The start of Vrienden op de Fiets (1984)

It is the beginning of the eighties. Nel de Blécourt likes to go for multi-day biking trips in the Netherlands. Her husband likes bicycling, but he is not really fond of multi-day trips. So Nel regularly sets out on a trip on her own. She usually ends up sleeping in one of those tucked-away hotel rooms for singles. Not very cosy and rather expensive too. Or in a youth hostel. Not real fun either, for someone her age. Nel starts to wonder if there really isn’t any other way…?

Who wants to let a bedroom to cycling holiday-makers?

Join us!

This was the appeal that Nel de Blécourt published in a local Dutch newspaper. She was looking for comfortable and affordable places to stay overnight. For, these were rather limited in her day; you had a choice between a (usually) unpleasant and (often) costly hotel, a youth hostel or a tent at a campsite

From 80 to over 5,000 addresses

More than eighty people answered her ad; they were willing to ‘rent out’ a room against a small fee. Many more people found Nel’s idea attractive and thus a small network of overnight addresses for bicyclist came into being.

This sympathetic initiative stood at the cradle of Foundation Vrienden op de Fiets. Thanks to Nel’s leadership, the foundation grew to become a mainly national and (on a modest scale) international network of overnight stopover addresses for sports enthusiasts. At the same time, the foundation’s small-scale character has remained unchanged all these years. Even now, when the number of Guest Addresses has risen to more than five thousand and we count tens of thousands of Friends.

Toiling at the kitchen table

For a long time, Nel and her husband Hijbo managed everything for Vrienden op de Fiets. Simply at home, at their kitchen table. From compiling address guides to contacts with Guest Addresses and Friends. The foundation required increasingly more work as the ‘club’ continued to grow at a steady pace. In 2003, the couple stops with their dedicated work for the foundation. Nel and Hijbo ask their children to lend a hand and they take over their parents’ work.

Since 2011, the family is no longer involved in the daily running of the foundation. It is now managed by a small team of professionals under the supervision of an independent Board. This team continues the foundation’s work based on Nel’s initial question: ‘Who wants to let a bedroom to cycling holiday-makers?’.

Nel de Blécourt had got it right, way back in 1984. And Vrienden op de Fiets has not really changed, even now.

Our founder Nel de Blécourt died in November 2016, more than 32 years after the start of her unique initiative. Nel lived to be 85. Foundation Vrienden op de Fiets gratefully keeps her legacy alive.