CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
287 km from Haulerwijk to Haulerwijk, about 4 h 45 of riding. On the way it passes Frederiksoord-Wilhelminaoord, Ir.D.F. Woudagemaal, Eisinga Planetarium in Franeker and back through Ir.D.F. Woudagemaal. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
In 1818 a former army officer named Johannes van den Bosch had a plan to cure poverty with heathland and a spade. His Maatschappij van Weldadigheid, the Society of Benevolence, bought up wasteland here on the border of Drenthe and Friesland and settled poor families from the cities on small farms, with a strict regime of work and discipline. Frederiksoord and Wilhelminaoord were the first colonies, and Veenhuizen, a little further east, later became a penal colony. UNESCO listed the Colonies of Benevolence in 2021, a rare case of a World Heritage Site that began as a social experiment.
Read the complete Colonies of Benevolence write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Colonies of Benevolence is where the day begins. Next is Frederiksoord-Wilhelminaoord.
In 1818, after years of war, famine and poverty, a former general named Johannes van den Bosch founded the Society of Benevolence in the Netherlands, with a radical idea: to take poor families from the cities and give them a new life as farmers in the empty heathlands of the north east. The first colony was established at Frederiksoord, in the south of Drenthe, and others followed at Wilhelminaoord, Willemsoord, Veenhuizen and elsewhere. Each family was given a small house, a plot of land and training in farming, and children were educated in schools, an unusual provision for the time. The Colonies of Benevolence, in the Netherlands and Belgium, were listed by UNESCO in 2021.
Read the complete Frederiksoord-Wilhelminaoord write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Frederiksoord-Wilhelminaoord comes up about 34 km into the recorded legs. Next is Ir.D.F. Woudagemaal, 44 km on.
The Netherlands has always had to fight water, and Friesland's battle was won in part by a single building on the shore of the IJsselmeer near Lemmer. The Ir. D.F. Woudagemaal, a steam pumping station opened in 1920, is the largest steam-driven pumping station ever built that is still in working order, and it was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998. When the water in Friesland's canals and lakes rises too high, the old steam engines can still be fired up to pump it out.
Read the complete Ir.D.F. Woudagemaal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 87 km into the recorded legs you reach Ir.D.F. Woudagemaal. Next is Eisinga Planetarium in Franeker.
Eise Eisinga was a wool comber in the Frisian town of Franeker, not a professional astronomer, and in the 1770s he built the solar system on his living-room ceiling. The story goes that in 1774 a local pastor predicted that the planets would align and bring disaster, and the town panicked. Eisinga, who knew some mathematics, wanted to show the real movements, and over the next seven years he built a scale model of the planets, with a clockwork mechanism hidden in the attic that still moves them today. It is generally described as the oldest working planetarium in the world, and it was listed by UNESCO in 2023.
Read the complete Eisinga Planetarium in Franeker write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Eisinga Planetarium in Franeker, about halfway. Next is back through Ir.D.F. Woudagemaal, 43 km on.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ir.D.F. Woudagemaal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Ir.D.F. Woudagemaal sits at 175 km, about halfway. Next is back through Frederiksoord-Wilhelminaoord.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Frederiksoord-Wilhelminaoord write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Frederiksoord-Wilhelminaoord comes up about 252 km into the recorded legs. Next is Colonies of Benevolence.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Colonies of Benevolence write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Colonies of Benevolence closes the day.
Colonies of Benevolence → Frederiksoord-Wilhelminaoord is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Frederiksoord-Wilhelminaoord → Ir.D.F. Woudagemaal is 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ir.D.F. Woudagemaal → Eisinga Planetarium in Franeker is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Eisinga Planetarium in Franeker → back through Ir.D.F. Woudagemaal is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Ir.D.F. Woudagemaal → back through Frederiksoord-Wilhelminaoord is 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Frederiksoord-Wilhelminaoord → Colonies of Benevolence is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.