Meijepolder Bodegraven, Woerden and Nieuwkoop

Cycling through a typical Dutch polder and river landscape, you can hardly find a more authentic Dutch area than the surroundings of the Nieuwkoopse Plassen. The peat-covered lake area that emerged from the sixteenth century is widely used for recreation on the water. With a large marina nearby, you will mainly see cabins on the water.

The small, winding peat river Mije runs through the polder and the meadow area and gives extra atmosphere to the area, in which many centuries-old, characteristic farms can still be seen. A great diversity of marsh birds lives in and around the banks of the lakes and in the meadows. The increasingly rare black tern, but also the great and small reed warbler and the mustache like to breed here. Fish eaters such as the purple heron and the cormorant survive on what the lakes have to offer them. The water is quite clean and many plants grow there such as water gentian and water lilies, but you can also see floating piles of water hemlock and fields of water soldier.

You leave from the parking lot in Bodegraven and soon come across the Weijpoortsche Molen. The original hollow post mill from 1564 milled the water via a long canal. This mill was destroyed by French soldiers in 1672 and burned down completely, so that the current mill had to be built in 1674. In 1995 the mill was last extensively restored and even now the mill is milled every Saturday. When that happens, the mill is also accessible to interested parties.

Arriving in Woerden, there is a mill on the route that largely determines the cityscape: the Windhond. This beautiful round, stone, black tower mill was built in 1755 on a mill hill, which was originally a bastion that belonged to the city walls of Woerden. In order to place the Windhond, another mill was demolished. In 1877, the mill was given a steam engine, in 1901 a gas engine was added. The mill still exercises its function and grinds the grain mainly by wind power, although the gas engine is still in good condition.

Woerden is also home to Woerden Castle, which was built in 1415. When the castle was finished, it was surrounded by a moat and the fortress could be accessed via a bridge. At the front gate was a gatehouse and behind it were the service buildings: a bakehouse, a bottling plant with tower, a brewhouse, a kiln, a kitchen, a shed, a penterije and the stables. The portcullis, the thorn bushes and a palisade left nothing to the imagination and made it clear that this castle served as a defensive structure. It could offer protection to more than a hundred people.

The Westveense Molen, which is located north of Woerden in the polder, was built in 1676 to drain the Westveense polder, which is 145 hectares in size. A storm in 1837 destroyed the hollow post 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 had been idle since 2008, operational again.

In Bodegraven, De Arkduif was built, a smock mill built in 1697. The corn mill is located at the Overtocht near the Oude Rijn and has a brick round body and gantry. In the second half of the nineteenth century, fire damage was repaired and De Arkduif was given parts from other mills, including a demolished watermill from Nieuwkoop. The mill house is currently in use as a beer brewery and cannot be viewed from the inside.

Near the parking lot where the car is parked, you will finally see the Wiericker Schans fort. The fortification was built in 1673 and is part of the New Dutch Waterline. Until the nineteenth century, the fort retained its defensive function, but the fortress has also had other purposes. For example, the fort has also been used as a storage place for gunpowder, as a home for officers, as a church and as a training school for guard dogs. Nowadays, the fort is a tourist center for a wide recreational public.