Watch my VLOG video here: Almere | Discover Almere and Lelystad with the cycleseeing cycle route through New Land – Part 1
Do you like modern architecture or do you prefer to stay in nature? You can experience it all in Flevoland! We are going to explore the New Land area; Almere and Lelystad. You can enjoy a lovely walk through the city and enjoy the beautiful architecture, but the area is also ideal for exploring by bicycle, both on a regular bicycle and with an electric e-bike.
Almere and Lelystad are two modern polder cities located in the province of Flevoland in the Netherlands. Both cities have their own charms and are surrounded by great open landscapes and bird-rich waters.
Almere is the youngest city in the Netherlands and ranks third among architectural cities in the Netherlands. It is a true open air architecture museum.
Lelystad is the capital of Flevoland and is the youngest coastal city in the Netherlands. The Werkeiland with Lelystad-Haven is the place where Lelystad started.
Cycleseeing Cycle Routes of Iamsterdam
Iamsterdam and partner Craftersanddrifters have mapped out a cycle route called: Cycleseeing cycle routes of Iamsterdam. I have been invited to join the Cycleseeing cycle route. It is a cycling tour during the weekend, where we cycle along the highlights of New Land to explore all the beautiful places and put them in the spotlight. We have used the Komoot app, in which you can find the entire cycling route and additional information.
1. Leonardo Hotel Almere
We start our cycling adventure in Almere, where we will spend the night in Leonardo Hotel Almere City Center. As soon as you see the hotel, you immediately understand why Almere is the number three architectural city in the Netherlands; it is a modern, futuristic hotel located in the heart of Almere. The hotel was designed by English architect William Alsop.
I have a spacious twin room located on the center side of the hotel. What immediately stands out is the stylish interior with a wall print of a female face above the bed. I am very thoughtfully welcomed with all kinds of nice welcome gifts and gadgets, both from the hotel itself and from Iamsterdam and Craftersanddrifters; a handwritten welcome card, chocolate, a bag of peanuts from the Bierfabriek, a Cityguide of Almere, various magazines, bicycle lights and a key ring. In addition, a linen bag with number 036 on it, the core number of Almere, which I gratefully carried all weekend.
2. Welcome dinner at De Rode Herring / Vis á Vis
We gather in front of the hotel to leave by taxi to restaurant De Rode Haring / Vis á Vis, or at least that was the expectation, because in the end we leave with a real luxury double-decker tour bus from Almere-Tours.
Arriving at the restaurant grounds, we first pay a short visit to Food Museum ‘n Wilde Keuze, a pop-up exhibition in the front garden of Vis á Vis.
The exhibition consists of four themes: the Earth House, the Medicine House, the Water House and the Story House. We start with the Story House, which is about our own plate. We wonder what is on our own plate and why. We can each take a plate and in a playful, interactive way we will scoop written food on our plate on the basis of questions. We write the answers on the board with brightly colored markers. In the end, everyone has put together their own plate, a true color palette of personal delicacies. Of course we end the session with washing our plate in soapy water in a washing-up bowl.
Then we walk a bit over the spacious grounds to the restaurant. The weather is pleasant and we eat outside on the terrace. We enjoy a three-course menu, the World Polder Menu, with worldly dishes prepared from products from the region. The ingredients are grown locally, from our own world polder.
We start with the appetizer; delicate dishes (tapas antipasti), artisan bread and soup. The starter is presented in a nice looking wooden crate, which gives the whole a polder-like, rural atmosphere.
For the main menu we can choose from:
Polder menu
Organic polder chicken, Flevo cream sauce with mushrooms & rummage, clay bantams and root vegetables.
Asia menu
Warm smoked salmon with Tamarind sauce & edamame (soy beans), spiced rice and fruit vegetables.
South America
Vegetable Arepa bun from corn. Mexican spice and cocoa mole sauce. Quinoa mix and root vegetables.
I opt for the Polder menu with the organic polder chicken and the small potatoes, which I am really looking forward to. The food is served in a steel Indian Tiffin to keep the food warm, which gives it a special look.
After dinner we go to the open-air theater on the site where Theater company Vis á Vis will give their performance WILD, a culinary comedy that shows the raw reality of our runaway food culture. Endangered species are on the menu of a chic restaurant. The theater has two sides; While one side of the audience watches the front, the other half gets a peek into the kitchen at the back. After the break, the audience switches sides.
The show is hilarious, with a gorilla on the run and a voracious Jetset couple feasting on exotic dishes. The performance will play in the open-air theater until October 3.
3. Architecture walk through Almere Centrum
After a good night’s sleep in the Leonardo Hotel, the next morning in Almere starts with a very pleasant surprise. When I open the curtains and look outside, I see that a thick fog hangs over Almere. The hotel is located on the water and on arrival I had already seen a very nice pier. I didn’t have to think long before I was out at seven o’clock in the morning and rushing to the water. Two of my cycling companions thought the same and were also outside early.
The view is extremely beautiful. There is a mysterious atmosphere with mist rising above the water, the sound of birds singing and buildings reflecting in the water. I’m glad I brought my camera to take pictures and I don’t have enough eyes to look around. The sun slowly rising through the fog gives the whole a beautiful pinkish color palette. Satisfied with this beautiful view, I walk back to the hotel to enjoy a hearty breakfast with the others.
We will start with the architecture walk through Almere Centrum. Our starting point is the Leonardo Hotel, which is located in the middle of many special buildings. Paul is our guide for today and he tells us everything about the architectural highlights of Almere center. Among other things, we see
- Twin Towers, also known as Side by Side. Two residential towers. The exterior of the building is made of glass. The black holes are openings for technical areas, such as the elevators and central heating.
Architect: Frits van Dongen.
- Kunstlinie, theater and exhibition centre, originally Schouwburg Almere.
Japanese architects: Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa.
- Esplanade, the largest square in the center of Almere.
ECHO Urban Design.
- The Wave, residential complex with an undulating facade.
Architect: René van Zuuk - Schipperplein with the Phi number, a calculation number along the length of the park. Nature will always win no matter what people think. ‘Nature conquers all’. The trees have broken through the concrete.
DS Landscape Architects.
- ALLY stairs. Ally is slang for Almere.
Artist collective Kamp Seedorf.
- Citadel. The brown line is the connecting wall that runs through the center with owner-occupied homes built on top. Architect: Christian de Portzamparc.
4. E-Bike tour
We continue our journey through Almere with electric bicycles. It’s my first time riding an electric bike. It takes some getting used to at first, but it rides wonderfully. You hardly have to exert yourself and you go like a train. Normally I get so hot while cycling that it sometimes makes me sweat, but on the electric bike this is not the case at all. You notice that you can make a lot of kilometers with little effort. We look up the cycling route with the Komoot app.
We cycle to the nature reserve around Almere and on the way we stop at a number of places worth seeing, such as the rotating sphere. The sphere is made of copper with the word ‘Here’ on it. The sphere rotates on a mechanism in the pedestal.
Oostvaardersplassen.
The Oostvaardersplassen is a large nature reserve between Almere and Lelystad with swamps, reed plains, rugged grasslands and ponds surrounded by forests: a true bird paradise for many beautiful birds.
In the beginning we cycle for a large part through the woods on winding paths, surrounded by trees and plants. It is wonderful to cycle in the shade, while the sun is shining. We have chosen a beautiful day with good cycling weather, there is not a speck in the sky.
We arrive at a more open area and cycle towards the Oostvaarders Nature Experience Center. We make drone shots of the area we cycle through, with a great view of the vast nature reserve. I see large pools of water with numerous birds and I see large groups of birds taking off.
New Land National Park.
We cycle past the sign that indicates: Newland National Park. Nieuwland National Park is the youngest park in the Netherlands, which was created by the reclamation of Flevoland.
Lepelaarsplassen.
The Lepelaarsplassen is part of the Nieuwland National Park, an area with swamps, reed beds and wet grasslands, the ideal place for bird watching. While cycling I did indeed see birds of prey flying by in the distance.
Pavilion de Oostvaarders.
We arrive at Paviljoen de Oostvaarders, where we have lunch. Paviljoen de Oostvaarders is located in the Oostvaarders Nature Experience Center and is located next to Almere on the edge of the Oostvaardersplassen. The restaurant is located in a beautiful spot in nature on the water.
We are going to eat inside, but it looks like you are in nature. Our table is on the window side, with large windows with a fantastic view of the water, so you can experience nature explicitly. You get the feeling as if you are on the water.
We pour hot water from the teapot that is already ready and are treated to a High Tea with a wide choice of different types of tea.
We start with a savory round and we are served round and rectangular wooden boards with cute little cups of soup on top, sandwiches, couscous salad that is a bit tabbouleh-like, empanada with a bean mixture, with a dip of lime mayonnaise, sandwiches with ham cheese and smoked salmon and mini soups of pumpkin and curry. The food looks festive and it tastes like more. We just don’t get any more savory snacks, because the next round consists of sweets, such as home baked English scones with clotted cream and lemon marmalade, cheesecakes, date cakes, chocolate bonbons, mini cakes and macarones.
After lunch we go to the Crow’s Nest which is at the very top of the Nature Experience Center. There are binoculars with which you can admire the vastness of the nature reserve. To my surprise, I see a large herd of Konik horses that in the distance look like small dots, but are suddenly very clearly visible through the binoculars. The males are busy chasing the females because the rutting season has begun.
After this visual spectacle of nature, we get back on our e-bikes to cycle back to Almere. We cycled a total of 35.2 km in two hours and fifteen minutes. We return our e-bikes to the Leonardo Hotel and collect our luggage that we left there. We are well on schedule, so we still have time to grab a beer at the Bierfabriek before we walk to Almere train station. Our adventure in Almere has ended and we continue our route by train to Lelystad.