The rich nature around Haarlem

Your route starts in Spaarnwoude, an extensive nature and recreation area. Here you cycle through forests, peat meadow areas and polder landscapes. Lush strips of reeds grow on the many banks. In this area you can still see the subdivision patterns from the tenth and eleventh centuries that were introduced during the reclamation of the peat swamps. Then you drive to the banks of Lake Beautiful Nel. There is a marina in the hamlet of Penningsveer for pleasure boats that sail on this lake. Stop off at Café De Toerist in Spaarndam for a cup of coffee! Just past Velsen-Zuid you drive through the park that surrounds Huis Velserbeek, an originally sixteenth-century homestead. The stately park was redesigned in the late 1930s by the famous landscape architect Leonard Springer.