Tour of Vinkeveense Plassen and Botshol Nature Reserve

Your cycling route starts with a good cup of coffee at Café Restaurant De Punt. From here you can easily cycle to the Vinkeveense Plassen, a popular water sports area thanks to its central location in the Randstad. The lakes are connected to the Amstel river. They were created by the extraction of peat. The elongated islands that you can still see today are legakkers: drying fields for wet peat. The holes in between became larger due to erosion, creating the puddles. In Botshol Nature Reserve you can see white egrets and spoonbills. Fort in the Botshol is part of the Defense Line of Amsterdam, a 135 kilometer long defense line. Concrete defenses were never built on this site. Here you only see an elevation in the landscape, from 1895.