September 2025 Cycling Trip to Holland

By Marie Woodrow

Oh, the joys of cycling in Holland, the traffic free cycle paths, the pretty towns, the history, the art and the friendly Dutch people!

There were a few drawbacks of course, not least the forceful cold north wind which raced across the polders and seemed to be constantly against us, and the quaint cobbled streets which shook up every bone in our bodies.  Keeping the group together through the busy streets of Rotterdam was a challenge, especially when the school day finished and the cycle paths were busy with extremely confident youngsters weaving their way home amongst us.  But there was hot chocolate to be found in cosy cafes, only a little rain on the first day, and every afternoon we returned to our boat for a convivial evening and an excellent dinner.

We explored Dordrecht, Gorinchem, Utrecht, Gouda and Delft and some of us cycled to The Hague.  There were so many different highlights.  Some loved the varied architecture of the houses best, and some the 19 windmills at Kinderdijk.  The vibrant market along the canal at Gouda was popular and the amazing engineering involved in building the dijks and draining the land fascinated us. Everyone loved Delft, of course with the Vermeer Centre and the Royal Delft factory being of particular interest, together with the two beautiful historic churches.

.       

The Floating Farm in Rotterdam Harbour where happy cows produce milk and cheese was a fascinating experiment in alternative food production. I can also happily report that Noreen is not a witch as she bravely submitted to being weighed in Gouda and has a certificate to prove it! We had thought that this foreign trip might be our last as we have now cycled all the major European rivers where we can do a boat and bike holiday, but we all had such a good time we immediately set about deciding what to do next.

Report of u3a Trip to Normandy D-Day Beaches September 2023

By any measure, the scope of the 4-day trip to Normandy for 40 people was ambitious for a u3a group. However, our comfortable ferry trip from Portsmouth couldn’t compare in any way with the the vast complexity and sacrifice of landing 156,000 troops nearly 80 years ago. Nonetheless, our guide, u3a member Mike Phillips, managed to pull it off in fine style.

To see the full report please click here.     Additional photos can be seen here