Drenthe, its villages, nature and history

It is wonderfully quiet in the Grolloo forestry. Now and then the silence is interrupted by the drumming of woodpeckers or the cry of a distant buzzard. In many places the forest gives way to open heathland. The many fens are special. We start in a real Drenthe village, Westerbork. Here you will find two information points where you can buy various maps, guides and souvenirs as a reminder of the cycling route through Drenthe. When we leave Westerbork we pass a very small village, Elp. Around 350 Drenthe residents live here. When we have left Elp we return to the tranquility of Boswachterij Grolloo. When we leave the Grolloo forestry in the direction of Hooghalen, just before junction 3, we pass the Camp Westerbork memorial center. Since 1983 there has been a memorial center here, where the history of Durchgangslager Westerbork is told. The former camp site is now a green plain. The main buildings are now marked by mounds. Triangular stones mark the places where there were once barracks and railway tracks. A monument has been placed in the middle of the site, in memory of the many thousands of Jews and Gypsies who were deported from Westerbork camp to the extermination camps.