Welcome to Holland!

If you visit the Netherlands, you'll probably spend some time in Amsterdam.
If you're not in a hurry, and want a real taste of Holland, how about a day trip in the surrounding countryside?

A perfectly relaxed way to do this, is on a classic Dutch bicycle.
No need to cycle long distances, and racing is absolutely not the intention.
It's all about enjoying at your ease some great sightseeing, with fine history, culture, and also nature.

Basically, the idea is to depict the history of Holland on the very spots where your can see and feel this history. From prehistoric times to recent days.
Explaining the backgrounds and the context. In a way, you will most certainly acquire a new understanding of the development and history of this country.

And also, to recount the human stories related to these places.
Through many available eyewitness accounts. With drawings, paintings, maps. With music.
With whatever means available.

The varied region just outside and east of Amsterdam is ideal for this purpose. See map on the where-page of this site.
Low land with rivers, canals, lakes and (of course) windmills. With old fortified towns and a thousand years of man-made history.
That sure makes a lot of stories.
But also higher grounds, and rolling plains covered with heather and woods. Where the marks of the ice ages and prehistoric man are still very visible.
Imagine and dream...

One of the goals of these tours is to give you an idea of how people lived in the past.
Food and cooking is, and always was of course, of very important part of everyday live.
So, as winter approaches, may be a good time for some "historical cooking"?

On www.foodtimeline.org you'll find a food timeline, with recipes starting 10,000 BC.
Recipes from Roman times to the nineteenth century + online editions of several medieval Dutch cookbooks on www.coquinaria.nl.
Recipes of Middle Ages & Renaissance, adapted for the 21st century kitchen, on www.godecookery.com.
European recipes from 14th - 17th century on www.medievalcookery.com.

Information on Dutch food and eating habits + links to (traditional and modern) Dutch recipes on www.thehollandring.com.