Craft route

During this route, immerse yourself in the traditional world of the Green Heart of Holland. From the start at the Cheese Experience at the Cheese Warehouse, where you learn everything about modern cheese making, to the cheese farms in the polders where farmer's cheese is still produced. In Oudewater you can visit the Rope Museum where you can admire a real track barn where in the past hemp, yarn, sledges and spinning reels were stored.

The Cheese Warehouse in Woerden is the starting point of this cycle route. Here you will learn everything about cheese and modern cheese making in the Cheese Experience.

From the starting point you cycle to the regional market of Woerden where from May to August the cheese market will take place. At the cheese market, a show simulates the cheese trade of the past, beautiful to see. It is clear to see that the city of Woerden is closely linked to the surrounding countryside through the many regional products and types of (farmer's) cheese that are presented here.

The cycle route continues through the polders of Papekop towards Oudewater. Here you can visit The Witches Weighhouse and the Ropemuseum. The picturesque center of Oudewater is also an ideal place to relax on a terrace. Afterwards you cycle back to Woerden via Driebruggen. This is a beautiful part of the route on narrow roads with old farms. A stopover at one of the farms along the route is highly recommended.

Tip: Taste the farmhouse cheese

Farmers Cheese is made from fresh raw milk from cows that graze in the meadows of the Green Heart of Holland. The cows receive delicious milk from the juicy grass, from which a tasteful and creamy farmhouse cheese is made. Discover the world of farm cheese!

In the spotlight: Pape-copen

The territory of Papekop existed, until the reclamations in the 12th and 13th centuries, for the most part marsh. The bishop of Utrecht, who owned the land, issued plots of land for exploitation. The agreements on the plot of land were laid down in a cope or contract. For the "Pape-cope" area, the bishop determined that the proceeds of this exploitation were used to pay for the subsistence of the parish priest of Waarder. That is how the name Pape-cope is explained.

If you look around during the cycling route you will see that many meadows have the same dimensions. That is not a coincidence because the pieces of land issued by the bishop had a fixed size of 1,250 meters long and 113 meters wide. And that can still be seen in the Papekop polders.