Peat Canals and Towpaths

The circular route then starts at the spa centre/holiday park Hage, and you turn right at the eastern exit of the car park onto the cycle path heading south. After about 100 metres, you continue straight on along the small road into Berum. After another 600 metres, you reach the main road (district road), which you cross to turn left onto the cycle path on the opposite side. The "Großheider Straße" passes through a landscape of fields with farms. From time to time, an old peat cart recalls earlier times of peatland cultivation. Cows, occasionally also horses, graze on the lush pastures. At 2.4 kilometres, you turn left from "Großheider Straße" towards Arle and Menstede-Coldinne into "Coldinner Straße". At 4.5 kilometres, you reach the exit of Coldinne and cycle right at the bus stop onto the "Friederikenfeld" path to follow the cycle path signs towards Berumerfehn. The paved path leads into a landscape divided by groups of trees. Manure heaps steaming in the sun can be seen in front of the farms along the path. Then the sometimes somewhat uneven path runs past pastures with cows and horses. The summer wind blows the smell of freshly mown hay into the noses of the cyclists. At 7.7 kilometres, you pass the sign of Ostermoordorf and, a few metres further, follow the cycle path signs to the right towards Berumerfehn. There, about 600 metres behind the town sign, the road bends right. You continue straight ahead on the paved "Verlaatsweg". In front of the canal with the excursion boat of the "Home Association Berumerfehn and Surroundings," you turn left through a gate onto a forest path towards Münkeboe. The route is also marked here with a "T" for towing path. The canal dates back to the peatland cultivation period at the beginning of the 19th century. Berumerfehn was founded in 1795 by the "Norder Fehn Company" to supply the town of Norden with peat. An extensive canal network served to drain the vast moorlands, on which generally independent "subtenants" extracted peat, cultivated the land, and settled there. However, in Berumerfehn, the "Norder Fehn Company" employed wage workers who moved on and cultivated and settled the extracted areas less intensively, which is still reflected in the landscape today. On the left side of the path stretches a woodland. To the right runs a quiet canal. Behind it stretches a landscape of fields and meadows. The forest path belongs to the most scenic stages of the route but is somewhat arduous in good weather and hardly passable in rain. At 11.3 kilometres, the cycle paths "Rad up Pad" and towpath turn left towards Aurich/Münkeboe. Here you cycle right on the unmarked path. After 300 metres, you reach a road and turn left towards Marienhafe. After another 300 metres, you follow the cycle route signs to the right towards Marienhafe and cycle initially on a paved path past farms, later on a narrow hiking trail and finally on a path paved with narrow, red clinker bricks. This traditional paving with stones of varying heights is unpleasant to ride on and certainly dates from before the invention of the bicycle. After just under two kilometres, the rough section ends, and the paving becomes wider and smoother again. At 15.5 kilometres, the paved path meets the district road, on which you continue cycling towards Marienhafe. After a few hundred metres, the church of Marienhafe comes into view. At 17.3 kilometres, you pass the town sign of Osterupgant. A glance to the left diagonally takes in the "Fischerstube" inn, where colorful relief portraits of the pirate Klaus Störtebeker, Okko I. tom Brook, and Quade Foelke can be seen above the entrance of the "Nordstern" restaurant. A detour straight ahead is worth it for the church of Marienhafe. On this route, however, you follow the sign of the "Frisian Mill Tour" to the right towards Hage and Leezdorf. After about three kilometres, you reach the Leezdorf mill, a two-storey Dutch gallery mill with a tail. The Leezdorf Home Association bought and restored the mill, which was powered by wind until 1970 and by motor until 1986, so that it can still mill today. The tearoom in the packhouse next to the mill is open from May to September on Saturdays from 3 to 6 pm. The miller’s house serves as an exhibition space. You continue to follow the cycle path signs towards Hage and Lütetsburg, passing small farms, fields, and pastures with cows and sheep. The route runs somewhat zigzag in this area but is easy to follow thanks to good signage. At around 25 kilometres, you cross the Berumerfehn canal, a quiet body of water covered with algae. After another one and a half kilometres, you reach Hage and cycle directly towards the old brick church with its leaning tower. The nave of the impressive evangelical Lutheran St. Ansgari Church dates from around 1220. The late-Gothic choir was added at the end of the 15th century in place of the apse. After a visit, you continue cycling to the main road. There, you turn right towards Berum. At about 28.5 kilometres, you see to your left the windmill of Hage. The five-storey gallery mill is the tallest mill in East Frisia at 30.20 metres and was built in 1871. Since the village, surrounded by forests, lies relatively protected from the wind, the mill had to be built correspondingly high. Five hundred metres further, you reach Berum Castle. Since the 14th century, this chieftain’s seat played an important role in East Frisian history. The chieftain of Greetsiel, Ulrich Cirksena, expanded the existing castle into a three-winged main and outer castle in 1443. In 1600, the "Berumer Agreement" was signed here, whereby the Harlinger Land returned to the County of East Frisia. Count Edzard II., a great-grandson of Ulrich Cirksena, transformed the castle into a water castle in the Renaissance style and designated it as a widow’s seat. When East Frisia passed to Prussia after the extinction of the princely family Cirksena, the new rulers let the castle decay. Most of the buildings were demolished in 1764. Today, only the outer castle with gate and corner tower remains of the original castle. The building is privately owned and not open to the public. You then continue cycling straight ahead and follow the signs to the spa centre and holiday park. The path shortly thereafter bends right. You then turn left into the next street ("Frieslandstraße") and reach the car park of the spa centre at about 31 kilometres.