Why this ride
curated scenic road. flower fields, dunes, historic towns. 57 km from Leiden to Haarlem, about 1 h 17 of riding. The stops in between: Lisse and Noordwijk-Binnen. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Dutch Flower Route
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 57 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 1 h 17
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Scenic road chapters
Dutch Flower Route
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 12 km this is Dutch Flower Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 12 km
- Named road
- Dutch Flower Route
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Leiden
Leiden is a university town built on canals, and it is one of the most agreeable small cities in the Netherlands. The Old Rhine, split into several branches, runs through the centre, and the old merchant houses, narrow bridges and windmills give it a charm that is lived in rather than preserved. The university, founded in 1575 as a reward for the city's resistance to the Spanish siege the year before, is the oldest in the country, and its students keep the streets busy on bicycles. Rembrandt was born here in 1606, and the Pilgrim Fathers lived here for years before sailing to America. About 120,000 people live in the city, so fuel, food and everything else are easy to find.
Read the complete Leiden write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Dutch Flower Route point 1 sits at 0 km, early in the day. Next is Dutch Flower Route point 2.
2. Lisse
Lisse is the heart of the Bollenstreek, the bulb region, a belt of sandy land between Leiden and Haarlem where tulips, daffodils and hyacinths are grown by the million. In April the fields stretch away in stripes of red, yellow, pink and white, so strongly coloured that they seem painted. The sandy soil, a little way inland from the dunes, drains well and suits the bulbs, which is why this strip of land has been planted for four centuries. The story is a famous one: the botanist Carolus Clusius planted some of the first tulips in the Netherlands at Leiden in the 1590s, and within a few decades the flower had set off the speculative frenzy now called tulip mania.
Read the complete Lisse write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Dutch Flower Route point 2 comes up 11 km in. Next is Dutch Flower Route point 3.
3. Lisse
Lisse is the heart of the Bollenstreek, the bulb region, a belt of sandy land between Leiden and Haarlem where tulips, daffodils and hyacinths are grown by the million. In April the fields stretch away in stripes of red, yellow, pink and white, so strongly coloured that they seem painted. The sandy soil, a little way inland from the dunes, drains well and suits the bulbs, which is why this strip of land has been planted for four centuries. The story is a famous one: the botanist Carolus Clusius planted some of the first tulips in the Netherlands at Leiden in the 1590s, and within a few decades the flower had set off the speculative frenzy now called tulip mania.
Read the complete Lisse write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
21 km in you reach Dutch Flower Route point 3. Next is Dutch Flower Route point 4.
4. Noordwijk-Binnen
Planning note
Dutch Flower Route point 4, late in the day. Next is Dutch Flower Route point 5.
5. Haarlem
Haarlem is the pretty one among the big Dutch towns, a city of about a hundred and fifty thousand people that keeps its old centre in good order, with a huge market square dominated by the Grote Kerk, the great church of St Bavo. The organ inside, built in the 1730s, was played by Handel and by the ten-year-old Mozart. The Frans Hals Museum holds the paintings of the great portraitist who lived and worked here in the seventeenth century, and the Teylers Museum, founded in 1778, is the oldest museum in the Netherlands, a cabinet of fossils, instruments and drawings in an elegant building. Haarlem sits on the Spaarne river, a short distance from the dunes and the North Sea.
Read the complete Haarlem write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Dutch Flower Route point 5 sits at 57 km, late in the day.