Around Schagen and coast

You cycle all the way along the coast to the Groote Kaap lighthouse. In Schagen you can see some beautiful seventeenth-century buildings, including on the Loet and on the Markt. The neo-Gothic Christoforus Church dates from 1883. The bell tower contains one of the oldest bells in the Netherlands: a bell by Herman from 1478. Until the twelfth century, the Zijpe and Haze polder under Schagerbrug consisted of raised moors. Due to the reclamation, the land dropped in height, so that the risk of flooding increased. Dikes were built as early as the thirteenth century, and the polder was not finally conquered until the end of the sixteenth century.