Round Langedijk

You can safely call West Friesland a region with its own character. The region located in North Holland, for example, has its own dialect in which typical personal names occur. The area within the West Frisian Omringdijk has a quiet agricultural landscape in which long ribbon villages are located. With this tour you drive through some of those ancient villages. A beautiful route that is rich in cultural history, because you cycle past the Broeker Veiling, among other things.

While cycling you will see many monumental churches and buildings, such as old farmhouses. In this reclaimed area, of course, the old windmills are not missing. Close to the village of Zijdewind, which once lay on the shore of a lake that has now been reclaimed, is the Slootgaardmolen, a polder mill from 1590. The run of this mill is the only one in the Netherlands with a completely iron reel cross. Just before Nieuwe-Niedorp is the Kostverlorenpolder, a hull of a former polder mill from 1860. This mill replaced a predecessor that had been burned down by lightning. The mill was demolished in 1912. The hull now functions as a residence.

Just before Oud-Niedorp you will pass De Hoop, a flour mill from 1641. A little later, in Dorpsstraat, you will pass one of the three ruined churches that still remain in our country. It is the ruin of an originally thirteenth-century church that burned down by lightning in 1977. The still standing walls date from the seventeenth century.
In Veenhuizen, the Reformed Church contains the seventeenth-century tomb of nobleman and diplomat Reinoud van Brederode (1567-1633). There is also an authentic bell tower at the church. In the cemetery behind the church, three English crew members are buried who crashed their bomber in a nearby meadow in 1940.

Just before Heerhugowaard you pass the Polder Hensbroek, a polder mill from 1866. In Broek op Langedijk you cycle past the monumental wooden auction building from 1912. The auction has been held in the open air since 1887. With the new building, which stands on stilts, the market gardeners could sail through the auction hall with their vegetable barges. There is still a historic auction clock here. In 1922, the building was expanded with a lounge so that the products were not exposed to bright sun, rain and other weather influences. This Broeker Auction was the first in the Netherlands to auction horticultural products by auction. Today the building serves as a museum.