Through the heart
of the polder land

↓ Discover the walk

Distance11.4 kmLAW

Duration± 2 hourswithout a long pause

Rise, fall0 metersheight difference

From, toNieuwveenZwammerdam

79/100

★★★★★

Pilgrim’s path, cards 10–11, walked and assessed myself.

ROUTEView the Pelgrimspad overviewRoute information and follow-up parts ↗

This makes the route special

Nieuwkoop polder
Korteraarse pumping station
Well mill
Church funeral
Viermolengang
Fat Mill

To take into account

Pay close attention to the red-white markings along the way
Open the route description in advance, a map link is not available everywhere along the way

Advertentie

The story of the route

Pilgrim’s Path, cards 10–11 from start to finish

This stage of the Pelgrimspad takes you along straight canals, dikes and peat polders. You pass quiet roads, wooden fences and meadows with grazing cows. Sometimes a mill turns in the distance, you walk straight through the heart of the old polder landscape.

This polder is in some places more than 5 meters below NAP. To keep the area habitable and workable, an ingenious system of ditches, locks, pumping stations and mills was constructed. In the past, the water level was maintained with a mill basin and dozens of mills. Nowadays these have been replaced by modern pumping stations, but the landscape still tells the story of centuries of polder life.

It is not without reason that the Pilgrim’s Path takes you past this special landscape.

Pilgrim's path, cards 10–11, landscape along the way — En route
Map 10 Papenveer-Aarlanderveen

Map 10 Papenveer-Aarlanderveen

Here you walk along long straight ditches, quiet dikes and old farms. Everything is constructed by hand and with a purpose: taming the water. But despite all this technology, the landscape remains vulnerable and a particularly low-lying area of agricultural land, reeds, meadow birds and memories. You can fully enjoy this unique environment along the Pelgrimspad.

The Korteraarse pumping station replaced a mill at the end of the 19th century and was later adapted for diesel and electricity. The pumping station still regulates the water level of the surrounding polders.

Pilgrim path, maps 10–11, Map 10 Papenveer-Aarlanderveen — Map 10 Papenveer-Aarlanderveen
A characteristic moment on this walk.

Map 11 Aarlanderveen-Zwammerdam

This part of the route winds along a mill corridor, wooden bridges and grass dikes. You pass Aarlanderveen, the only village in the Netherlands where mills still actively work together to maintain the polder water level. A unique piece of living heritage, with the final piece: Zwammerdam. Further on you continue to follow the Pilgrim’s Path as you explore the landscape of the Groene Hart.

The green heart

In the middle of the busy Randstad is a surprisingly open and green area: the Green Heart. It is a landscape of polders, cow pastures, ditches, windmills and vistas, surrounded by cities such as Utrecht, Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague. Where the buildings stop, this is where the space begins.

The Groene Hart is an oasis of peace for walkers. You walk over dikes and grass paths, past cows, pollard willows, water birds and fields that reach to the horizon. In the distance, windmills sometimes still turn, reminders of the battle against the water.

Pilgrim's path, cards 10–11, The green heart — The green heart
A characteristic moment on this walk.

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Characteristic on the road

Four mills together keep the deep polder dry

At Aarlanderveen, Dutch water management becomes tangible, because the mills work as one system to extract the water from the low-lying polder step by step.

Advertentie

Molenviergang

The last part of this stage will take you past the four mills of the mill corridor. These mills work together as one system to keep the polder dry. Wind force lifts the water gradually. This mill ensemble is the only one in the world that is still in operation