Netherlands 1: Drielandenpunt to Maastricht

So, I’m cycling the world’s most cycle-friendly End to End: the Netherlands, from the bottom-right-hand corner (at the triple-border-point with Belgium and Germany) to the northernmost extremity at Noordkaap, Uithuizen, up Groningen way.

*Tree-border country: Heading from Aachen to Dreilandenpunt*

I stayed last night in Aachen, just over that triple-border, in Germany. Getting there was a straightforward one-day business, thanks to my folding tourer (Dahon Speed TR) just fitting into the Eurostar scanner at St Pancras: a simple itinerary of morning express from London to Amsterdam, then a speedy afternoon service to Aachen, and a night in the hostel I’d lodged at before during my Interrail-based Austria End to End.

*Drielandenpunt: Where Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands meet. Usually thronged with tourists, but not when I arrive*

I set off from Aachen around eight, and wound my way west out of the town centre and climbing up country lanes through woods to the Three Border Point. I entered the Netherlands at the precise point where three countries meet – once four, between the wars, when a jagged independent bit of Germany-Belgium also sharded its way to the boundary nexus.

*Someone who looks like me, only older, with my bike at the Three Border Point*

There was nobody around, which is how I like it. I had the tripartite border to myself. There’s quite a bit here – lots of signs, cafes, a maze, car parks, observation towers etc – but it was too early for any activity. I passed here in 1996 on bikes with someone I loved very much. I still do.

*Mountain top: The Highest Point in the Netherlands*

On a clear day, it’s said you can see the Highest Point in the Netherlands (322m, 1,058ft) from here. In fact, you can see it even on a misty day. Probably even at night. Because it’s only about fifty yards away. Vaalserberg, at just over a thousand feet, is the Netherlands’ only mountain.

It’s also marked by a little monument and an info point, and is also a magnet for selfie-snapping tourists, except this early, because I had it all to myself again.

*That rare thing in the Netherlands: A view over somewhere (the somewhere being Vaals)*

The nearest town is the borderland settlement of Vaals: that unfamiliar thing for the Netherlands, a downhill hurtle, with perhaps the country’s only sharp road hairpin.

*What is that doing here?: British phone box in a garden in Vaals*

I stocked up on lunch things from Albert Heijn, sipped a coffee in the sunshine with locals outside the Hema, and at length set off on the straight roadside segregated bike path to my target of Maastricht.

*Maastricht is that way: I was not the only cyclist heading west from Vaals this morning*

In other countries, you might well plan your route to avoid main roads. In the Neths, you can follow them, along the fast direct way, knowing that there’s probably a great car-free path for you.

*Post impressionism: Mail is still delivered by bike in the Netherlands, such as here in Gulpen*

I had first lunch at Gulpen, snacking at the bus station and enjoying the sunny ambience of locals trundling along on their bikes and chatting to each other, young, middle, old, and old-old alike.

*Not all flat: Hilly lanes west of Vaals*

*Rounding up: Bike-friendly roundabout coming into central Maastricht*

Thanks to those excellent paths, I got to Maastricht around lunchtime. I snacked in Freedom Park and felt free, checked in to my hostel, and walked round the Old Town centre.

*Local organisation: Maastricht town hall*

I was pleased to discover the Dominican Bookshop in an old church, the most elegant biblioteque I’ve seen since Bradford’s Waterstones (in the old Wool Exchange).

*Bookworms are a broad church: Maastricht’s splendid Dominicanen Bookshop*

Cycle-touring in the Netherlands really is a delight.

*Bikes and pavement cafes: A pleasing combination in Maastricht*

Miles today: 25 miles
Miles since Drielandenpunt: 25 miles