Wereldtour op de Veengrens, from the terrace on Kerkplein in Veendam you have a good view of the motorbikes and the Veenkolonial Museum behind it. And what does that guy stand on a pedestal? Not a tough peat cutter, as you might expect given the local peat-colonial history, but a learned gentleman in a suit. Anthony Winkler Prince, pleasant.

Veendam naturally fits like a well-fitting helmet in our Veengrenstour. If only because of the name and the Veenkolonial museum, which gives a nice insight into the history and development of the peat soils here. And there is another museum special. Veendam also has a station of the STAR, a historic railway line between Veendam and Musselkanaal that is now kept alive on certain days with a steam locomotive plus old carriages. The route runs along the STAR route for a while. Stadskanaal was an important place for the reclamation of the peat area. This included not only the steam railway, but also a canal. Along that dead straight line of water, the Stadskanaal indeed, is another doll on a pedestal. Not a scholarly author this time, but the Krinkiespijer. This figurine should represent a boatman and that gargoyle every so often should be interpreted as a tribute or reminder of the skippers who chewed and spit tobacco. In any case, Henkie from Groningen is not yet in the sights of activists who are after our national heritage. He still spits, as you can see in your mirrors, after which you pick up the next leg of this peat tour, past the water tower and no fewer than three Chinese-Indonesian specialty restaurants that you quickly notice and that culinary and internationally oriented Stadskanaal on the map. to make. The whole world seems to gather on the peat border.

The land here used to be barren and empty, until peat was cut from the peat, the land was cultivated and potato and cardboard barons left their mark on it. Until the seventeenth century, the Groningen peat colonies were an almost uninhabited region where peat was only extracted on a small scale along the edges. But that changed drastically in the Golden Age. The unemployed and criminals from all over the country moved to the raised bogs and dug up the peat soils. But the peat ran out and at the beginning of the twentieth century the Dutch stoves and the economy had to run on other energy sources. There is indeed the border with Germany! The land beyond this does not resemble the popular touring areas such as Eifel, Sauerland and Black Forest. It is just as flat and flat as in the Netherlands. The Germans are doing their best with their part of the peat border, they have even put a Neuengland and a Blue Bay Wasserskianlage on the map here, but of course it is not such a world happening as in our multicultural Netherlands, which you can talk about after the wanderings. returned to the German peatlands. The Amsterdamscheveld got its name from the moneylenders from Mokum who invested in peat cuttings here. Because a lot of peat went from here to the west, before Limburg coal and Groningen gas took over the role of fuel suppliers from the brown gold from Groningen and Drenthe. The stoves ran on peat to the west of the Zuiderzee and with it the Dutch economy.

You pass Morocco on this world tour and then you come via the dead straight Van Goghweg along the canal in the twin municipality of Veenoord/Nieuw-Amsterdam. Vincent van Gogh stayed in that town, never shy to capture the hard-working outcasts of the earth on his canvases. A lot has changed since his visit here and a world citizen will also find a menu to his taste in the former peat colonies. So a little later you'll be sitting down for coffee and cake at the cafeteria of the Veenpark in Barger-Compascuum. The open-air museum provides a great insight into the former peat colonies where peat was extracted. Think of old buildings and machines, cutting peat, peat roads of rush mats, shops-of-sinkel, clog maker, village cafe, peat ship and peat train and you are not far off.