Tag: Groene Hart

Groene Hart: Delfland

Squeezed between Delft and Rotterdam, the Delfland is a low-land area where, in the Dutch Golden age, painters like Potter (famous for his painting “De Stier” (“The Bull”) and poets like Poot lived: an area rich with cattle, and wide views. Nowadays, the cattle is partly gone, and large parts of the countryside are preserved in a slightly “wild” format. The main function today is recreational, because of the close proximity of large cities of the Randstad conurbation: Rotterdam, Schiedam and Vlaardingen at the South, and Delft, and The Hague and surrounding towns in the North. Both ways, you’ll see the skyline of high buildings at the horizon, and the only really free views are West and East. Well, free, not entirely, because the once small villages in these directions grow fast, and occupy more and more of the open landscape. The path runs close to the urban boundaries twice – we tipped the edges in Vlaardingen en Delft, below many-strey flats; but elsewhere, it runs in the open area, along canals and old paths and dikes. Houses, however, are always near.
Despite these threats, the land is still a good place for many birds that live on the meadowland and water. Not that we did see many – it’s too late in the year for large numbers – but in spring, there will be many, no doubt.

I took some pictures, and the tracks are, as usual, available in Garmin, generic and CSV formats.

This is the final stretch of this regional path. The booklet covering it all and giving quite some detail on the land, it’s history and (possible) future, is published by NIVON. We used the second edition, 2004, ISBN 90 70601 85 0

Groene Hart: Schieland

This part of the path has different faces.
Starting off on the bank of the Hollandse IJssel opposite Ouderkerk (because there was no need to cross the river by ferry just for the sake of the route), the first part leads through the wild regions of Hitland, a remainder of the low lands of Holland, so low it was left wet and swampy. We kept dry feet because the elevated path that bridged the lower, wet marshes. Next, leading along an old road, showing views on the low land – barely above the water. It didn’t stop people building houses, but at times, specific fundaments are needed.
From there, we entered the boundaries of Capelle; this is a suburb of Rotterdam, exploded in the 60’s and 70’s, a lot of high appartement buildings, here called flats, and lots of free space and parkland surrounding them. Getting nearer Rotterdam, the Big City was ever more closing in.
We came out the suburban builded area and followed the park along the shores of the Kralingse Plas, just North of Rotterdam, following the borders of the river Rotte and and the Bergsscho Voorplas, and then, once again, entering a suburban area, again though parks between flats that give the city people a sense of nature.
Finally, we recollected our bikes at the railway station in Berkel -Rodenrijs and cycled back to the car.

Because of the differences in this 23 kilometers, despite it’s mainly in suburban space, this is one of the nicer walks. You wouldn’t expect such a green space in one of the densiest populated corners of the world….

These are the images that give you an impression of the area; Of course, the tracks are available in Garmin, generic and CVS formats.

Groene Hart: Waarden (2)

This is the second part of the very long part of this path, between IJsselstijn and Ouderkerk aan de IJssel, all together over 40 kilometers, and we did the first part last year: from IJsseltein to Vlist. Today we took the second part, from Vlist to Ouderkerk. We parked the bikes in Ouderkerk, drove on to Vlist along one-track willow lanes, and walked back. Then took our bikes and headed over the same narrow roads back to Vlist.

Anticipated to be about 22 kilometers, it turned out to be come 26, due to the fact the route has been altered. Where the description pointed out straight on, the current routing lead us straight into Stolwijk, and from there we could have gone straight on, as signposted. However. we decided to keep to the book and found the path mentioned to be “No access”. We went on to find an alternative but in the end, we had to take the forbidden path. No trouble at all, and at the end, we saw the route was indeed diverted into Stolwijk. You may have luck, as well, as long as you shut the gate when closed.
These searches meant a few kilometers extra.

Though it looks like walking back from a dead end, the longer ‘spike’ at the end is not: Walking down the quai to get to a bridge to cross the waters and than walk back over a cycle path. The only way to get to the other side.

As you well see, we were walking towards the city area of Rotterdam. Just a few kilometers away from this metropole, there are thes low lands – with lots of open space, birds and cattle.
Below sea level, this is the area of flat, open, low lands, no more than a feet above water surface. No wonder that some houses lean over to one side. Sometimes walls crack, but some houses don’t show any damage at all. Just leaning over.

Spring is the time of nesting birds, and we found a few. Ever seen a duck’s nest, on eye-height in a willow tree? We’re still wondering how she got in there. If it weren’t for her white breast, we may not have noticed… Another duck kept closer to the ground but hide herself – in a willow trunk, inside the new stems.
Other birds nests are surrounded by water, save by nature for cats and foxes. And after hatching, the little ones are cute.

I took some images on this walk, and the tracks are here in Garmin, general and CSV formats. You won’t find a bigger map, since the whole route is decribed in a LAW booklet, and is fully signposted by yellow-and-red markers.

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.