Here you can see a bunch of cows, which look to be walking around freely. The path is indeed put in the meadow, and there is nothing stopping you from touching them, except decency and possible angry farmers of course. The cows are quite used to it, and don't even look up when you pass them. They usually stay away from the path, so it isn't a problem to bike here. At the end of the meadow there is a /veerooster/ on the path, which prevents the cows from running away while allowing bikers/walkers to keep moving.