Leiden, Zoetermeer, Koudekerk aan den Rijn

This bike ride takes you through a piece of authentic, classic Dutch polder landscape. In the past, this area looked very different: the city of Leiden still lay within its city walls, Zoetermeer was a small village, motorways and railways had not yet crossed the landscape and there were far more windmills and far fewer green pump houses. Today, many polders have disappeared due to urban expansion, the construction of parks and the digging of recreational lakes. But the polder landscape has not completely vanished.

During this bike ride you’ll pass polder mills and pumping stations, cycle over dikes and embankments and cross rivers and canals. All of this lies within the management area of the Rijnland water board, one of the oldest water authorities in the Netherlands. Since 1255, it has been responsible for keeping feet dry and water clean in the area from Velsen and Amsterdam in the north to Wassenaar and Gouda in the south. Within the area are hundreds of polders, each with its own story. On this route you’ll get to know a few of the Rijnland polders.