Maarssenbroek

Maarssenbroek combines polder history with nature and learning opportunities. Topics range from a petting farm to activity and discovery routes, a teaching garden and historical information boards. If you are looking for a hotel for your stay, these themes add specific points of interest to your choice of destination. Animal motifs and exercises sit alongside habitats and the history of the polder.

Neighbourhood Park: Animal Motifs and Activity

Otterspoor petting farm is located in Reigerskamp Neighbourhood Park in Maarssenbroek. The Ontdek- en beweegroute (Discovery and Activity Route) in Maarssenbroek Neighbourhood Park comprises 13 wooden animal figures and four other points of interest. The figures depict animal species that actually live in the park. As an educational family treasure hunt, the route combines discovering the animal motifs with physical activity. At each board, visitors can do physical exercises at three difficulty levels: easy, medium and hard. Animal motifs and activity tasks are thus presented side by side along the same route; the levels indicate the degree of challenge. Individual installations may be maintained or replaced, and the exercises on the boards may also be updated.

Teaching Garden and Landscape

Maarssenbroek Neighbourhood Park is a three-kilometre-wide landscape park, created as a buffer between the residential neighbourhoods of Maarssenbroek and the A2 motorway. The MEC-Tuin has a different focus: it is a 0.1-hectare teaching garden where individual visitors can also learn and enjoy new experiences. Its many habitats and landscape features include a vegetable and herb garden, a stinzen plant garden, a deciduous woodland, a bird woodland, a butterfly garden and a pond. The MEC-Tuin also has a play meadow and a Struintuin. More than 50 nesting boxes for birds, insects, pine martens and bats have been installed in Maarssenbroek Neighbourhood Park.

The landscape park and the MEC-Tuin present nature-related themes at different levels: the defining feature of the Neighbourhood Park is its role as a buffer between residential neighbourhoods and the A2; the MEC-Tuin focuses on its teaching garden, habitats and landscape features. The two therefore offer different perspectives on the landscape and a distinct place for learning.

Polder History and Activities

The “Maarssenbroek Vroeger en Nu” route offers a historical perspective. Eleven boards use old photographs or maps to explain the polder’s past and present. Unlike the Ontdek- en beweegroute, which combines animal motifs and physical exercises, this route focuses on putting the polder’s history into visual context. The routes therefore differ in content: activity and animals on one hand, a historical perspective on the other.

MEC Maarssen offers adventurous children’s birthday parties and a drop-in activity every Wednesday afternoon. The weekly activity and birthday parties are different occasions: the drop-in activity takes place at a regular weekly time, while birthday parties are a separate celebration format. If you are planning a specific activity, check the current schedule, as it may change.

Discover more destinations: Oud Zuilen

For the main travel overview: Maarssen.