City Canal, Gasselte and Borger

Saxon farms around the village green, the fields on the rounded ash trees, the higher fields and the hayfields and meadows in the lower stream valley: in the Drentsche Aa National Park and National Landscape, the old, typical Drenthe landscape is preserved. Meandering, the Drentsche Aa finds its way through a landscape that has remained exceptionally intact and where farmers have been in charge for thousands of years. Yet the landscape was formed by the stream, around which an esdorp landscape was built. In the area you will find a characteristic combination of 'spontaneous' nature and the agricultural activities on the land: haymaking, mowing and sod cutting. It is a beautiful landscape, in which open and closed areas alternate strongly. Before you start your bike ride, you can have your bike thoroughly checked at Profile Addens at the starting point of the route. This way you will be well prepared and safe on your way. If you have a bicycle discount pass, you will receive a EUR 10.00 discount on maintenance and servicing. After having made your way through the province of Drenthe for over 36 kilometres, you will arrive at Hunebed D27 in Borger. This is the largest hunebed in the Netherlands: this giant is 23 metres long, has nine capstones and four portal stones! It is also one of the few hunebeds where human remains have been found. Due to its size, it has always been thought that Borger may have been the centre of the Funnel Beaker Culture. The National Hunebed Information Centre, a museum located next to the hunebed, takes you back in time to the Funnel Beaker people. Here you can learn everything about the hunebeds that you encounter on our cycle routes. A few kilometres further on, there are four hunebeds close together, of which hunebed D23 is by far the worst: there is only one capstone left that is supported by smaller capstones and one capstone has fallen off the supporting stones. The dolmen is almost unrecognizable as such, but the fact that the other dolmens are so close by still rings a bell.