Aeën and Diënroute

Lovely ribbon villages
Start the day with a cup of coffee on the waterfront terrace of Europarcs Resort Poort van Amsterdam. You can also spend the night here before or after your tour. From here you cycle along the IJmeer in the direction of Amsterdam. You will pass through several small villages with wooden houses and bridges built in the typical Waterland style. The peat here used to retain water like a sponge and therefore the ground was about five meters higher at the time. Houses were then built en masse on the dikes to keep feet dry. This created elongated ribbon villages that are so typical for this area.

Endless peat meadows
One of those ribbon villages is Ransdorp. There you will find Hotel Café de Zwaan where you can enjoy a snack and a drink. In Durgerdam you can then view a beautiful church and then cycle through the peat meadow areas around Zuiderwoude back to the starting point of the route.

Historical Zuiderwoude
The peat area around Zuiderwoude was reclaimed from the 12th century. At that time you did not find grassland here, but forests. You can see that in the name of this place. In the 16th and 17th centuries, this village flourished due to industry and international trade. This prosperity came to a standstill in the 18th century.