Two layers of Dutch defence history sit on top of each other just south-east of Utrecht. Around two thousand years ago, the Romans built a fort here called Fectio, at the point where a branch of the Rhine met the Vecht, with a harbour for the fleet that patrolled the river frontier. Its remains lie buried in the fields near Vechten and are part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire, Lower German Limes, a World Heritage site since 2021. Close by stands Fort bij Vechten, a nineteenth-century fortress of the New Dutch Waterline, a defensive system that could flood large areas of land to stop an invading army. That system is itself part of the UNESCO site of the Dutch Water Defence Lines. The fort now houses a museum explaining how the waterline worked, and how a country below sea level turned water into a weapon.
The idea was simple and clever: open sluices and flood the polders to a depth of around half a metre, too deep for soldiers to wade and too shallow for boats. Forts like this one guarded the dikes, roads and railways that crossed the flooded zone.
Utrecht, a few kilometres away, is a lively university city with a medieval centre, canals with wharves at water level and cellars turned into cafés, and the Dom tower, the tallest church tower in the Netherlands, which you can climb for a view over the whole province. The Kromme Rijn, a winding remnant of the old Rhine, flows east through meadows and villages, lined with willows.
The riding around Bunnik is flat and gentle, with country lanes along dikes and rivers, past farms, orchards and country houses. To the east, the Utrechtse Heuvelrug, a ridge of wooded hills left by the ice age, offers a little elevation, sandy heaths and roads through forests. Traffic around Utrecht is heavy, with motorways, cyclists and complex junctions, so give yourself time and patience.
Fuel and services are easy to find in Bunnik, Lunetten and Utrecht. Try a local speciality, the Utrecht sprits, a buttery biscuit, or stop for a coffee and a slice of apple pie in a village café, and enjoy the flat, wide horizon that defines the Dutch landscape.