Why this ride
A 358 km round trip from Franeker - roughly 5 h 22 in the saddle. It goes by way of Frederiksoord-Wilhelminaoord, Key Planning Decision and back through Frederiksoord-Wilhelminaoord. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Eisinga Planetarium in Franeker and Key Planning Decision · 358 km from Franeker
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 358 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 5 h 22
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. 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.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Eisinga Planetarium in Franeker is where the day begins. Next is Frederiksoord-Wilhelminaoord.
2. 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.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Frederiksoord-Wilhelminaoord comes up about 72 km into the recorded legs. Next is Key Planning Decision.
3. Key Planning Decision
The name on the map is bureaucratic, but the place is anything but. Key Planning Decision is a translation of the Dutch legal designation used to protect the Wadden Sea, and the spot here sits on the coast near Delfzijl, at the eastern edge of the province of Groningen, where the Dutch Wadden meets the estuary of the Ems. The Wadden Sea is the largest unbroken system of tidal flats in the world, stretching along the coasts of the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark, and it was listed by UNESCO in 2009.
Read the complete Key Planning Decision write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 178 km into the recorded legs you reach Key Planning Decision. Next is back through Frederiksoord-Wilhelminaoord.
4. back through Frederiksoord-Wilhelminaoord
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Frederiksoord-Wilhelminaoord write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Frederiksoord-Wilhelminaoord, late in the day. Next is Eisinga Planetarium in Franeker.
5. Eisinga Planetarium in Franeker
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Eisinga Planetarium in Franeker write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Eisinga Planetarium in Franeker. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Eisinga Planetarium in Franeker to Frederiksoord-Wilhelminaoord
Eisinga Planetarium in Franeker → Frederiksoord-Wilhelminaoord is 72 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Frederiksoord-Wilhelminaoord to Key Planning Decision
Frederiksoord-Wilhelminaoord → Key Planning Decision is 106 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Key Planning Decision to back through Frederiksoord-Wilhelminaoord
Key Planning Decision → back through Frederiksoord-Wilhelminaoord is 107 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Frederiksoord-Wilhelminaoord to Eisinga Planetarium in Franeker
back through Frederiksoord-Wilhelminaoord → Eisinga Planetarium in Franeker is 73 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.