Hardenberg, Rheeze, Hellendoorn, Nijverdal

Two friends, Toos and Bertje devised and walked the Pieterpad between 1978 and 1983. A long-distance walking route (500 km) from Pieterburen in northern Groningen to Sint-Pietersberg in southern Limburg in 26 stages that are easily accessible by public transport and where you can stay overnight. The scenery along the way is hugely varied, but equally beautiful everywhere.

Where you can walk, you can also cycle, and we wouldn't be Fietsnetwerk if we didn't set out some great cycling tours for you inspired by the Pieterpad. We made 14 routes totalling almost 1,300 km along all the places on the Pieterpad. We did make circles of them so that you always return to your starting point. This is part 5 and leads from Hardenberg to Hellendoorn.

Around Hardenberg, which was traditionally a peat extraction area, you now find a landscape with straight plots of land, drainage ditches, canals and waterways. Whereas it used to be a landscape with lots of arable farming, nowadays you find more cattle farms near the monumental farms. You regularly cycle parallel to or across the Overijsselse Vecht and past the most beautiful wooded estates.

In Hardenberg you will find Museum Huize Nijenstede, an old country house from 1853. Around the museum you will find an extensive park with a pond, a rose and a herb garden. Also visit the National Tin Figures Museum with more than 200,000 tin figures. Cycle past the town's three windmills. Hellendoorn also has two mills, of which corn mill 'De Hoop' is fully operational.

Nijverdal has its own beautiful story. In the last century, a concession was issued to mine gold in Nijverdal, the only town in the Netherlands to be granted this privilege. Unfortunately in vain: nothing was ever found.