Last weekend, a great new friend and forummember Pixi314 which I met at our annual 16th VCIM meeting in Norway, came over to my place. It was a great weekend on which we took both the XLV750R's out for a great ride in the northern provinces of the Netherlands - inluding a tour on 'memory' lane to the spot in Northern Germany where the 5th VIM was held.
After picking Kristin (Pixi314) up at Schiphol airport on Thursday, we set off on the old bikes on Friday for a tour in the Dutch province of Drenthe; known for its nature and unspoiled forests.
We had a first stop at the old monastery in the town of Ter Apel, in the far southeast corner of the Province of Groningen.
We continued our ride via the forests on the Hondsrug hills (created by the last ice age) to have lunch at Eexterhalte.
From here, we rode both bikes via a nice scenic route through the historic village of Orvelte (protected area) in to the National Park of Dwingelderveld (the largest wet haylands in Northern Europe) where we enjoyed a nice coffee at the Pospub (
www.bospub.nl), an unique place in the middle of the national park:
They have a GIANT smoker!
We continued the tour through a 2nd National park, the National Park Drents-Friesche Wold and the extended wetlands of the Fochteloërveen (wet moorlands known for its Crane population) to end in the Unesco World Heritage candidate Veenhuizen and its stunning beer-brewery 'Maallust'. The obligatory tasting was simply irresistible, having ridden the entire day with temperatures close to 30 Celsius
To finally end the day after 280 km of share pleasure with some Dutch-Norwegian snacks with a proper portwine in the garden of 'Casa TwoPlugia'
)