Fietsen In Regio Rotterdam

The map was created with my favorite handy dandy My Tracks application for Android.

Today my husband and I went on a nice long bike ride around Rotterdam.  He was finally over his throat infection, I was over my minor cold and the sun was shining again… it was time to get out there!  Initially we planned on a short ride for a half hour or so, but 1 hour 45 minutes and almost 25 kms later, we were still pedaling away!

I had two firsts today, one was my first time ever biking through the Maastunnel, and what an experience that was.  First of all, there’s this wicked steep escalator that you have to take your bike down.

Image swiped from Wikipedia, can’t take credit for this one as I was too frightened trying to hold my bike to take any photos.  It wasn’t until I was on my way back up the escalator on the other side that I noticed everyone turning their front wheel sideways.  Yeah, that makes sense, they don’t look like they are desperately afraid their bike is going to topple people over like dominos any minute.

Then there’s the tunnel itself.

We can thank Wikipedia for this photo too.  The tunnel is cool, and slightly damp… and it smells a little bit like pee.  It wasn’t terribly hard biking up the up-slope so I’d do it again if I needed to go through it to get somewhere, especially now that I know the trick to using the escalator.

From the tunnel we went in the direction of the Erasmusbrug, which I’d love to say I biked across, but I didn’t.  I biked up the little ramp that takes you up to the bridge and then went oh the hell with this!! and walked the rest of the way to the top.  I did, however, bike down the other side, at the speed of LIGHT!   So technically I can say I biked over the Erasmusbrug!  Another first!  It’s still a goal of mine to bike over it properly but Rome wasn’t built in a day.

My greatest discovery since I started biking again is the Fietsroutenetwerk Regio Rotterdam. It’s an entire network of numbered paths throughout all of Rotterdam and some surrounding areas, and I love it so much I want to hump it a little.

You can go to the website and plan your route in a number of different ways.  You can enter the type of scenery you want, the type of paths and the length of the ride and have the system choose a route for you, or you can map out the route yourself by choosing the points on the map.  It keeps a running total on the side of the page so you can see how long of a ride it will be, as well as providing any tips in regards to things you should watch out for or be careful of.

This is an example of one of my previous rides that I mapped out before I went off on my bike one day.  Number 46 is on the corner near my house so I always have a starting point.  Then I clicked 40, 39, 35, etc until I had a circular route of a length I thought I could manage, through scenery I thought I would enjoy.  I tend to enjoy being out in the countryside rather than biking through the city so I stick to the same general routes each time.  Although the mood does strike me to go off my beaten path now and then.

If you are directionally challenged, you don’t have to worry about getting lost.  These signs are posted along each of the different numbered paths so you know where you are going.  When you get to one of the numbered points there are signs showing which direction to go for each of the different numbered paths you can reach from that area.  So if you are going from one point to the next and you reach and intersection, there will be a small sign like the one above showing you which way you need to go.

I always assumed that biking in Rotterdam would be a pain, because it’s a city and there is a lot of traffic. Past experience taught me that biking near where we live means intersections, cars and other bikers.  It’s a lot to watch out for and it doesn’t make for a very leisurely ride.  I had no idea that there were so many nice areas to bike just on the outskirts of the city, and the fietsroutenetwork really opened that up for me in a way that didn’t leave me lost and wondering which way to go.

Unfortunately, looking at the photo above, you have to go a little further out of the city to avoid graffiti and vandalism.  I was quite irritated after I took this photo and the route I was trying to see on the map was covered by black marker.  I figured it out though, and it was a beautiful ride that day.

There are so many routes I want to try, many of which are a bit too far for me to go to yet.  I’ll get there though!  My next mission is to bike to and around the Kralingsebos … I tried to find an English website about this park but gave up. It’s a park, and I hear it’s nice, and I want to go there.  That’s all you really gotta know for now.  I’ll have more info for you later, after I’ve been there and documented it for myself.