Cycling through wooded Friesland around Bakkeveen

When you think of Friesland you quickly think of a wide landscape with high skies. Around Bakkeveen you will find another side of the versatile Frisian landscape. You drive through some woods, you also pass an old redoubt.
The Slot Place
The route starts in Bakkeveen, a village that arose during peat reclamation in 1660. From here you drive through Landgoed de Slotplaats, which was built in 1668. You can see huge ancient beech trees, and more to the west is a nineteenth-century production forest. You drive on low-traffic roads through a landscape of grasslands, fields and straight ditches. Here and there are tufts of forest. You pass through the strikingly named hamlets of Moscow and Petersburg.
Zwartendijksterschans
Stop at Restaurant't Witte Huis for a refreshing break with a delicious meal. Further on you see the Reformed church from 1714, next to it is a bell chair whose bells date from 1520. A little later you cycle through the Blue Forest, where you mainly see conifers and some old heath remnants. On the Schansweg you can walk to the Zwartendijksterschans, a freely accessible redoubt from 1593. You drive back to the starting point along the Bakkeveensterduinen.