Surhuisterveen, Burgum, Harkema

Cycling through this region means more than just moving through a landscape, you’re moving through a story. Between the hedgerows and meadows, the old mills and farms, you start to notice how much of what you see, smell and taste leads back to the land itself. This is a place shaped by time, by nature, and by the people who have lived and worked here for generations.

This isn’t the Friesland of sails and cities, but of quiet roads and working farmyards. A region where time seems to slow down, yet where every day is spent preserving and renewing, always starting from the soil.

Hedgerows and alder lanes mark the natural borders between the fields. They filter the wind, shelter animals and create a landscape full of glimpses, as if you're cycling through green stage curtains.

This land wasn’t easily won. What is now a leafy, layered landscape once began as rough peatland and poor heath. Peat cutters lived in turf huts. Life was tough, and the land didn’t give in easily. That’s how a grounded, resilient way of life emerged: what you have, you share. What you make, you make with care. That spirit still lives on, in the people, in the land, and in the taste of what’s made here.

Because tasting here is more than just flavour. In the local bread, cake or biscuits, you taste the grain from nearby fields. In the jams and juices, you taste fruit ripened under the Frisian sun. A product in a farm shop isn’t just a product, it’s the story of craftsmanship and commitment.

Here, working places are the heritage. Not locked behind glass, but still in use, the mill that still grinds, the clog maker working with wood like generations before him, the bakery where dough is still shaped by hand. The shop where regional products are selected with care. Everything here is the result of generations of experience, and you can feel it.

Often, it’s the same family passing down the trade. Sometimes, it’s young makers returning to the traditional skills of the past, not because it’s faster, but because it’s better.

The landscape offers space and breath. From the lookout towers, you can gaze over De Leien or the Burgumer Mar. You’ll hear the rustle of reeds, the call of the godwit, the whistle of a swallow. And while the birds come and go with the seasons, some things never change: the love for the craft, the care for the land, and the belief that good things are allowed to take time.

You don’t have to see it all when cycling here. In fact, the best way to take it all in is to choose. To get off your bike now and then. To taste a little more, of the food, the people, the landscape. You don’t have to search for it. You’ll find it along the way.

This premium cycling route was created by our editor: Désirée van Uffelen.