Practical information
for foreign friends
2 Vrienden op de Fiets
Dear Vrienden (‘Friends’),
A warm reception, a made-up bed and a healthy breakfast. After a nice walking or cycling tour that is precisely what you need. Again this year, the Stichting Vrienden op de Fiets (Society of Friends on Bicycles) offers you an extensive list of addresses for overnight stays where, after a sportive day, enthusiastic private hosts will make you feel right at home. It’s a wonderful way to discover the splendour of the Netherlands without having to break up your journey by returning home. In the Netherlands you can still find remnants of the past. Old factories, windmills and grinding mills are still standing proudly, the one more famous than the other. In this guidebook we will describe a few of these monuments to the past, such as the renowned lighthouse dwelling in the polders of Flevoland and the, somewhat less well-known, strawboard factory in Scheem-da, a village in East Grongingen. On page 109 you can read the story of bellmaker Frank Fritsen from Aarle-Rixtel. On page 177, Bob Scherrenberg from Utrecht recounts the restoration of the
Werkspoorkathedraal in the Dutch town of Zuilen. These are all examples of industrial heritage that you can admire during your tours in the Netherlands.
These unique locations offer a good picture of life and living in the past. They are worth preserving. These days, increas-ingly more time and effort are being devoted to preserving them. We make every effort to ensure that our cycling society remains what our members want it to be: trusted, low-thresh-old and hospitable. With a small team of dedicated people, we ensure that the Vrienden-op-de-Fiets network functions even better. We have come a long way, with clear information about guest addresses, a pleasant Help Desk and efficient bookkeep-ing. But there is always room for improvement and growth. To do this, we need your input. Tips and experiences for the coming year would be more than welcome.
We wish you a year full of cycling and walking pleasure! With kind regards,
Eltjo Limborgh
Chair of the Executive Committee, Stichting Vrienden op de Fiets
The society
Stichting Vrienden op de Fiets is a non-profit organisation whose aim is to promote sportive recreational journeys and trips. Our society manages a network of private addresses for overnight stays, intended for people who go on recreational trips by bike, on foot, in canoes and on skates.
Our organisation now has over 85,000 Vrienden (“Friends”) and nearly 6,000 guest addresses. Our members are known for their sportive, quiet lifestyles. They value the personal recep-tions and hospitality at the guest addresses. These private addresses offer one or more beds. An overnight stay costs € 19.00 per person per night, which includes breakfast but not tourist tax.
The annual booklet with guest addresses
Every year we publish a complete overview of our guest addresses. The majority of these addresses are located in the Netherlands and along the border-lands of Belgium and Germany. In recent years there has been increasing interest from other countries, not only from international travellers who wish to stay overnight in the Netherlands at one of the guest houses of Vrienden op de Fiets during their visits,but also from people living outside the country who offer their homes as guest addresses. This usually involves Dutch people spread through-out the world – from Norway to New Zealand and from Portugal to Peru. Log in to the website for up-to-date information and changes in your personal details
You will find a map with all guest addresses on our website, which also pro-vides the most recent information about guest addresses. It includes information about accessibility (from GPS coordi-nates to email addresses), charging facilities for electric bikes and whether a particular guest address accommodates groups. You can also manage your own personal information via the website. If you move to a new address or make other changes in your situation, you can update them via the website. You can find your personal information after logging in (click on the button at the top right).
www.vriendenopdefiets.nl
Stichting Vrienden
op de Fiets
is a
non-profitorganisation that aims
to promote multiple-day
cycling and walking trips.
Recreational activities
and sustainability are the
underlying principles. The
society therefore manages
a network of addresses for
overnight stays for anyone
travelling by ‘muscle
power’. The overnight
addresses are in private
homes, with simplicity
and personal contacts.
4
Vrienden op de Fiets
About us
About us
The Society’s History
From 80 to more than
80,000 Vrienden
Who wants to let a place to sleep for cycling holiday-makers? This question appeared as an advertisement in a Dutch newspaper, the
Arnhemse Koerier. The sender was a woman in her 50s, Nel de Blécourt. She wanted to create an alternative for youth hostels and thought her contemporary age group might be interested in letting their bedrooms for a modest amount. She turned out to be right: more than 80 people responded to her advertisement. This marked the beginning in 1984 of the Stichting Vrienden op de Fiets. For a long time Nel and her husband, Hijbo, handled all the arrangements relating to Vrienden op de Fiets – from compiling address guidebooks to contacts with the guest addresses and cyclists. As the cycling society continued to grow rapidly, the couple’s children were brought in to help out. These days the family is no longer so intensively involved as in the early years. The work is now done by a small team under super-vision of an independent executive.
6 Vrienden op de Fiets
The organisation and the partners
The organisation
Since 22 July 2011, the administration of Stichting Vrienden op de Fiets has con-sisted of independent volunteers. The administrators, all enthusiastic hikers or cyclists, hold the aims of the society in high esteem. The composition of the administration is as follows:
Eltjo Limborgh Chair
Irene Gosselink Secretary Wilko de Vette Treasurer Gert-Jan v.d. Nieuwenhuijzen Member In addition to the administration, there is also an active Advisory Council, Stefanie Gerwers is responsible for the daily management.
The partners
Stichting Vrienden op de Fiets enjoys working with organisations that have comparable aims. Our criteria for colla-boration are clear: we have to fi t in with the activities of partner organisations; (potential) Vrienden and guest ad-dresses must derive benefi t from such collaboration.
Such partnerships enable us, for exam-ple, to off er our Vrienden discounts to the Fiets en Wandelbeurs (Cycling and Hiking Fair) and they receive 20 percent discount on the mobile bicycle repair services off ered by FietsNED. We would also like to draw your atten-tion to special initiatives, such as Rest Areas. Rest Areas are situated on private estates along walking or cycling routes. There, you can stop for a cup of coff ee, tea or glass of lemonade for the price of a voluntary contribution. There are also WCs and charging stations where you can re-charge your electric bikes. Naturally, Stichting Vrienden op de Fiets has close ties with the Dutch Cyclists’ Union, which looks after the inter-ests of the 13.5 million cyclists in the Netherlands. Both organisations carry announcements about each other’s ac-tivities and, where feasible, reinforce one another’s work. Similar agreements exist with the Belgian Cyclists’ Union . We maintain ties with Wandelnet, the starting place for the walking public in the Netherlands, so that we can off er even better service.
At the back of this booklet you will fi nd additional examples of related organi-sations and initiatives. You will also fi nd up-to-date information about partner-ships on our website, along with the terms and conditions for all activities that we organise with our partners.
The Rules
Although Stichting Vrienden op de Fiets is large, it sees itself as small and reliable. We succeed at this because everyone follows several specifi c rules.
Membership
• You can join Stichting Vrienden op de Fiets for € 8.00 per year, or € 10 for Friends who live outside the Netherlands.
• Friends from the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany then remain a member until further notice. All other memberships will end at the end of the year.
• You will receive an annual Vrienden op de Fiets card and guidebooks with guest addresses.
If you would like to become a Vriend, pass on changes in your information or cancel your membership, you can easily arrange this via www.vriendenopdefi ets.nl
Prices
• Bed and Breakfast: € 19 per person per night. You should pay for your overnight stay at the guest address. The prices for all guest addresses are the same, irrespective of wheth-er you sleep in a simple room or in a detached house. Guest addresses do not charge extra for people who travel alone.
• Children to 12 years old: € 9.50 per person per night.
• A Vrienden op de Fiets card is valid for co-habiting couples with live-in children to 18 years old and (great) grandchildren.
• Lunch packet: € 5 maximum per per-son. Note: not available everywhere. • Hot meals: around €9.00 per person.
Note: not available everywhere. • Charging electric bikes: € 0.50 • Cancellations within 24 hour before
arrival? In such cases, the expenses will be billed, up to a maximum of € 9.50 per person per reserved day.
The prices do not include tourist tax (a municipal levy, the amount of which
varies per municipality.) Normally, the amount will be between € 0.50 and € 2.00.
Making a reservation
Reserve on time. Discuss the desired arrival and departure times, as well as any special requests such as bringing children or house pets. When making a reservation, always mention your Vrienden number, name, address and mobile telephone number.
House Rules
Our private guest addresses make their homes available and do their best to make your stay a pleasant one. They do so in their own way. Please respect the house rules of your guest address. As a Vriend, you should not expect any additional luxuries, except for a warm reception and, of course, a clean accom-modation, good-quality, regular-size beds, made up with clean bedding. The bedrooms are fi re safe and easily accessible via a permanent stairway. The windows can be opened. Vrienden may use the shower and toilet, which may or may not be shared with family members. There is also a safe, lockable, preferably covered bicycle shed.
On arrival, show your Vrienden op de Fiets card and proof of identity.
Smoking is not allowed at guest addresses.
Who can make use of
Vrienden op de Fiets?
The addresses of overnight stays of Stichting Vrienden op de Fiets are for Vrienden who take multiple-day trips using their own ‘muscle power’: for example, cyclists, hikers, skaters, mountain bikers and those travelling by canoe. Those who only make use of motorised vehicles on such trips may not take advantage of the special Vrienden op de Fiets rates.
Reading Guide
Provinces and place names in the Netherlands
Dutch provinces are listed alphabeti-cally in the booklet, with the exception of the Wadden Islands. As in previous years, they are not mentioned under North Holland and Friesland, but listed as a separate ‘province’. Towns are listed alphabetically per province. Several guest addresses in one town are listed in random order, which could vary from year to year.
All guest addresses in the Netherlands and borderland regions are shown on the enclosed cycling map. The fi gures in the fi rst column of the booklet are the National Triangulation Coordinates of the guest address. These coordinates show the location of a guest address within an accuracy of one kilometre. The fi gures refer to the raster on the map where a specifi c guest address can be found. In this way, you can easily plan your cycling route.
International
Listings of addresses outside the Netherlands largely follow this pattern. As most international overnight address-es are in Belgium, Germany and France, they are listed fi rst. Belgium is divided into the Metropolitan Region, Flanders and Wallonia. France is divided into ‘departments’ and Germany, into federal states. The Kreis is also mentioned with all Germany addresses, in front of the place names.
Accommodation attributes
There are four types of accommodations: a guest room in a house, a town house situated separately from the main house, a caravan and a houseboat. The plus sign indicates that the accommodation has a separate shower/wc for guests.
The number of rooms and beds is listed for each address; the small door sym-bol indicates the number of rooms (if known), the bed symbols indicate the number of single and double beds. A sin-gle bed can also be a raised bed or bunk bed. A raised bed counts as one single bed and a bunk bed, as two single beds. You will fi nd more information about guest addresses on our website. Legend
q Guest bedroom
w Garden house
e Mobile home, caravan
r Houseboat
q+ Guest bedroom
+ private shower/wc
w+ Garden house
+ private shower/wc
e+ Mobile home, caravan
+ private shower/wc
r+ Houseboat + private shower/wc
1×a 1 room
2×s 2 single beds
3×d 3 double beds
8
Vrienden op de Fiets
For whom?
Tip
Gift memberships
Would you like to give someone a gift member-ship to Stichting Vrienden op de Fiets? It’s easy. Let us know this via our website, with mention of your Vrienden number. We will then send you a payment slip and a package that contains a guest-address guidebook and a Vrienden card in the name of the recipient. A gift membership will terminate automatically at the end of the year in which it is given.
How do we handle complaints?
Stichting Vrienden op de Fiets cannot and does not check all guest addresses and Vrienden. We count on the good will of our Vrienden and guest addresses. And that works. Via Stichting Vrienden op de Fiets you will often get more than you expect: a nice reception, a delicious breakfast. In one or two cases, you might get less than you expect. You should report any complaints about guest
ad-dresses and Vrienden to the Help Desk. Always mention your Vrienden number or guest-address registration number when you contact the foundation. All complaints will be treated seriously. In case of serious, repeated complaints about a guest address or Vriend, we will contact them. In extreme cases, we reserve the right to remove guest houses or Vrienden from our database.
Complaints and Reading Guide
Vrienden op de Fiets
9
10 Vrienden op de Fiets
Theme
Theme: industrial heritage
There are many locations in the Netherlands with buildings of historical interest. This guidebook highlights one such building per province. These buildings represents periods during which life in the Netherlands was quite different from the present. To this very day, this history can be seen in buildings that are part of the Dutch industrial heritage: from the strawboard factories in East Groningen to the diamond-cutting establishments in Amsterdam; from the grinding mills in Lemmer to the bulb-shed in Voorhout.
Appreciation of industrial heritage only increased half-way through the last century. At that time, many buildings lost their functions when industrial production gave way to companies in sectors such as service provision, transport and
logistics. Traditional companies and business branches disappeared, such as the mining industry in Limburg and calcium produc-tion in Drenthe. Fortunately, with these changes there was increased apprecia-tion for Dutch industrial history, which resulted in considerable time and energy spent on resto-ration and preservation of industrial heritage.
Special thanks to Marcel Overbeek and Federatie Industrieel Erfgoed Nederland for sharing information and pictures (used as a bases for illustrations in this booklet).
www.vriendenopdefiets.nl
Colophon
Stichting Vrienden op de Fiets
P.O. box 1024, 2340 BA Oegstgeest Phone number (088) 123 89 99 administratie@vriendenopdefiets.nl www.vriendenopdefiets.nl Bank NL91 TRIO 0197 9897 56 BIC TRIONL2U KvK 41052534 (trade register)
Art direction and graphic design
Autobahn, Utrecht
Copy and editing
Schrijf-Schrijf, Utrecht
Photography
Simm + Huis, Den Haag Daan Paans, Utrecht
Production and distribution
Buijten & Schipperheijn, Amsterdam Published by Stichting Vrienden op de Fiets © 2016
Copyright / photos
No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced or otherwise used without the explicit permission of Stichting Vrienden op de Fiets.
Liability
Stichting Vrienden op de Fiets is not responsible, nor does it accept liability, for the quality of guest addresses, the conduct of donor members of the foundation, damage causedby guests at guest addresses; nor damage caused or suffered by guests en route or elsewhere, or for incomplete or incorrect information in the booklet or on its website.
