Monument Route

Although this route is called the Monument Route, you will also encounter a lot of nature along the way. You cycle through a patchwork of polders (De Wijdewormer) and old peat meadow areas (Oostzanerveld, Ilperveld and Wormer- en Jisperveld) where sometimes geometrically tight ditches and other times meandering rivers determine the landscape. Every now and then a characteristic ribbon village appears on the horizon where houses used to be built next to each other on the high dikes. The number of monuments is particularly large in Jisp and Purmerend. Here you will see beautiful, rich buildings built in a stately nineteenth-century style. In neighboring Wormer, it is mainly old warehouses that have obtained monument status. Due to its location on the Zaan, large ships came to unload their cargo here last century. That cargo was first stored here before being distributed overland. The names of these impressive storage palaces often refer to the origin of the cargo: Saigon, Batavia. Nowadays, the many square meters are reused for houses, catering and cultural institutions. Diehards then continue pedaling to junction 73 to enjoy De Zaanse Schans. A monumental living-working neighborhood from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries with wooden mills, barns, houses and museums. All built in unique Zaanse timber architecture and moved here piece by piece from 1961.