Emmen is the big town at the southern end of the Hondsrug, and it has a split personality that makes it more interesting than its suburbs suggest. On one side it is a post-war boomtown: until the middle of the twentieth century it was a small village surrounded by peat bogs, then synthetic fibre factories and new housing turned it into one of the largest municipalities in the north. On the other side, it sits inside some of the oldest landscape in the country, with hunebedden scattered through the woods right on its edge and the Emmerdennen forest a short walk from the centre.
For most Dutch families, Emmen means the zoo. The old Noorder Dierenpark in the town centre was replaced by Wildlands, a large themed animal park, and on a summer Saturday that is where the traffic is going. The more rewarding stop for a rider is in the woods. The hunebedden of the Emmerdennen and around Valthe and Westenesch sit among pines and heather, and one of them, a long passage grave enclosed by a ring of kerbstones, is among the finest in the country. East of the town lie the peat colonies, a landscape of canals, long straight roads and workers' villages, and the open-air peat museum at Barger-Compascuum shows how hard life was for the people who dug the bogs by hand.
The riding in and out of Emmen is varied for this part of the world. Arriving from Exloo or Borger along the ridge, you get forest roads with gentle curves and trees close to the edge. Head east toward the German border and everything straightens: canals, bridges, rows of poplars and farms set at even intervals along roads that run arrow-straight for kilometres. The wind, again, is the main factor, and the bike can feel a gust from the side long before you see the trees move. There are plenty of roundabouts in town and the usual Dutch dedication to cycle lanes.
As a stop, Emmen offers all the services you could want: fuel on the main roads in and out, supermarkets, chain cafes and independent ones, and somewhere to eat a proper meal. The centre has been rebuilt in recent years and is easy enough to walk around, with a square and terraces. It also makes a good night-stop on a Drenthe loop, with the German border only a few kilometres away for anyone heading on to Lower Saxony.