The other day I bicycled to Gouda and back (which turned out to be nearly 40km each way). It was a bit long, but I got a good look through the Dutch countryside. Bike trails along canals are great fun. In Woerden there was a street theater thing going on and I arrived just in time to hear Blonde Bonnie en de Badmutters singing Johnny Be Good (in English of course).

The crazy thing about this trip though, was that it is less than 70km to all the major cities on the coast, probably only 40km to Amsterdam, etc. Basically one can bike anywhere in the country in half a day. Furthermore there are good signs. One can get from Gouda back to Utrecht following signs for bike paths to Utrecht the whole way (in the other direction one needs to know the names of some of the intermediate towns).