Hardenberg

Hardenberg
<map lat='52.5571' lng='6.603' zoom='13' width='350' height='250' view='3'/>
Information
Country:	Netherlands
Province:	Overijssel
Population:	17,950 (01 Jan 2009)
Major roads:	none
Meet fellow hitchhikers on Trustroots

Hardenberg is a city in the east of the Netherlands, roughly halfway between Almelo and Emmen. All of the major roads here seem to have no hard shoulders, and subsequently, hitching out is sketchy at best...

Hitching Out

South towards Almelo and Tubbergen / Oldenzaal

Go down to the roundabout at the N343 (Twenteweg) and try there. There is no hard shoulder for vehicles to pull over, actually, the entire N343 up here is very hitchhiker-unfriendly as a matter of fact, but at least here you get all the traffic out of town, and it's going slow enough to be able to stop. Another possibility is to catch bus 80 down to Kloosterhaar, 10 kilometres south of Hardenberg, where the road to Tubbergen / Oldenzaal and Almelo split. At least the N343 down to Oldenzaal has better shoulders here, and most traffic goes at least to Tubbergen.

North towards Coevorden and Emmen

Walk down the Haardijk to the ramp of the N34. Again, no hard shoulder, but you're very visible and most traffic will go at least up to Coevorden. You can also walk along the shoulder to a parking place about a kilometre down if you wish to catch all traffic on the road, but I would advise against it, because the parking place is small, and the traffic goes by fast. It will not necessarily lead to better pick-up times.