Tour of Vinkeveense Plassen and Botshol Nature Reserve

Your cycle route starts with a good cup of coffee at Café Restaurant De Punt. From here you can quickly cycle to the Vinkeveense Plassen, a popular water sports area thanks to its central location in the Randstad. The lakes are connected to the river Amstel. They were created by the extraction of peat. The elongated islands that you can still see are legakkers: drying fields for the wet peat. The holes between them became larger due to erosion, which is how the lakes were formed. In the Botshol Nature Reserve you can see white egrets and spoonbills. Fort in de Botshol is part of the Defence Line of Amsterdam, a 135 kilometre long defence line. Concrete defences were never built at this location. You can only see a rise in the landscape here, from 1895.