Hilversum, Eemnes, Lage Vuursche

Media city Hilversum ─ the setting for famous and infamous radio and television broadcasts and thus the home of many Dutch celebrities ─ is a bustling village with lots of activity. In the middle of the busy centre of this villa village, you would not expect to find yourself two kilometres away in a rural setting where peace and quiet reign. Because this beautiful part of the Netherlands is a vast heathland area called the Goois Natuurreservaat. As many as 65 separate nature reserves are partly connected here. From Lake Gooimeer to Hollandsche Rading, you can enjoy pure nature over a distance of at least 15 kilometres without encountering any significant buildings. On the eastern side of Hilversum, you cycle mainly through Zuiderheide and a little further north you take in part of Westerheide as you head towards Blaricum.

The area is important both geologically and archaeologically. Geologically because Zuiderheide lies on the Utrechtse Heuvelrug, a lateral moraine that rises up to 25 metres above the surrounding landscape. The rolling purple heather thrives on the sandy soil and boulder clay present. The area is relatively high and the wild colourful vegetation is interrupted only by foot and cycle paths. Archaeologists are interested in Zuiderheide because of the many clearly visible burial mounds, which have been named 'Seven Little Mountains'. Just before the junction Eemnesserweg/Oude Postweg ─ where you encounter Theehuis 't Bluk ─ especially towards the north, you can see a number of these 4,000-year-old burial mounds. What is very special is that the moorland around the burial mounds has remained stable all this time. This piece of the Netherlands has been untouched nature for thousands of years and practically unchanged all this time. This is a very rare phenomenon near the urbanised Randstad. An extraordinary ancestral landscape.

From hilly moorland to flat polders, a geological legacy from a special period. At this location, in the penultimate ice age, there were the foothills of the land ice, which carved deep valleys into the landscape with its huge mass. The impounded sand was moved and caused the lateral moraines. Through floods, seawater caused sediment to be deposited in the valleys in the following centuries. This eventually created a vast peat and marsh area that was reclaimed in the 13th century. Until then, this area was neither land nor water. Today, therefore, you see endless meadows, separated by long ditches that themselves almost seem to touch the horizon. This is the Eem Valley, of which you see only a small part from Eemnes. Characteristic of this village is the long and dead straight Wakkerendijk, which had to protect Eemnes from floods. Yet Eemnes has experienced periods of high water, within the village itself. But thanks to the Afsluitdijk, the flood barrier that cuts off the former Zuiderzee from the Wadden Sea, devastating floods are unlikely to occur in this area today.

In this area, some castles and country houses can be admired that ─ as was common in the Middle Ages ─ were built on higher ground. In other words, on the moraines. Here you will also find the characteristic extensive forests of the Utrechtse Heuvelrug, in places where the former sea water never came and where no sea clay was deposited. A vast primeval forest emerged on this lateral moraine at the time. Here in this wooded area, under the smoke of Baarn, you will find a number of country estates where the wealthy elite once lived. Groeneveld Castle near Baarn is one such stately mansion and was intended in the 17th century as a summer house for wealthy city dwellers, mainly Amsterdammers. On this spot near Groeneveld Castle, the State Forestry Commission's "Buitenplaats voor stad en land", there was a castle of modest size called Drakenburg a few hundred years ago, just north of Groeneveld Castle. This vanished knight's court has a connection to Drakestein castle in Lage Vuursche, hidden in the woods. Drakestein is occupied anno 2024 by Princess Beatrix, former queen of the Netherlands.

This premium cycle route has been compiled by our editor: Martin van Rhee