Holland is made for bicycling. Everyone does it: Grandma with her groceries, dad with one kid on front and one on back, young women dressed for work, boys with their girlfriends sidesaddle on a back rack. You get the idea! There are separate roads for bicycles and pedestrians. Since everyone rides a bike, the drivers are courteous and knowledgable about bicycle communting. We were able to rent bikes at every city we stopped, if not at the train station, very near the train station.
We enjoyed Harleem, the island of Texel, we extended our trip to include Belgium and Luxembourg since we were not bike bound. The experience was different by train, than by byicycle. Our adventures were more about cities and less about the little villages and country-side that ususally make up the largest part of any bike journey. We followed several specific bike routes around the cities where we rented bikes and found they connected many important sites a visitor would like to see.
Campgrounds in Holland were easily accessible by public transport from the train stations, when we chose not to rent a bike. There were campgrounds right in the heart of most cities. If there wasn't a store or cafe on the grounds, there were always services in close proximity . We were not able to take tables or chairs to take our site, but as in France, found cooking by our tent was just fine. In the evening, campers sat out in front of their tents, soaking up the last rays of sunshine, sipping wines, eating fine cheese, and socailizing. Practically everyone speaks English, so we didn't feel left out by not understanding what was being said.
