Spain has its Camino de Santiago. Canada has the Trans-Canada Trail. Peru boasts the Inca Trail. The Netherlands has the Pieterpad.

Many of our trips focus on hiking. Kees is the true long-distance hiker in this family, thriving on long days on a trail and a pack on his back. He walked the Camino de Santiago in Spain twice. In this post we’ll share with you one of his favourite long distance trails: the path of St. Peter, or ‘Pieterspad’ in Dutch.

Relatively unknown in the rest of the world, this nearly 500 km trail allows hikers to explore the length of the country on foot from north to south or visa versa. The path runs from Pieterburen, in the northern part of the province of Groningen, south through the eastern part of the country to end in the southern tip of the country, on top of ‘Mount’ St. Peter (St Pietersberg), a height of 109 metres (358 ft).

The Pieterpad is relatively well signed and served by public transport and overnight accommodations throughout its length. It is a varied and often beautiful walk, passing through woods, polders, across field of heather and through numerous small villages.

A wide variety of B & B’s provide accommodation along the trail. An organization called Friends on Bikes (see link below) offers accommodation solely to hikers and cyclists, in people's home. Most people in The Netherlands speak English. If you want to skip a day, you can always take a train. And yes, The Netherlands has almost 18 million people, yet you can walk parts of this trail and hardly see a soul all day. The path is not really a historic pilgrimage trail although of course pilgrims have been walking for centuries from across Europe to Santiago. This trail does connect to the European network of trails leading there. You can hike this trail in any season and during school holidays things tend to really book up. If you hike it continuously, it will take about a month.

I (Kees) flew to Amsterdam and took the train to the city of Groningen where I stayed for a few nights while hiking the first couple of sections of the Pieterpad, using the train and bus to reach trailheads.

Rich dark clay soil makes for rich farmland here. Most farms are several thousand acres and ultra modern machinery is harvesting potatoes and sugar beets. Dairy cows crowd other fields by the hundreds. Frisian and Groninger cows have long been exported around the world as breeding stock. Much of today’s trail follows a narrow asphalt path through the flat, green countryside or along a canal.

Like Great Britain, The Netherlands can be wet and it did rain several times. As soon as I crossed into the next province, Drenthe, the landscape gave way to forests, smaller fields, different agriculture and smaller scale farming. En route a short side trip took me past some hunebedden, 5,000-year-old graves of the first inhabitants of the low lands. How did they move these impressive piles of huge rocks under which their dead were buried? The site is reminiscent of Stonehenge.

Between the towns of Rolde and Schoorlo, the sun painted morning dew like jewels on the grass. I felt I was walking through a painting. Generally I hike around 20 km or more every day. Because I was doing this in September, I had a great variety of weather including my full share of rain and cold. But there was always the pleasure of a cold beer and sometimes a Dutch crepe waiting for me at each little town I stayed in. It’s good to note though that, traditionally, many businesses close on Monday mornings and also sometimes on Tuesday afternoons. This can make it confusing to stop by a bakery, butcher or green grocer. Always take along enough snacks to make up lunch in case everything is closed. Once in awhile I come across a kind of farm stand, sometimes it’s even a shelter that you can sit in. Here, someone has put a coffeepot and cookies. For a euro you can help yourself.

One highlight was Coevorden, an ancient city dating back to the 12th century as the business centre for the northeastern part of The Netherlands. An old castle has been renovated here as a hotel, and the city boasts beautiful old houses and cafés. A 17th century defensive wall surrounds the old part of the city. I came across a Café Vancouver and learned that the forefathers of Captain Vancouver originally came from Coevorden (van Coevorden = Van couver)!

Up and away early, pack hoisted on my back, hiking poles in hand, surrounded by farm land. And just on the day I hike by, farmers are spreading manure on their fields so it stinks to high heaven. Whenever the huge tractors with manure trailers race by, you better make sure the 'mud' flying off their tires doesn't hit you…

The following day it was dead quiet along the trail. Not only because it is Sunday, but this is a very fundamental Christian area where any Sunday activity is frowned upon. Nowhere a cup of coffee to be had. I hightailed it to the next B & B because the owner had to be at church again by 2 PM. Made it just before my 'curfew'. The only beer I could find in town on Sunday was at a Chinese restaurant. The B & B was a nice and quiet place. Until the next morning when, at 6:00 AM, workers started to repave the brick road below my window.

Margriet joined me in the town of Dieren. That night we slept in a restored carriage house. We love these historic places and tiny villages. Borrowed bicycles, rode on beautiful bike paths along the river IJssel, which we crossed on a small ferry. This ferry is attached to an anchor upstream and by maneuvering the boat under a certain angle the captain forces the ferry across the river without much mechanical help. We cycled along a dike where many sheep were grazing. It was hard not to slip in their dung. But the view of church steeples in the distance was lovely.

The possibilities of cycling in The Netherlands are endless. You can buy packages that include bikes, hotels, and meals. Or you can follow the more than 35,000 km of well-signed, and relatively flat!, trails on your own. You can even take your bike on trains and rent a bike at most train stations. Paths are all numbered and at each major intersection there is a map showing where you are and what your options are.

One day we visited the Canadian war cemetery at Groesbeek. A total of 2,000 Commonwealth soldiers and airmen are buried there. Most of them so young, just teenagers in some cases. Very emotional to know that these guys came across an ocean to fight people they did not know to help liberate people they did not know. No wonder the Dutch are maintaining their graves meticulously and hold a major celebration every May 5th (Liberation Day) and pay for thousands of veterans to come and join in the celebrations each year.

The following day we stayed in Castle Vorden, originally built in 1207, destroyed during the 80-year war with Spain in the 16th century, and rebuilt shortly thereafter. The castle hotel has been very little altered. We reached our room by climbing a winding staircase of worn stone steps and slept in a canopy bed. We felt like royalty.. A woman bought the castle and is refurbishing it. For breakfast we sat among velvet curtains and portraits of disapproving people gazing down at us.

We continue hiking the Pieterpad on beautiful forest trails and secondary roads through small farm areas, sometimes together, other times by myself when Margriet takes a writing break. The forest trails are largely unpaved, sandy paths. There are many beautifully restored farm houses here in this eastern part of the country, complete with shutters of the area’s colours and often with thatched roofs. Farmers no longer live here, by and large it’s retirees with enough money to restore these historic farm houses.

The trail is relatively easy to find most of the time. Often it’s simply a matter of following red & white striped signs. The guidebook for Pieterpad (volumes 1 and 2) has a map of 1:50,000 scale with lots of detail, showing the trail clearly. But one memorable day I headed for Montferland. I had no idea this area was so hilly! Gorgeous forests, narrow trails, and nothing but hills. But the fun was short-lived when after two hours I realized I had missed a turnoff and was horribly lost. It took me another hour to find my way out of the forest, ending up in Germany. The border in that area is quite vague and I never even noticed that I had wandered across it. After an hour and an extra 5 km, I found the trail and started making progress again.

The landscape here changes frequently and often drastically: from forest to farm land, to wide rivers, and back to forest. Perhaps the most gorgeous landscapes were between Gennep and Vierlingsbeek. Beautiful hilly terrain with moors, forests, wild goats and not a soul around.

Margriet, being less of an avid hiker than I am, sometimes stays in a B&B for a few extra nights, catching up by train to continue walking with me. Met another couple hiking the trail - they were on their way from Amsterdam to Rome…

A bonus for us, having grown up in The Netherlands, is to meet up with old friends who will join us for a day of hiking. Several are childhood friends and it’s fun to see them again while walking through this beautiful landscape together.

And everywhere there are centuries of history. At one point near the end of the walk, we stood on a burial hill that dates from around 800 BC. We walked along a 2,000-year-old Roman road. We also stood in village market squares where centuries-old buildings had been destroyed during the World War II and rebuilt in the last 75 years. Most of the church steeples along the river Maas (Meuse) were blown up by the Germans in their retreat to prevent allied forces from using them as viewing towers. The city of Gennep was in the middle of the battle during the last winter of WW II and hardly a building in the entire city survived the German shelling and allied bombing. Fortunately the beautiful city hall from the 1600's has survived as well as an old church, everything else is no older than 60-65 years. We climbed a church tower with an interpretive display. Hard to image tanks rolling through these very streets, not that long ago.

The terrain got more hilly the farther south we got into Limburg. Who said Holland is flat? The scenery is absolutely breathtaking most of the way. It was fun to stop at a restaurant in a castle, which happened to be for sale. Tempting. But no, we didn’t buy it. Scenic, narrow roads led us past old limestone farm houses, wineries, and fields dotted with black and white cows.

After about 22-23 km we arrived in Swalmen, a small village where we were picked up by the owner of a B & B called Pelgrims' House and where we would be staying for 3 nights. Had a great supper and evening there.

The following morning the B & B owners dropped us back at the spot where we stopped the day before and we continued walking to Montfoort, another 24 km. This time we skirted the city of Roermond. For a few km we traveled on a 2,000 year old road build by Romans, just imagine that you are walking on the same ground the Roman armies traveled over, mind boggling.

We both did the 24 km hike between Montfort and the city of Sittard. This section of the trail took us into Germany and immediately the language and architecture was different from just a few km back. We entered Sittard via a nice creek valley and ended up on the market in the center of town almost without having to content with the outskirts of the city. The market place was surrounded by nice cafes with seating outside and we thoroughly enjoyed the beer and food that could be had there.

And then, suddenly, it is the last day on the trail, only 12 kms left of the 425 I was going to do this hike (note: Kees hiked a one week section earlier, together with his brother).

Not only did Margriet accompany me for this last hurray, but three longtime friends joined us for the last stretch.

Again beautiful scenery along narrow roads, old limestone farm houses, wineries, fields with cows. We love the history and to see dates like "1678" or "1711" on the facades of farm houses is thrilling when you come from the Pacific Northwest. We also walked along the caves of southern Limburg, dug to mine stone for buildings.

Soon we enter Maastricht, the capital of Limburg. A nice old city along the Maas river with centuries’ old city walls, churches and a famous market place: het Vrijthof. One thing we loved seeing here was the huge cathedral, which has been turned into a bookstore.

Just south of the city was the final destination: the Pietersberg. A bit of a climb and by noon we managed to get to the top of the ‘berg’ (hill). Of course we had to take pictures, and stopped to celebrate the accomplishment of completing the entire trail with a pannekoek lunch. There I also received an official certificate testifying that I had walked the whole trail.

Even though it started to rain, I wished I had the time to walk the same trail all the way back to Groningen where I started. It has been a terrific experience. It only rained on 3 days, mostly I had perfect hiking weather. No blisters.

Now, from here it is only 2,000 KM to southern France and the start of the Camino de Santiago….

BOOKS

Helpful Links:

Pieterpad details: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieterpad

Official website (but not in English): https://www.pieterpad.nl

Friends on Bikes accommodations group: vriendenopdefiets.nl/index.php/en

Restored carriage House B & B< Dieren: http://www.bed-en-breakfast.nl/bed-en-breakfast-dieren-gelderland/Het-Koetshuis

Cycling in The Netherlands:

https://www.hollandcyclingroutes.com

https://en.routeplanner.fietsersbond.nl

https://www.ns.nl/en/door-to-door/ov-fiets

• Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery

If you want to cycle the Pieterpad, beware that this is not the exact same trail. Here is the best site I can find in English that gives you the bicycle route: https://www.bikemap.net/en/r/3312704/#6.25/52.113/6.373