Cooking and baking

A bicycle trip can easily be combined with a cooking and baking party.
How about baking bread with whole wheat flour from the local windmill ?
Or cooking a traditional Dutch, medieval or 17th Century meal ? (see cooking links below)
You prepare it, you eat it ! (With advice and assistance, of course.)

Cooking and baking is always fun, but may be more appealing in the cold and dark season, when you don't feel like cycling all day.
Mind you, even in midwinter a couple of hours cycling is generally very well possible without feeling like a masochist.
A short tour for getting a feeling of the landscape, with a visit to a castle or a fort, that's an all year round / almost any weather great thing to do. (But bear in mind that in winter some places are only open in the weekend !)
But after a cycling trip in the tantalising brisk air, preparing and enjoying an honest Dutch meal, that's a real feast !

A few links on (historic) cooking

• www.foodtimeline.org : a food timeline, with recipes starting 10,000 BC.
• www.coquinaria.nl : recipes from Roman times to the nineteenth century + online editions of several medieval Dutch cookbooks.
• www.godecookery.com : recipes of Middle Ages & Renaissance, adapted for the 21st century kitchen.
• www.medievalcookery.com : European recipes from 14th - 17th century
• www.thehollandring.com : information on Dutch food and eating habits + links to (traditional and modern) Dutch recipes