deaths through obesity, car fumes and everything else. Rage against the oil machine for your future. Cycling does a lot of good.

[@steve.mc73]

I spent a week cycle touring the Netherlands this summer and loved the network of safe lanes. Then I had to come home to Kent where cyclists are the bottom of the food chain and you risk your life every day on your bike. I think our Dutch friends sometimes forget how great their infrastructure is.

[@weerwolfproductions]

No we don't, we appreciate it a lot 🙂

[@sjakrijnen]

You could have used the path next to the Amsterdam-Rhine Channel all the way. It’s fast because you will use a separate bike way with almost no cars beside you, just on the dyke. No trafic lights just ride on. It ends in A‘dam at the Schellingwoudebrug. So near Weesp, Driemond stay on the dyke.

[@MarijkeBT]

True. I only started realising how very good our infrastucture actually is and appreciating it more since watching KZbin video's from Not just bikes and video's like this one.

[@rogerwilco2]

You can change it! The Dutch are not some magical breed of humans. We elect our politicians and advocate for changes we want. Local initiatives help a lot as well. And showing up to town meetings and talking to local government officials involved in planning.

[@raisan5989]

​@@weerwolfproductions But we complain about it like we complain about everything

[@Lillith.]

7:36 it doesn't look like an upscale suburb. 80s copy paste buildings that haven't been improved, just grass as a green space, poorly maintained sidewalks. In a town these are your cheaper homes to buy, but majority is probably rental.

[@rogerwilco2]

Indeed. It is row townhouses. Those are not in upscale neighbourhoods. Those would have detached houses or maybe some semi-detachted houses.

[@stephensaines7100]

Well if that's "copy and paste" in Holland, I'm even more impressed with how tidy and well-kept the neighbourhood is. I'm an avid distance cyclist, and somehow I've got to get to the Nederlands and do some touring there....with my own bike, and no, not an E-assist one.

[@Lillith.]

@@stephensaines7100 it's something we don't appreciate enough because it's our normal and looks rather boring. If you want to cycle in the Netherlands I would recommend looking on Nederlandfietsland for beautiful routes. The longest route is one that takes you all around the Netherlands in 21 days and visits all but two of our provinces in 1373km. Characteristic villages and towns, dunes, dikes, forests, polders, rivers, heathland, hills; this tour has it all.

[@mfbfreak]

@@rogerwilco2 By now, however, even those ultra bland 80s row houses have gotten so expensive anywhere in the Randstad, that they could essentially be called upscale. You can easily expect to pay 1200-1500 euro a month for one of those, or over 400.000 to buy. Bland as they may be, they usually are nice, comfortable places to live, and the construction quality is good enough to never need a whole roof renovation. Isolation will be badly needed though.

[@TheBayru]

​@@stephensaines7100 We were taught in school all houses in the Netherlands are copy paste due to stringent puritan city planning. Like, you can't just get an architect to design a nice house that looks a little different from your neighbours. I imagine it's a bit like those fancy neighbourhoods in the USA with white picket fences and draconic rules on if you are allowed to park your utility vehicle on your own driveway and stuff.

[@baskoning9896]

If you are not used to biking: stretching is very much needed. Also: the wind always being head wind is true. Imagine going 25 km/h into any direction, and the wind blowing in your back at 10km/h: You will experience 15 km/h head wind. Only if the wind blows harder then you are biking, ánd is in your back, will you experience little back-wind. But such wind speeds are pretty rare. So you will more or less always experience head wind.

[@borchen0]

aaahhh..finally someone who understands the perceived headwind situation!

[@cooledcannon]

I have experienced tailwinds occasionally when I go

[@baskoning9896]

@@cooledcannon If you ride pretty slow, your chance to experience back wind is greater: if the wind is 11km/h in your back, you will experience 1km/h backwind. The faster you go, the more rare it becomes: if you go 25 km/h, the wind has to be greater then 25 km/h ánd be in your back. The average wind speed is 2.2 (in land) to 20 (coast).

[@rondowar]

I mean.. that's not really how it works Headwind isn't the same as air resistance/drag, and you will 100% feel the difference between 5km/h wind from behind vs from the front, even when going 30km/h It's likely a combination of bias and wind doing weird things inside tighter streets: You remember annoying headwind more than tailwind; wind from the side can often feel like headwind as well; and in tight streets, wind tends to follow the street, so the wind is more often straight on rather than from the side Besides all of that, the prominent wind direction in the morning vs evening aren't often the same; where I lived, the morning wind was usually from the east, and the afternoon wind from the west. That's not to say the wind did a 180 every day, but some days it did

[@teslatrooper]

As Dutch person that doesn't live in Amsterdam, I kind of appreciate how most of the tourism is contained in that area. At the same time Amsterdam is a lot more busy and hectic than most of the rest of the country so it's not the most accurate representation, I honestly feel like a bit of a tourist myself when I go there which I don't get for any other Dutch city. There's not really a good translation for entschuldigung, "sorry" works in some situations (literally the same word and meaning as in english). For thanks there's "dankjewel" or "bedankt" At the roundabout you were supposed to go around the left, the cycle lane with stripes down the middle is two-way but it is a little weird how that roundabout was laid out.

[@ChristiaanHW]

Amsterdam is where all the first time tourist go, and of course the ones that want to cause trouble (drinking, smoking stuff, etc) but the tourist that wants to experience the real Netherlands and/or already knows what the country has to offer venture all over. i live on the edge of the Veluwe and here there are loads of Germans every holiday, they love the camping's and cycling through the forests around here.

[@NLJeffEU]

Alsow the other way around. When i told them i came from Zeeland in a coffeeshop their eyes went big and couldnt believe it 😂 but yeah i definitely feel like a tourist in Amsterdam

[@eli_r]

Pardon works.

[@richardtalbot8769]

@@ChristiaanHWmy first visit to the Netherlands was a trip to Rotterdam from Vlissingen, my second was a trip to Rotterdam and Keukenhof, then Sluis, and finally Amsterdam. its odd but i prefer Utrecht to Amsterdam people seem to have more time and fewer tourists. When i do go to Amsterdam for the day from Utrecht as part of my holiday I always use Zuid and the Metro as CS is just too busy. I have Ov will travel, I speak some Dutch, I have the AH app on my phone and collect my plastic bottles :)

[@ffqm]

Unfortunately Utrecht is now getting a lot of tourism as well. It's still disable, but I hope it won't get much worse.

[@robbertvannes9071]

They were singing the Dutch version of Happy Birthday: Lang zal hij leven.

[@maasro]

Which, given how much Dutch and English are alike, should be quite understandable: Lang zal ie leven = Long shall he live, In de gloria = In the glory, all in the same word order.

[@TrulyMadlyShallowly]

And you missed the cycling superhighway next to the canal! 30 kilometer without a traffic light or junction

[@u.2b215]

In the Netherlands the legal rule is that if there is no sidewalk you are allowed to use the bike lane. However if there is plenty of room to overtake it's not seen as a problem for joggers to be there even if there is a sidewalk.

[@robin1987100]

Talks with waitress in english -> continues to thank her in spanish xD.

[@AndreasHontzia]

Yeah, the Mr. Bean vibes were very strong. 😅

[@robertwilloughby8050]

Fun Fact: Hilversum, which you went through, was for many years the ultimate "media city". Nearly every radio station, Television station, film stuidos in the Netherlands would be found in Hilversum. It's a lot more spread out now, but there is still a strong media presence in Hilversum.

[@JasperJanssen]

Hillywood!

[@robertwilloughby8050]

@@JasperJanssen Is that the nickname for it? If so, that's really cool, man.

[@erik5374]

@@robertwilloughby8050yes, and most media still is there.

[@jackfastlane1495]

@@JasperJanssen or Beverly Hilversum

[@JasperJanssen]

@@robertwilloughby8050 it’s not that common, but you do hear it sometimes.

[@kevartje1295]

The people in the street sang a dutch birthday song: Dutch: Lang zal hij leven, lang zal hij leven, lang zal hij leven in de gloria. In de glo-ri-a, in de glo-ri-a! English: Long shall he live, long shall he live, long shall he live in the glory. In the glo-ry, in the glo-ry! Gloria is an old word and means Glory but we dont use the word gloria anymore. (The song is from 1860, at least the first known written words were writen in 1860) The modern word for Glory is Glorie and we pronounce it the same as in English but with a softer g.

[@Louquethat]

I know you know this but for those that don't. Its a birthday song.

[@kevartje1295]

@@Louquethat i already gave that information in my comment tho 😋

[@nienke7713]

The red street was a fietsstraat (cycling street) which prioritizes cycling but allows use by cars as guests

[@demooisteNAAM]

Een FIETSPAD. Het woord fietsstraat, is geen Nederlands woord

[@nienke7713]

@@demooisteNAAM op een fietspad mogen alleen fietsen. Op een fietsstraat mogen ook autos te gast. Het zijn twee verschillende woorden voor verschillende dingen. Zoek het woord fietsstraat maar eens op.

[@cryptoshorts1307]

@@demooisteNAAM het staat letterlijk op de weg 🤣🤣

[@DantevanGemert]

Mind that there is no actual difference between a "fietsstraat" and a normal (30km/h) street, other than the colour of the asphalt. The road colour and street sign at the start do nothing more than kindly ask car drivers to please be considerate of the cyclists. As a cyclist, it's best to ignore these streets and just use them as if the asphalt was black.

[@nienke7713]

@@DantevanGemert nah, you just want cyclists out of your way, it's for cyclists, and so cyclists should cycle proudly in the middle, not on the sides as if it's for cars

[@Tristan-mc4wm]

12:00 when cycling you don't need to go around the roundabout counterclockwise necessarily. Both clockwise and counterclockwise are allowed. About the always having headwind when cycling. Welcome to the Netherlands, where the wind specifically blows in the opposite direction of where you're going.

[@pcrobec]

There is a caveat to your comment. What you say is only correct if there is a cycle path with two-way traffic. If this is a one-way cycle path, you must follow the indicated direction of travel.

[@Blade-hf9po]

"Gracias, I mean danke, I mean... damn it." - And she's long gone, peak comedy.

[@multifandomnerd1328]

i'm giggling at the consistent use of "small town" in regards to Hilversum, that's one of *THE* cities i grew up knowing about and admiring AND Utrecht as well?? oh my, thanks for humbling us evan

[@quaefolia394]

The Netherlands always had the 'PIN' network for card transactions (reflected in the Dutch verb for 'paying using a card transaction' which is 'pinnen'), which was a specifically Dutch system. It was eventually converted to the Maestro network from Mastercard. These days Mastercard has deprecated Maesto as well, and Dutch banks finally are switching to the main Mastercard/Visa payment networks, so most terminals these days will finally also accept those as well, but we do still have some holdouts here and there, such as the place you got your lunch, that haven't gotten a new terminal (or software updates).

[@Bushtuckerman71]

I am Dutch and live in Sweden and they use debit master card as our normal bank card, when I visit my mother land I use maistro card because they don't except master of visa and they think it's a credit card what is usual in the Netherlands if you have visa master card. Now Sweden is stopping maistro and I hope we can use Google pay.

[@aadmannee3928]

@@Bushtuckerman71 The same happened in NL. Since last week I can only use Google pay when using my phone for contactless payments.

[@relo999]

The "holdouts" are pretty much everywhere I find. It's mostly due to the cost of getting the machine replaced and business' often having a 5+ year contract for a machine. Paying 500+ euro as a business per machine kinda kills adoption especially if you've gotten one in the last year or 2.

[@Paul-qj4dr]

It's happening very slowly, slower then they planned. Rabobank started to issue new Mastercard debit cards in may this year, so companies will be forced to switch (slowly over the next few years)

[@KevinCruijssenQuuador]

Instead of the German "Entschuldigung", you can just say "sorry". It's the same in English and Dutch. But some alternatives for the English phrase "excuse me" would be: "pardon"; "neem me niet kwalijk"; "excuses"/"excuus"/"excuseer me". 17:08 They were singing the Dutch version of happy birthday. :)

[@JaapGinder]

In The Netherlands credit cards are not widely accepted, only in certain tourist areas and in most hotels. A debit card is the real way to pay here. By the way, that is in most European countries the way to pay. And in Germany, whenever you decide to go there, use cash. Although debet cards are common there, a lot of shops, restaurants and bars don't acceot them. The same for Austria, but more in the smaller villages. So, now you are warned. But just get a debet card, that will be fine!

[@barvdw]

It depends on the country, the Netherlands has been averse to credit cards the most in my experience, other countries less so. They are also getting more common since both Visa and Mastercard are phasing out their separate debit card brands (Maestro and VPay), and are integrating them in the same network as their credit card. Since earlier this year, my 2 Maestro cards have been converted to a Visa Debit and a Mastercard Debit card, respectively. France has been used to credit cards as well, their Carte Bleue has been folded into Visa for years now. Germany is not averse to credit cards, but to all cards, if they take cards, credit cards are generally accepted as well in my experience, but yes, a lot of shops don't accept cards at all.

[@TalesOfWar]

I thought Germany was dragged into the 21st century with card and contactless payments during Covid? It's still super cash based? Here in the UK it's rare to find anywhere that doesn't take card/contactless, and it's ever more common that places don't accept cash at all especially in the cities. The same is true in Sweden whenever I've visited. I've been a bunch of times but still never actually seen Swedish cash in person lol. None of my friends even have any when I've been there, they just use their cards or Apple Pay etc.

[@barvdw]

@@TalesOfWar they were, and went right back after Covid was mostly over. I'm exaggerating a bit, there's still more card acceptance than before Covid, but less than during the height of Covid. I'm Belgian, we are somewhere in between the Dutch and the Germans when it comes to cash or electronic payments, but I always carry some cash with me, just in case.

[@urbandiscount]

Nah, I can pay at my local Jumbo with Amex. In Bolsward

[@mytube001]

@@TalesOfWar Yeah, I'm Swedish and I hate cash. Luckily, I never have to use cash these days, and I don't have any on me at any time. I think I last paid anything with cash was in 2015 or 2016, and even then that was just to get rid of some old banknotes that were about to stop being legal tender. I've almost exclusively paid with cards since the mid 00s.

[@sixpackpilot]

Utrecht pronunciation is on point. Unlike many you really get the 'echt'-part right. Not the most natural sound for English speakers.

[@evan]

I just used my German sounds 😅 sometimes useful

[@hagen-p]

As far as I know, English does not have the 'ch'-sound from "echt" (or from the German pronunciation of "Kirche"). Source: Back in the day I got a speech synthesizer board for an Amstrad (Schneider) CPC464 and it didn't have the phoneme for this type of 'ch'. I think it had a Votrax SC-01 chip. (I remember I had to add a resistor because the expansion port bit used to signal 'phoneme output complete' was not on the correct level, meaning initially the output was quite garbled.)

[@goonerbeagunner4life]

@@hagen-p It has the sound for the ch in Kirche, but only if followed by /ju/ as in Huge, Human, Hue etc.

[@hagen-p]

@@goonerbeagunner4life The ch sound in human is for German ears more like an "i-hu", and is not suitable for the pronunciation of words like "brechen", "Chemie" and (important) "möchten" (slightly darker/lower). You really need some almost-white-noise for these.

[@nimwey7701]

It's funny to see that however you come from the UK now, we can still see you are a American, just by the way you handle your knife and fork while you eat hahaha

[@ericburbach632]

An American

[@mytube001]

I'm Swedish, and I cut stuff up with the knife, then put the knife aside and eat with just the fork.

[@ericburbach632]

@@mytube001 - a knife

[@TheKingsOfCookie]

@@ericburbach632stfu no one likes you🥰

[@mnqblmmrt]

@@mytube001 Yeah that's different than how we do it But it's especially the holding of the fork But as long as you don;t chew with your mouth open I'm okay with that Hahahahaha

[@tristandunn4628]

Have been to the Netherlands a few times with work. Beautiful country and lovely people. Nice to see some more of it here. I really hope we (the UK) do pull our fingers out and get more cycling infrastructure.

[@VRSVLVS]

Perhaps it's interesting to calculate what the range is of a non-e-bike. How many km can you make on a full belly of frikandelbroodjes and stroopwafels.

[@jeroenimus7528]

Depending on your training level: plenty. I've done 100km from Hilversum to Dongen plenty of times without any fuel stops.

[@rendomstranger8698]

about 40km for a total beginner or someone with a poor condition. Roughly 50 to 60km if you're only used to short distances. Over 100km if you're used to cycling long distances on an almost daily basis. Source: my yearly cycling trips with my dad. I fall under the 50 to 60 km category.

[@jeroenimus7528]

That's a more in depth answer. Thing is, neither frikandellenbroodjes nor stroopwafels are easily/quickly digested, not while exercising hard unless you trained your metabolic system to do so. Which means you are pretty much left with the "normal" energy reserves you had to start with for the duration of the ride. You'll be able to ride about three to five hours (depending on your training level and the effort it takes to keep whatever pace you set) before you'll run out of energy. Multiply your average speed by those hours and you've got your distance.

[@mymemeplex]

Yes, Visa is more accepted than AmEx. If a CC is accepted at all. Normal bank debit cards are fine. contactless works.

[@mipmipmipmipmip-v5x]

Apparently debit system of Dutch banks is planned to move to visa/mastercard, so that will make things easier for creditcards as well. AmEx however is just not used at most places in europe.

[@Hans-gb4mv]

The fact that his Mastercard got declined is worrying as the old Maestro cards are no longer being issued and replaced with Mastercard debit in many EU countries including the Netherlands. AmEx would be a different story, that has always been a lesser used card in Europe.

[@ovidiu_nl]

@@Hans-gb4mv I got a MasterCard betaalpas (debit) from Rabobank a couple of months ago. It works everywhere, same as the previous Maestro. No issues at all. He probably tried to pay with a MasterCard credit card.

[@Lisa_ink]

Mastercard is also not accepted in the AH (biggest supermarket in NL), or at least last year it wasn't. NL is a maestro country...

[@TWEO]

Visa/MC acceptance varies in that Amsterdam has better acceptance than the rest of the country. History behind it is that our old card payment system was very very affordable and worked with a fixed per-transaction fee instead of a percentage. When this all got wrapped up into the Maestro brand, the pricing remained. Now that we’re migrating to mastercard and visa debit cards, the pricing for those transactions will also be a fixed fee instead of a percentage. Basically we’re saving ourselves from paying a 1-2% tax on everything, but it’s cost us in terms of international card acceptance over the past decades.

[@AlexRadler-bw9js]

ou really missed the worlds biggest bike-garage and the Daphne-Schippers-bridge. Two remarkable pieaces of Utrechts great cycling-infrastructure.

[@7_Cheshire_7]

Nice trip! Here is one thing to know about road signs. The white signs with red writing is for bikes and the blue with white writing is mostly for cars

[@Treinbouwer]

17:19 Literally they are singing: Long may he live Long may he live Long may he live in the gloria (latin word) It is followed by hiphip hurray multiple times.

[@JasperJanssen]

15:02 prinsenhof used to be a community center instead of a commercial medical thing - I remember getting a visit from Sinterklaas there in the early 80s.

[@hcjkruse]

Your Utrecht pronunciation is good.

[@ronhoek69]

For a foreigner absolutely.

[@michel_dutch]

It's actually how someone from the south part of the Netherlands would pronounce it.

[@ronhoek69]

@@michel_dutch When a bit under influence

[@Treinbouwer]

​@michel_dutch Not exactly exactly, but he is genuinely realy close. Usually I'm quite sceptic with foreigners pronunciation, especially Americans, but he is genuinely good at it.

[@Nynke_K]

SO good.

[@hcjkruse]

Next time take the overnight ferry back to the UK. Via Hoek van Holland Harwich. Much more relaxing than flying.

[@weerwolfproductions]

Yes, you can take the metro to right next to the ferry terminal in Hoek van Holland (used to be a railway line), and Harwich International ferry terminal has a trainstation downstairs with good connections to London. You can get a footpassenger / Greater Anglia train ticket as well, that's probably cheaper than buying a train ticket from Harwich Int. to London.

[@hcjkruse]

@@weerwolfproductions I did that for 2.5 years every 3 weeks. Only I had to use the rail replacement service because conversation from the train to the metro service between Schiedam and Hoek van Holland was still going on. I am originally from Schiedam but left in 1994.

[@hcjkruse]

the Dutch leg used to have an included train ticket as well, Dutch flyer. But that no longer exists and I didn't need it because of the business train card I had. Pre-booked meals in the a la carte restaurant used to be nice, but I saw that changed. The Stena plus lounge is nice.

[@hcjkruse]

You can try an authentic Dutch Chinese- Indonesian restaurant in Hook van Holland if you like. It serves not too bad food. There is a sushi restaurant in the old train station, I never tried that.

[@weerwolfproductions]

@@hcjkruse Oh yes the bus! I remember that as well. I didn't go as often as you, only once a year, but first couple of years it was still the train, then a few years the bus from Schiedam. Last time I went I could take the metro from Rotterdam Alexander (came off the train there) straight to Hoek van Holland. Was lovely after having to take the bus.

[@NanoNymus9733]

Nice, you found a very good way to "discover" the Netherlands. And yes, there are plenty bicycle paths and very beautiful sceneries just around the corner. FTM, you should take a ride in province "Drenthe" or maybe even try the islands like Terschelling or Ameland. These are very different from the route you were cycling in this video where it is mostly polder (aka flat) and rectangular (lookup ruilverkaveling). But indeed nice you took the effort to record and edit this video.

[@baskoning9896]

Its not a highway, its an intercity road. Highways have traffic in both ways separated from each other, you are allowed to drive there at maximum allowed speed (120 or 100 km/h), and they have on and off ramps, and certainly no bike path. Credit cards are a nuisance, they have to call in to check if its a real creditcard, and if it has money on it, and pay a fee. Its not worth the hassle. Most people pay with their bank-card, you can hook that up to your phone, so you can pay with your phone, or get some money from the ATM with the card and pay with that, or use a phone app that you can hook onto it ('tikkie' for example), and send a pay request via that, or the good old 'bank transfer', but thats also a bit of a hassle, and it takes a while to complete (one day or more if you are from outside Netherlands), its only instantaneously if you both have the very same bank. But if they see you make the transfer, they will be good. Its verrrry rare though.

[@JulesStoop]

In the US, the word ‘highway’ doesn’t exclusively refer to a grade-separated motorway with at least two lanes per direction, a median barrier, and a hard shoulder-or whatever the exact definition is for a dutch ‘autosnelweg’. Many of our regional N-roads-even if they have just a single carriageway and no physical median barrier-would be called highways as well in the US (and some other English speaking countries). So highway is not really equivalent to ‘autosnelweg’.

[@weeardguy]

@@JulesStoop Reason why I usually to refer to the British motorways as even US-residents usually understand I'm talking about grade-seperated multi-lane, high-speed roads ;)

[@SenorZorros]

This also tripped me up at some point because the terminology does not match one-to-one but roughly it goes "highway"="autoweg" and "freeway"="(auto)snelweg". It is called a freeway because the traffic is not obstructed by crossings or traffic lights like the snelweg. It becomes a bit more confusing because In the US you may see a lot of divided roads which are not freeways. These do exist in the Netherlands, for instance the Kennedylaan in Eindhoven but are kind of rare here. At the same time the us does not really have the difference between "autoweg" and "provinciale weg" using the term highway for both. British terminology is even more different and I don't know it.

[@weeardguy]

@@SenorZorros Yeah me too. I have never remembered when something actually is a carriageway or not, which is why I also don't know when something is actually a dual carriageway. Of course, I know that the dual refers to the number of lanes for every direction, but then it comes back to the 'when is it a carriageway or not' question ;)

[@Zhiperser]

@@SenorZorros And some of us Americans don't use the term freeway at all. I'd use interstate and highway, but never freeway. A highway will have interruptions no matter the size and the interstate never will. Freeway is a very west coast thing.

[@dbdesigns3924]

Just watched this as a dutch guy that lives in Hilversum and works as a public space designer for the same town! Love to cycle myself and very nice to see. Great to see how you enjoyed going past our town and also great to see someone make video's about the cycling routes around Amsterdam-Hilversum-Utrecht! If you're ever back in the Netherlands ; The dutch waterline cycling route or the cycling route around the 'Gooimeer' are really good routes!

[@geertien]

I found it funny how you called Hilversum a town where people in the Netherlands would generally call it a city, but proceeded to call the church there (as we'd call it) a cathedral. Different standards for sizes I guess 🙈

[@v025-b1r]

This is one my favourite videos you've ever made, traveling+ cycling+ chit chat? Amazing combo, also your recording and editing skills keep getting better and better, and that transition with the dron was flawless

[@evan]

Dron?

[@metalhead2550]

For those interested.... Lennox, Kerkbrink 2, 1211 BX Hilversum.

[@thecaptainmarko]

Thats definately worth getting of your bike or out of your car for. Great food and top notch service!!

[@Nynke_K]

I wonder if Evan couldn't just have paid with a British debit card (but they must have checked, so maybe he doesn't have one?)

[@hypatian9093]

The sandwich looked awesome!

[@JasperKlewer]

The bump at 17:02 marks the outer perimeter of the Roman settlement from 2000 years ago. There’s an underground museum at the Dom square about the history with really cool excavations.

[@MinerBat]

the singers were singing "long will he live" (does not translate great...) which is the most popular birthday song in the country. also "wacht op groen" simply means "wait for green"

[@feliksisaksen]

Bikes are such a fix and a cure for so many of todays problems. Love this video!

[@AlexRadler-bw9js]

Riedfelt-Collage: Gerrit Riedfelt was the architect who designed one of the most iconic houses of the early 20th centuries. The Riedfelt-Schröder-Haus in Utrecht. Well worth a visit.

[@MrAronymous]

Rietveld, Riedfelt-Schröder-Huis

[@HectorGarcia-bu6lf]

Dude, the story of my life in the Netherlands. I think I can count with one hand how many times I haven't found headwind. Much more enjoyable (note my sarcasm) when it's raining and the raindrops are hitting you in the face all the time. Nice video.

[@cactiplant2471]

This popped onto my homepage, and it looked like fun. Then at 13:33 I was like "Wait, I recognise this" (I live in Utrecht), and then 13:40 he passed by my district, and I was going insane. Great video!

[@evan]

Thanks :)

[@user-marco-S]

Hilversum has changed in the years. The roads at 8:31 and 8:52 were once a main road with busy traffic. The one way road you see at 10:21 was in that time in the other direction.

[@anniek4681]

Wacht op groen, means wait for the light to turn green. Then you can go.

[@DanDanDoe]

Always fun to recognise my home in a foreigner’s KZbin video. I live right by that gezondheidscentrum. There are indeed some bumpy bike paths in Utrecht, because of the trees roots. The bike path by the park at around 15:30 has been recently fixed, but the tree roots will still push the road up eventually. Having cycled that road daily for a few years I know exactly where to stand up on my pedals so I don’t feel the bumps. Also, Utrecht is indeed a city. “Wacht op groen” means “wait for green”. I hope your knee healed quickly.

[@Fietsvlogger]

Glad you enjoyed it! The red road in Utrecht is a Fietsstraat, which basically means the cyclists rule over here - cars are allowed but submissive. And those people were singing a birthday song. 🎵

[@keninchicago]

A very whimsical journey. Thanks for bringing us along.

[@hcjkruse]

You probably like the bicycle parking at the Utrecht railway station. search some footage on KZbin. Utrecht is actually the best cycling city in the world.

[@evan]

I went! Got lost in there haha

[@04smallmj]

When I lived in Utrecht I did this journey once. I went the "boring" route mostly following the Amsterdam-Rijnkanaal. I also did it on an ebike and it took about 2 hours each way, apart from an extra 30 minutes getting lost in Maarssen!

[@kenwynn3871]

Great video! I always say to people it's easy to visualise dutch cycle infrastructure in the context of inner city usually from visiting Amsterdam, but to see it's real transformative effect you need to get out into the countryside and find how it still connects every place and community and route you could want, the entire country is door to door by bike if you want it. Also really struggling to see the logic of your route, lol. The most direct way to utrecht is just stick to the Rijnkanaal and a good add on is to go via Muiden, the river vecht, and Nigtevecht so you can use the new cycle bridge Liniebrug and Bruekelen (Brooklyn names sake) and a bunch of pretty villages either side of the canal. Next time go north and check out places like Zaanse Schans, Edam, Marken, Hoorn. Also next time you should check out indoor cycle parking (fietsenstalling) there's the world's biggest at utrecht, and new underwater ones at Amsterdam centraal

[@ilsepaans.0184]

They sang the Dutch version of Happy Birthday, they sang 'lang zal hij/zij leven'. Hij/Zij is He/Her.

[@Bernadette-vW]

The first shot: omg, that's Hilversum, my hometown.

[@jeroenimus7528]

Not the most efficient or even beautiful route through Hilversum though. But at least he got to see the Vitus kerk.

[@Treinbouwer]

I like how you show the Netherlands how I know it because you bike between cities and thus through the many towns and villages.😊

[@EdwinMartin]

17:53 The name of the beer Eeuwige Jeugd means Eternal Youth 🙂

[@etiennedebruijn1596]

Thank you for your positive attitude. I love your video.

[@SteltekOne]

They sang the Dutch version of "Lang soll er leben"/"Hoch soll er leben" (Long shall he live), followed by something I didn't understand either.

[@robbertvannes9071]

They were singing: “in de Gloria”. Doesn’t really carry any meaning anymore. Would be translated as: long shall he live in glory. Either being: in the glory of god; or: with honour, depending on who sings it.

[@MrOpiumDubs]

2:00 If you're on an ebike and it feels like there is a motor on your bike with every little bit of pressure you put on your pedals, that's because there is. 😂

[@evertdevries8814]

I also noticed the cadence (rpm) was quite low, placement of feet on the pedals was incorrect and the catwalk sway of the hips indicated the saddle was not at the right height although that could be to do with the shape of the seat itself. All together, a recipe for injury - both real joint and tendon damage, and muscle pain. Seat height should be set so that with the balls of your feet on the peddle your leg should be just slightly bent at the knee, certainly no more than the kink between the top and the bottom of this capital letter "Y", (ignoring one of the arms the Y) and perhaps a little less, even.

[@phyliciajoykloes]

Haha, there's a head wind so often in the Netherlands. Even when you do a round trip and expect to have the wind in your back once you turn around, the wind has turned. Lovely video! I'm excited for the biking vacation in Noord-Brabant a week from now.

[@tuxcatjodi]

Yay....bonus vlog on Saturday ❤

[@slakkie]

As someone born and grew up in Hilversum, lived in Amsterdam, thinks Utrecht is a great city and no longer lives in the Netherlands I was able to pick apart your route at several places. Fun video.

[@harrym740]

The dutch wind always seems to be a headwind when you are on a bike😂😢

[@djphatb]

And then when you go back it for some reason changed and you have a headwind again.

[@frankhooper7871]

Always - and in both directions

[@jpdj2715]

When you are pedaling 16.1 km/h (10 miles/hour) in air standing still then that speed is your experienced headwind. Improve your drag coefficient and you experience less. That said, commuting on race bike solo with an average of 36 km/h, my experience, near the North Sea coast, was that the dominant wind in the morning was (from) SW and in the evening NW. Headwind all day, plus the effect of my own speed. Drag increases exponentially with speed, by the way. In a lorry's (AKA truck) slipstream on the provincial road's tarmac off the paved bike path I could easily do 70 km/h with zero drag. Way back when a young man.

[@borchen0]

There we go again; the reason for this perceived headwind is simple: when there is hardly any wind at all 'windstil' you create your own headwind while cycling... Often wind coming from the side is also perceived as headwind.

[@djphatb]

@borchen0 windstill in holland that's hilarious.

[@jordibuchner]

07:30 the places where you have merged bike and car traffic will mostly be 30 zones, maybe 50 if you're outside a village rurally but the tendency will be bike pathes to keep traffic seperate.

[@nienke7713]

You probably were meant to go counterclockwise on that roundabout, seems like there was just one continuous cycle path that, from your perspective, went counter clockwise and just happened to not include the quart section that would've been fastest for you

[@norbertvanderhulst28]

The cycle path where he should have been actually continues at the left hand side of the road just as it has for the last 2 k he had cycled. Very silly trying to use the roundabout (clearly only designed for cars) and ignoring all signs pointig towards Utrecht. Getting lost there was not caused by road design.

[@jeffafa3096]

7:30 it's actually just a regular small village, but in larger cities this would probably be your regular suburb. The upscale suburbs are usually free standing homes, these are all housing blocks which are very common throughout The Netherlands.

[@sonja6090]

Instead of enschuldigung, you can just stay in English. ''Sorry'' and ''Pardon'' are words we also use in dutch - just slightly differently pronounced.

[@paulanderson1102]

I know this is a month late but I want to thank you for this video. I hadn't been using it for over a year. I have now recently got back into cycling and this video was very helpful and helped me gain my confidence on it again

[@mirjamvond1731]

The whole video I was thinking "his saddle is too high!" 😅 I had some knee issues myself and my psychical therapist told me your upper leg should be horizontal when the paddle is at its higher point 🙂

[@lorettabes4553]

I personally remember it by waist height. That's about the height the saddle should be. Or when you paddle, your leg/knee should be almost outstretched

[@UskInaTE]

No shade to your physical therapist but that’s not great advice. It’s a lot better to have your saddle a bit on the higher side if you have knee issues as it allows you to, almost fully, extend your legs as you pedal which puts a lot less pressure on your knees. I think that his saddle height isn’t that far off, I work in the bicycle industry with these exact bikes.

[@Moody_Blues_]

About the creditcard situation: yes, they aren't as widely accepted in the Netherlands as in the US or UK for example. I'd say about 50/50 chance and bigger restaurants tend to accept them, but then again as a Dutch native I've had much more luck with Mastercard than with Visa, which are the 2 most common over here. It's because shops/restaurants need to pay a fee along with a subscription to even have that ability and both MC and Visa is just too expensive for the handful of tourists that use it. On another note about Apple Pay: I found out the other way around in the US that Apple Pay doesn't mean the same everywhere, it still is linked to whatever you're using behind the scenes. I had my Dutch debit card linked to Apple Pay and could pay in 100% of the places in the Netherlands, without failure. But for a business trip to the US, it did not work, 100% failure rate. Until I bumped into someone at a Starbucks who asked me where I was from and he explained this to me. I couldn't link my Mastercard to Apple Pay because the supplier didn't support it, so I just had to whip out the physical Mastercard every time in the US, no problem of course. And I kid you not: a week after my trip there I got an email from my bank saying: hey we now support Mastercard to be linked to Apple Pay! Yeah, great timing lol. Anyway, if you visit the Netherlands and you have multiple creditcards, make sure you have a Mastercard as that will give you the best chance of success. But be aware that creditcards aren't accepted in a lot of places, so a good alternative is a (temporary) international bank account like Bunq, Revolut or N26 and link that to Apple Pay. It works 100% like a debit card and you just have to transfer money from your own account to this new account which you can cancel after your trip. Some might cost about €10 a month, but if you're visiting for a few weeks, then that's all it's gonna cost you.

[@SideWalkAstronomyNetherlands]

In dutch you say your verontschuldigingen ( excuses) like this: sorry, pardon, het spijt me. Dank je ( thank ye ) Not "danke", that is German.

[@DanDanDoe]

To add some nuance: Sorry is sorry, “pardon” is “excuse me”, and “het spijt me” is a more extreme sorry and not really necessary on a daily basis (unless you make some really significant mistakes).

[@kevartje1295]

I also think you should add that dank je is pronounced just like danke but with a j inbetween, so je is pronounced almost like the "je" in adjective.

[@ORA1978]

Many people mentioned to adjust the height of the seatpost to avoid knees hurting. It also helps to move the saddle a bit back or forth so you knees are straight above your toes when the cranck is horizontal.

[@mavadelo]

Yourpronunciation of Utrecht is one of the best I have heard from a foreigner. I am a "normal, non-assisted bike" cyclist myself but personally would never be so "elitist" to say or claim e-bikes are "not real cycling". It helps mre people to enjoy te outdoors, especiallly people that get older and wouldn't be able to do long tour drives anymore can now extend their cycling years with many extra years. 18:45 huh? Why would that be an upscale subrb? looks like an everyday small(er) town neighborhood to me. There is no "segregation" in the Netherlands, "rich" and "poor" live together in the same neighborhoods. In most neighborhoods you will find social housing, low budget homes and high(er) budget homes. Only a few very distinct places are considered "upper class" like certain areas in what is called "t Gooi (Hilversum, Bussum, Naarden, Laren mainly) and certain areas around the Hague but they are rare. The name Hilversum is often shortened to "H'sum" just as Amsterdam is often shortened to A'dam and Rotterdam to "R'dam" (and "sGravenhage to "Den Haag" and 'sHertogenbosch to "Den Bosch") 8"01 Meh.. no that is not how you pronounce it but close enough :) Lived there for a few years. As someone born and living in Utrecht but raised for many years in H'sum and Bussum, this entire route is "home turf" for me. H'sum and Bussum are the "Dutch Hollywood". Dutch television actually started in Bussum but became a "Hilversum thing". The old Dutch radio channels used to be called "Hilversum 1" to "Hilversum 5". All major TV studios and broadcasters have their HQ in Hilversum, some bigger studios are also situated in Aalsmeer. 9:14 You mean "Dank U Wel" (Formal) or "Dank Je Wel" (Informal) 10:20 No button pushing needed, the bus carries a transmitter, the bollards pick up the signal of the aproaching bus and will go down when it is within a certain range. 12:05 Lol, yeah you were on the "wrong side", you should just have followed the cyclepath on the other side straight ahead. Google maps/Apple Maps/Bing Maps can not be trusted in certain areas when it comes to cycling. For locals itis a stretch we drive blindfolded if needed but I guess for outsiders that road can become a bit confusing. Especially since you start out on the "proper" side of the road and after Hollandse Rading get "forced" to the other side. I remember that knee pain, had it a few weeks ago. But for me it took a drive from Utrecht to Spijkenisse (86km one way) instead. That said, I ride a minimum of about 50km a day. But for someone "untrained" you did well but a sore knee is the minimum you could have expected. And yes, wind in the Netherlands will always be against you. Regardless if you go around a corner or even make a 180, you will have to face the wind. Utrecht is the fourth largest city in the Netherlands. It is also considered the cycling capital of the netion. (which is not the same as "best city to cycle", for that you want smaller cities like Apeldoorn or Venendaal) "red streets" are considered "fiets straat" (cycling street) and cars are considered guest users or even prohibited. Utrecht city center is largely "car free" (taxi, bus, ermergency and suplliers excempt)

[@barvdw]

Groningen is another city claiming the 'cycling capital' crown. All agree that Amsterdam is rather mèh compared to them. Rotterdam is also not the best, mainly because after the second world war, it was reconstructed in a more car-centric way. They have done a lot to mitigate the effects on cycling, and many North American cyclists will be jealous about their cycling infrastructure, but you'll probably agree that Rotterdam is a bit shit for cycling.

[@weeardguy]

My city (Purmerend) DEFINITELY has upper-class neighbourhoods where homes are considerably more expensive to VERY expensive and prices for homes easily exceed half a million and for as far you will find rentals (or I know about those rentals) 2000 euro and higher is probably very normal.

[@inesalveano1356]

NIce ride! My sister rode from Amsterdam (normal bike) to Rotterdam "just because it is possible". It took her 8 hours and she was as happy as can be.

[@collectioneur]

How did you end up in Hilversum while going from Amsterdam to Utrecht? Shortest way is through Breukelen (Brooklyn)...

[@erik5374]

And why cycling along N417, while there are such nice alternatives. The turn at 12:00 would have been better.

[@benkeijs]

The shortest way is not necessarily the funniest or more beautiful way

[@edipires15]

⁠@@benkeijsI cycled from Amsterdam to Utrecht via Breukelen and it a beautiful route.

[@BasBJC]

You visited Utrecht at exactly the right time. The Domtoren, the large belltower in the city center, has just gotten the scaffolding for renovations removed. If you'd come a few months earlier nearly no part of the tower would have been visible.

[@Leonardo-ql1qu]

At 2:30 min.: Dude, you just passed the Van Moof main station. Hallowed grounds!

[@donmc1950]

A few years ago my wife and I took a 5 day bike and barge trip from Amsterdam to Maastricht. Our tour cycled in a long line thru Utrecht through the crowds of cylists at rush hour, quite the experience

[@hcjkruse]

next time do you participate in the world championship headwind cycling? Yes it does exist.

[@weerwolfproductions]

It got cancelled this year due to storm.

[@vivalozwastaken]

That would be horrible to plan if you don't live nearby, especially not even in the same country. They decide to organise it only three days before it starts.

[@JaNouWatIkVind]

Op de afsluitdijk.

[@weerwolfproductions]

@@JaNouWatIkVind It was supposed to be in Zeeland last time.

[@weeardguy]

@@weerwolfproductions It's always done in Zeeland, at the Oosterscheldekering. The Afsluitdijk would be a killer with it's 18 km distance (not to say that 9 kilometers with (at least) force 9 winds are a joke, but most likely no one will make it to the finish line with 18 kilometers)

[@SquareoftheyearFM]

Great to see it from the cycling point of view. We drove to Eindhoven this summer and The Netherlands is lovely.

[@KeesBoons]

Looks to me like your cycling in a gear which is too high. Usually for cycling on a normal bike a pedal frequency of about 80 per minute is the best for your knees, and if used to it, the best for your endurance as well. In general the cycle paths in Utrecht are better than in Amsterdam, but you did hit a bumpy part. That's what you sometimes get with all those trees ;o).

[@evan]

Way too high haha

[@bluur101]

And it might just be the video angle, but it looked as though he was pedalling almost with his heels. Knee agony right there when the saddle is too high and you lose the use of your lower leg muscles pedalling like that. Erg vreemde eindelijk.

[@lydiaheijne1476]

Exactly!

[@ronhoek69]

65-70 is fine a well, as lang as you don't put too much pressure on the pedals.

[@bruce.KAY-bike-drifter]

I hope your knee feels better. Thanks for the tour. Yes, getting outside Amsterdam is a much better way to get a feel for what Nederland is really like. Utrecht is a really wonderful city. Tot sins.

[@Semmy27]

You can take out cash money from an ATM with cell phone btw

[@evan]

WHAT

[@TalesOfWar]

Is that with some app or does it just charge you an amount that it then spits out as cash?

[@speerboom]

@@evanYes, some ATMs do the contactless thing. If your physical card would work on a particular ATM and that ATM has the contactless payment symbol, then your phone should be able to connect to the ATM and get you cash.

[@Semmy27]

@@TalesOfWar It works no different to paying with phone in the supermarket or Mcdonald's. So, if this s possible than it should work. Note that not all ATM have it yet, but there a quite a few. You will recognize them by the contactless sign on the ATM itself

[@MrAronymous]

Only with one of the cooperating Dutch banks.

[@swiftlymurmurs]

Lovely to see you bike exactly through the area I've spent almost all of my life in! Between Southeast Amsterdam, Weesp, and Hilversum, that's exactly my home turf, and it's nice to see a foreigner enjoy it in the way I've usually enjoyed it too: On a bike, with a too heavy backpack, and fumbling social etiquette on the way

[@swiftlymurmurs]

Also Evan if you want to pray for someone to heal your knee, you'll have to turn to Saint Roch, patron saint of knee injuries among other things

[@JacobBax]

At that confusing roundabout, you shouldn't have crossed the road at all.

[@actua99]

Lovely cycle :D By the way, the preferred card system is Maestro, which is a debit card system. If a store / cafe / place has a card system, they almost always support it.