Groene Hart : Alphen aan de Rijn – Woerden

After a number of weekends with bad weather, of other priorities, we picked another stretch of the Groene-Hart Path. Since it wasn’t that warm, we decided cycling back was not a good idea, so we decided to take an easy travel route.
It wasn’t a bright day, and windy at spots, rather cool, but at least it didn’t rain.

We parked our car near the Woerden station, and traveled by train to Alphen – just two stops away. From the station, it’s about a kilometer to the route, and from that point, a fair 33 kilometers, mainly over rural roads and cyclepaths, and just some stretches over bare ground.
The first part went to Zuideinde – the southern limits of Nieuwkoop, where we found the only cafe on the route that was open. Because we had our dog with us, we could not cross along the meadows but had to stay on a tarmac road.
From Nieuwkoop, we went to Meije following an old church path, across the two lakes south of Nieuwkoop. This was a tarmac cycle path, centimeters above the level of the lakes, and very windy – twh wind sweeping over the lake, traverse to the path. At the end, in Meije, we followed the road (and came along the Meije Gardens and tearoom – but that wasn’t opened yet), get into the barn of Natuurmonumenten – an wildlife organization that manages the Nieuwkoopse Plassen reserve. Again, over a tarmac road, to Woerdense Verlaat, and from there, along a canal, finally a grassy path over a dike, back to Woerden.

In all, about 33 kilometers, done – including rest – in 6,5 hours.

See the images, and download the track in Garmin, general and CSV-format.

20 Bridges

A 18 kilometer walk today, from the outskirts of Zeist through woods and the outer quarters of Driebergen (lots of big houses…) crossing many bridges in woods and parks, to the recreation area named “Het Grote Bos” where we had a rest for a 15 minutes. After that, through woodland and parks back to Zeist.
The weather was chilly and showers were expected so I left my camera at home.
Here are the maps, as well as the trackslogs in Garmin, Exchange and Comma separated format