Explore the surroundings of Goeree-Overflakkee

Goeree-Overflakkee stands for wonderful cycling on winding dikes with views of creeks, lakes and former estuaries. Ancient villages with characteristic buildings and cozy terraces. And especially wide polders with high skies where the wind does what it wants. This route lets you experience it all.

Goeree-Overflakkee is an ideal cycling area. It used to consist of several small islands. In the battle against the water of the North Sea, humans gradually conquered more and more land. The first reclamation already took place in the twelfth century, so that villages such as Oude-Tonge were created where you can see some monumental farms. The village of Achthuizen originally served as temporary accommodation for seasonal workers from North Brabant. Many of them continued to live here, forming a Catholic enclave in a largely Protestant area. Seen from the air, the village is strikingly shaped like an eight.

Ooltgensplaat is a typical church ring village with a harbor to the Volkerak. In the picturesque town on the Kaai you will find, among other things, the Oude Raadhuis, the oldest building of its kind on Goeree-Overflakkee. The building dates from 1616 and was built according to the design of the famous seventeenth-century Flemish master builder Melchior van Harbach. A little further on you pass De Korenaar, the hull of a corn mill dating from 1729. Also in the village of Nieuw-Tonge you will pass a beautiful windmill, d\\\'Oranjeboom from 1768.

Part of the route you have a view from the dike of the Volkerak, a body of water that probably originated during the Sint-Elisabeth flood in 1421. After passing Oude-Tonge you look out over the Grevelingenmeer, a former estuary of the North Sea. Today this lake is the largest saltwater lake in Western Europe. There is always a bench to be found if you want to look out over the water at your leisure.