Having completed the Netherlands End to End, I added the country’s middle point today. I seem to be collecting them: I’ve cycled to national foci in Britain, Belgium and Portugal recently.
The centre of the country – in other words, the point at which a piece of cheese the shape of the Netherlands would balance, if a hungry cyclist hadn’t snaffled it for their picnic lunch – is just outside Lunteren, a modern small town in – well, the Dutch midlands, obviously.
The nearest town of consequence is Ede, which shortly after my visit made the headlines in an unfortunate way following a cafe stabbing. No such drama in Lunteren, though there was a dramatic piece of street decor in the main drag, right outside my friendly hostel-restaurant: a line of jeans dangling, laundry-style, across the road.
(It was, apparently, to commemorate the forthcoming Lunteren Fashion Day on 6 Apr.)
So, I defied the drizzle to cycle a handful of km along a good backwoods bike paths to the decisively-marked Centre Point itself. It’s on Goudsberg, which tops out at 51m / 167ft, so is unlikely to trouble local mountain rescue teams. A circular monument surrounds the central rock itself, where you can stand and be at the very heart of the country.
I chatted to some friendly, funny visitors from The Hague, in comparison to which this was remote wilderness. As remote and wild as anything gets in the Neths, anyway.
