Round trip Roden from the Leekstermeer

From here, you cycle to Roden. The village and church were first mentioned in 1139. Next to the church lies the Mensinge manor house. The current house was built in 1646 and is now a museum. The accompanying estate is part of the Mensingebos forest. The oak avenues that line the woodland are striking. At the edge of the forest stands the 'Kapteyn' observatory of the University of Groningen. The Nienoord estate is best known for the former Nienoord Manor. On the site where the manor was built in 1525, a 19th-century manor house now stands. The Van Ewsum family of the Nienoord manor initiated extensive peat extraction here. They had the area drained with the construction of the Leekster Hoofddiep canal.