Nieuwkoopse Plassen

Fourteen hundred hectares of lakes, watercourses, reedlands and swampy meadows that were formed since the sixteenth century, stretch wide in front of you when you cycle this beautiful route. The area with varnishers' houses near the ribbon village of Nieuwkoop is very attractive for the curious cyclist, because beautiful cabin boats sail on the large lakes, while the smaller lakes are used by canoeists and rowers, or passengers on a whisper boat. The area is not only good for water fun, because the water is very pure, beautiful plants such as water gentian and water lilies also grow there. Fields of crabgrass, drifts of water hemlocks and large quantities of bladderwort float here and there in the puddles and irregular waterways. Between the water there are beautiful extensive reed fields that give the area a strangely wide and open character. Colorful plants such as loosestrife, water sorrel, meadowsweet, large waterpepper and various types of sedges wave on the banks of the reedlands. In spring, the beautiful royal fern stands out among the shrub species. The wide and extensive area is the living and breeding area of many marsh birds. The great and small reed warbler, but also the mustache and the rare bittern hide among the reeds. Breeding colonies of cormorants and purple herons hunt for fish in the lakes and in winter the area attracts hundreds of geese, ducks and grebes. You depart from the Tourist Transfer Point in Nieuwkoop. From this point you cycle to the Westveense mill. This seesaw mill from 1676 was built to drain the Westveense polder, which is 145 hectares in size. A storm in 1837 destroyed the mill, but it was restored. The mill was also restored after it gradually subsided in the mid-twentieth century. A new large-scale restoration in 2010 made the mill, which came to a standstill after 2008, operational again.