Lakes of Nieuwkoop

Fourteen hundred hectares of ponds, watercourses, reed beds and marshy meadows that were formed from the sixteenth century onwards, stretch out before you as you cycle this beautiful route. The area with peat cutters' houses near the ribbon village of Nieuwkoop is very attractive for the curious cyclist, because beautiful cabin boats sail on the large ponds, while the smaller ponds are used by canoeists and rowers, or passengers of a whisper boat. The area is not only good for water fun, because because the water is very clean, beautiful plants such as water gentian and water lilies also grow there. Fields of water soldier, floating piles of water hemlock and large quantities of bladderwort float here and there in the ponds and capricious waterways. Between the water there are beautiful extensive reed beds that give the area a remarkably wide and open character. On the banks of the reed beds wave colourful plants such as cattail, water sorrel, meadowsweet, large water eppe and various types of sedge. In spring, the beautiful royal fern stands out well among the rough species. The vast and expansive area is the habitat and breeding ground of many marsh birds. The great and small reed warbler, but also the whiskered and the rare bittern hide among the reeds. Breeding colonies of cormorants and purple herons hunt for fish in the ponds and in winter the area attracts hundreds of geese, ducks and grebes. You start from the Tourist Transfer Point in Nieuwkoop. From this point you cycle to the Westveense mill. This hollow post 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. And a new large-scale restoration in 2010 made the mill, which had been idle after 2008, operational again.