Haulerwijk, Fochteloo, Norg

According to Wikipedia, culture is “everything created and passed on by people. It stands opposite to nature and refers to human activity.” A dictionary defines culture as “the collection of norms, values, traditions, rules and artistic expressions of a country, people or group.” In other words, it’s a broad concept.

For this cycle route through Norg, Fochteloo and Haule, we found several great stops that connect perfectly with the idea of culture. And although Wikipedia places culture opposite nature, here they go hand in hand.

You can park your car near the birdwatching hut at Fochteloërveen and start your route at junction 64. The Fochteloërveen is an impressive wetland on the border of Friesland and Drenthe – a raised bog full of peat mosses, rare plants and wildlife. It’s worth slowing down here and enjoying the scenery, perhaps from inside the bird hide.

By this point, you’ve already crossed quietly into the province of Drenthe. On a cultural route through the north of the Netherlands, you can’t skip a hunebed. In Westervelde, you’ll find a real Drenthe hunebed – part of the Funnelbeaker culture. Hunebed D2 has been restored several times, but the contents of the burial chamber, dating back to 4400 BC, have never been excavated and may still be intact.

In the next village, Norg, you’ll find more contemporary cultural stops. You can visit an antiques shop, an art gallery and a traditional windmill. From there, you cycle through green meadows and the lovely Slokkert stream valley toward Haulerwijk. Then it’s on through the Blauwe Bos (Blue Forest) to Haule.

This forest was planted in the 1930s by Lambertus Kok and his wife Grietje Wijchman. Around their house, they planted Douglas fir and Sitka spruce on the 17 hectares they owned – trees with a bluish sheen. That was the beginning of the Blauwe Bos, which grew between 1935 and 1960 into a forest of some 300 hectares. It is now managed by Staatsbosbeheer.

From the small entrepreneur village of Haule, you cycle back toward the stunning Fochteloërveen. You’ll pass the rural outskirts of Oosterwolde and the historic farm of Lara Aldewereld. At her flower nursery and picking garden, culture and nature come together in the best possible way. During the season, you can pick your own colourful bouquet – a living souvenir of a very special route.