The love of the Drentsche Aa

In De Drentsche Aa National Park, the unique atmosphere and identity of the old esdorp landscape has been preserved. While almost every other area in the Netherlands was taken over by people, people here took the landscape as it lay. The result is a rural area where you almost literally cycle back in time: the environment here has hardly changed over the past 150 years. This area is therefore the best preserved stream and esvillage landscape in Western Europe.

However short, the route offers you a lot of variety. You will see Saxon farms around the village green, fields on the rounded ash trees and hay fields in the lower stream valley. You will pass through a number of picturesque villages, such as the centuries-old village of Tynaarlo. The town of Oudemolen is named after a dilapidated watermill that once stood near the Drentsche Aa. Still standing is De Zwaluw, a thatched corn mill from 1837, a little further along your route.