Country Estates and Lakes

(36.0 km)

The Country Houses and Lakes Route connects a series of beautiful nature and water reserves and quintessential Dutch landscapes with windmills, historic farmsteads and centuries-old castles and country houses. It is a short but varied ride, leaving plenty of time to break for a refreshing dip, tasty lunch or visit to the Vechtstreek regional museum or the castle museum of Slot Zuylen.

Below are just a few of the beautiful country houses along the route:

Nieuwerhoek, in Loenen aan de Vecht. Built in the 17th century by the Hoek family, a Mennonite merchant family from Amsterdam;
Pupillenschool, former premilitary school dating from 1877, now a women's prison, on Zandpad in Nieuwersluis, next to cycle junction 02;
Rupelmonde, in Nieuwersluis. A stately 18th-century house with statues of Neptune and Mercury adorning the façade;
Kasteel Nijenrode, castle built in 1250 by Gerard Splinter van Ruwielt. The name …

Below are just a few of the beautiful country houses along the route:

Nieuwerhoek, in Loenen aan de Vecht. Built in the 17th century by the Hoek family, a Mennonite merchant family from Amsterdam;
Pupillenschool, former premilitary school dating from 1877, now a women's prison, on Zandpad in Nieuwersluis, next to cycle junction 02;
Rupelmonde, in Nieuwersluis. A stately 18th-century house with statues of Neptune and Mercury adorning the façade;
Kasteel Nijenrode, castle built in 1250 by Gerard Splinter van Ruwielt. The name Nijen Rode dates back to the original keep and means ‘new clearing’;
Buitenplaats Doornburg, country house owned and occupied by the Sisters of the Holy Sepulchre. In the 1960s, the nuns built a modern convent next door in the Bossche School style;
Vechtenstein, a large white house with an eye-catching green roof, built in the 1930s.