Almere Hotels Lelystad The Netherlands

Lelystad | Discover Almere and Lelystad with the cycleseeing cycle route through New Land – Part 2

Lelystad | Discover Almere and Lelystad with the cycleseeing cycle route through New Land – Part 2

Watch my VLOG video here: Lelystad | Discover Almere and Lelystad with the cycleseeing cycle route through New Land – Part 2


Have you ever cycled on the bottom of the sea? In New Land it is possible! We are going to explore the New Land area; Almere and Lelystad located in the province of Flevoland in the Netherlands. New Land is not Atlantis, a mythical island that disappeared, mysteriously sunk to the bottom of the sea, but quite the opposite of that; New Land literally originated on the bottom of the former Zuiderzee. New Land owes its existence to the largest reclamation project in the world: the reclamation of Flevoland.

Cycleseeing Cycle Routes of Iamsterdam

Iamsterdam and partner Craftersanddrifters have mapped out a cycling 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, in which we cycle along the highlights of New Land to explore all the beautiful places and put them in the spotlight. We used the Komoot app, where you can find the entire cycling route and additional information.

In this blog I write about the second part of the Cycleseeing cycle route, in which we will explore the city of Lelystad. Part one of my blog posting about Almere can be found here: Almere | Discover Almere and Lelystad with the cycleseeing cycle route through New Land – Part 1.

1. Leonardo Hotel Lelystad

In Almere we take the train to Lelystad, a short ride of about fifteen minutes. I doze off in the train a little bit, after our impressive architecture walk and bike ride in Almere.

We take a short walk through the center of Lelystad and arrive at the Leonardo Hotel Lelystad City Center. The hotel is located in the heart of Lelystad with several shopping centers nearby.
During check-in everyone gets their own room key in the form of a key card and we have fourty five minutes to freshen up.
I have a spacious suite on the fifth floor with a double king-size bed, a sitting area with a sofa and a balcony with a view of Lelystad. The interior is modern with an industrial, somewhat sober style with a dark look. I am welcomed with a handwritten welcome card, chocolate, a small bottle of drink and a cocktail voucher for a free drink at the hotel bar.

There is no wall print of a female face above my bed, but there is in my friend’s hotel room. Her room is on the third floor, a spacious suite with a balcony, large windows with lots of light, it is the largest hotel room of all of us. In her room we take pictures on the bed with the print of the female face in the background. The curtains are closed because it is already evening, but during the day with the curtains open, the light in the room is fantastic.

2. Dinner at Italian restaurant Sorrento

From the hotel we walk to Italian restaurant Sorrento where we have a delicious dinner. Along the way we see several side walls painted with lively mural art, which make Lelystad a lot more colorful and attractive. The sun is now starting to set, which gives us the opportunity to stop for a while, or rather jump in the air, to make cool video shots with the accompanying ‘behind the scene’ street photos.

We arrive at Italian restaurant Sorrento, “The real Italian cuisine around the corner”. The restaurant is also literally around the corner, near the center of Lelystad, in the middle of a residential area. You would hardly think that you would find a restaurant in this residential area, but the location gives the restaurant that little bit extra. An attractive restaurant, cozy in your neighbourhood.
We sit at the back of the restaurant at a table by the window, where we meet Jeroen and André from Visit Lelystad. They will guide us further this weekend in Lelystad.

We enjoy a three-course menu á la carte, where we can choose from various Italian dishes. As a starter I choose the Cozze Di Mare, mussels prepared in the Italian way with tomato, garlic, basil, white wine and peperoncino. This dish can also be ordered as a main course, but that is not necessary, because the mussels are served exuberantly on a large plate and they taste delicious.
As a main course I choose the Filetto, tenderloin from the grill with veal jus and roasted black garlic. The meat is perfectly cooked medium rare, tastes great and is served with chips and vegetables.
For dessert I choose the Traditional Tiramisu, one of the most famous Italian desserts, but oh so delicious.
We end our dinner with the ‘Limoncello della Casa’, their our own homemade Limoncello made by the chefs, a fresh Italian lemon liqueur with a sunny lemon flavour.

3. Departure from the hotel with the Roetz bikes

From the hotel we leave with the Roetz bikes, where our cycleseeing cycle route starts. Roetz bikes are trendy bicycles, which are made by hand in Amsterdam on the basis of carefully selected recycled bicycle frames. A sustainable and circular design with care for the planet.
I cycle on a beautiful Road Ladies ladies bicycle in the color Matt Ocean Blue. The saddle is neatly adjusted to my height, so that my toes can touch the ground. The Roetz bikes are nice and comfortable, are of good quality and I don’t suffer from saddle pain afterwards.

4. Cycleseeing cycle route

André is our guide for today and he leads the way with his electric e-bike. While cycling, we pass various bicycle bridges, which connect the various nature reserves in Flevoland. The Anaconda bicycle bridge over the Oostranddreef in Lelystad is a three hundred and fifty meter long bridge, named after the Anaconda snake because of its waving shape, which resembles the serpentine movement of the snake. A beautiful piece of architecture, very photo opportunity worthy.
My friend and I decide to cycle over the entire Anaconda bicycle bridge one more time, so that we can make a nice video of it. We lose sight of the rest of the group, because they have now cycled through. Fortunately, the roads are predominantly straight ahead and on road forks where we have to turn, we receive a message in our group app.

Lelystad Nature Park
We meet again in Nature Park Lelystad, a natural recreational area near Lelystad consisting of ponds, reed beds, grasslands and wooded terrain. It is an area where many different species of ungulates and birds feel at home. We make a short stop in a piece of forest on the water, a nice place to take pictures.

5. Boerkok (coffee with treats)

We arrive at Boerkok where we drink coffee with something delicious. The pears are still in full bloom in the Boerkok meadow.
Boerkok stands for: “Where the cook farms and the farmer cooks”. What is central are the local products. Boerkok uses the eighty/twenty ratio, with cooking mainly from Flevoland, but sometimes the Netherlands is also local.
We are treated to a local potato-lemon tart, in which the potato is the binding agent. The potato-lemon tart is super fluffy, but also sweet. It is appropriate to do something with potatoes in the dessert in the polder.
It is wonderful to stay in the old tool shed that has been converted into a cozy restaurant, where you can enjoy a snack and a drink.

We would like to stay a little longer, but we have to continue with the cycleseeing cycle route. Unplanned photo opportunities during the bike ride are nice, and certainly worth taking, but they do get us over more than half an hour behind schedule, knowing that the next appointment is already scheduled: our lunch appointment in Outdoor Centre Oostvaardersplassen.

My friend and I are no longer allowed to fall behind and we have to cycle in André’s wake, we are, as it were, his shadow.
The fire has been kindled in me and I am running like a spear. At a rapid pace I cycle nonstop for the entire stretch to our next destination.
The cycling pace of the group has increased considerably and we arrive at Outdoor Centre Oostvaardersplassen exactly on time.

6. Bird Festival

Before we go for lunch, we sniff around the Bird Festival in the Oostvaardersplassen near Lelystad, which is located in front of the Buitencentrum Oostvaardersplassen. The bird festival is thé bird festival for bird- and nature lovers. There are many stalls with, among other things, photo equipment, binoculars and telescopes, with which you can fully experience nature.
There is also a booth where they sell local bee honey. The honey mainly comes from Almere, but one jar of honey is honey from Lelystad, whose bees have been in the Lelystad Nature Park.
We can taste the honey, which tastes wonderfully sweet and creamy. We stock up on two jars of honey to take home.

7. Lunch in the Outdoor Centre Oostvaardersplassen

We are going to have lunch in restaurant Buitengewoon Lekker in Outdoor Centre Oostvaardersplassen of Staatsbosbeheer.

After half a day of cycling, everybody is ready for a tasty lunch. We enjoy a High Tea consisting of different types of tea, organic drinks such as cranberry-apple juice, mini wraps, sandwiches, macarones, goat cheese salads and much more.
A tasty healthy lunch, where possible made of regional products, which are organic and fair trade as much as possible. With a well-filled stomach we cycle on to our next location: Werkeiland.

8. Visit to Werkeiland Lelystad

Werkeiland Lelystad is the place where Lelystad started. Werkeiland Lelystad was the first inhabited part of the unpoldered Eastern Flevoland, now part of the Lelystad-Haven district.
We cycle past old brick houses that were specially made for the polder workers. On October 31, 1941, the first pile was driven to indicate the location of the work island.
Werkeiland Lelystad has a higher location compared to the rest of Lelystad. Lelystad-Haven was created as a working harbor for the reclamation of the polder.
We look around the marina with the many yachts and make some drone shots of the area. Then we cycle over the bridge over the Noordersluis, where we stop for a while. You can see that the water has a difference in height, which is typical for Flevoland.

9. Batavialand Heritage Park

We cycle over the Oostvaardersdijk with a beautiful view of the Oostvaardersdiep water area on our left. In the distance we see a replica of the old seventeenth century V.O.C. ship De Batavia lying at the jetty.

The area breathes the history of trade voyages and the battle against water. We visit Heritage Park Batavialand, museum and heritage center of Flevoland, where we are guided by a museum teacher.
Batavialand has an indoor and outdoor location with a maritime exhibition inside and the yard with the famous replica of the VOC ship Batavia. We are taken into a world of historic shipbuilding and crafts of the seventeenth century.
We climb aboard De Batavia, where stories come to life of what it must have been like to live on the ship during the eight-month voyage to the Dutch East Indies.

10. Exposure Squatting Man

From Batavialand you can see the Exposure artwork in the distance, which we cycle to for a closer look. Exposure is a twenty six meter high steel work of art on the Markerstrekdam near the Houtrib locks in Lelystad. The artwork Exposure was designed by English artist Antony Gormley and is also called the squatting man or popularly, the pooping man. He also resembles a man who is quietly defecating on his haunches, while enjoying the view of the Markermeer. The Markermeer is part of the Nieuwland National Park.

11. Batavia Stad Fashion Outlet

It’s time to go shopping! Batavia Stad Fashion Outlet is the first fashion outlet in the Netherlands, a setting with more than a hundred stores that sell Dutch and international fashion brands with up to seventy percent discount. In addition to clothing, you can also find jewellery, chocolate, interior products and kitchenware. In addition, there are several cafes and restaurants where you can eat and drink.
At the V.V.V. from Bataviastad, each of us receives a Batavia Giftcard worth fifty euros, which can be spent in almost all shops in Batavia Stad. The gift card reads: ‘Let’s celebrate fashion’.
What is nice to mention is that at Batavia Stad Fashion Outlet they are looking for fun influencers to stimulate some events for them this year. If they see cool things again, they like to ask that influencer to come back to Batavia Stad for a collaboration. How nice is that!
We have forty five minutes to spend the gift card and make something fun out of it. Like birds we spread out over Batavia Stad and we dive into the shops to go shopping. Time is tight and I have a limit of fifty euros, but I still manage to buy a nice fitting dress for twenty euros, thanks to the help of a very friendly saleswoman in the clothing store.
I have thirty euros left, with which I buy a nice pink handbag for twenty nine euros and ninety nine cents. During the payment the bag appears to be discounted, so that I still have nine euros left on my gift card!
Succeeded and satisfied with my purchases, we leave Batavia Stad with a good feeling and cycle back to Lelystad.

12. Dinner at Steak van de Keizer

Everything comes to an end, but what a fantastic cycleseeing bike tour experience we have had! We return our Roetz bikes to Leonardo Hotel Lelystad and have dinner at restaurant Steak van de Keizer, which is located right next to the hotel. Steak van de Keizer stands for tasty affordable (grill) dishes.
As a carnivore I order a Rump Steak, a delicious round steak from the grill, fried medium rare, supplemented with fries and vegetables. We drink a glass of red wine and toast to an extremely successful cycling weekend. How much we enjoyed it!

Thank you!

Iamsterdam, Craftersanddrifters, Visitflevoland, Visitalmere, Visitelystad, Leonardohotelalmere, Leonardohotellelystad, Visávis, Paviljoendeoostvaarders, Restaurantsorrento, Roetz-bikes, Boerkok, Buitencentrumoostvaardersplassen, Werkeiland, Batavialand, Exposure, Bataviastad, Steakvandekeizer.

My cycling buddies: Pema, Dean, Marilyn, Ngoc, Matt, Liselotte, Laurien, Tim


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