Two thousand years ago the Rhine marked the northern edge of the Roman Empire here, and along its southern bank the army built a chain of forts, watchtowers and a road to link them. In the western suburbs of Utrecht, in the new district of Leidsche Rijn and the old village of De Meern, that road has been found again under the fields, a gravel and clay embankment with ditches either side, and part of it can be traced along the street called Zandweg. Nearby, at Castellum Hoge Woerd, the outline of a Roman fort has been rebuilt in a modern form, with a museum, a theatre and an observatory, and a flat-bottomed Roman river barge, found here in 1997 almost intact and complete with the cargo and personal belongings of its skipper, is on display. The Lower German Limes became a World Heritage site in 2021.
The Rhine has since moved its course, and the old Roman river is now a modest stream called the Oude Rijn, but the landscape still tells the story if you look closely: slightly higher, drier ground along the old riverbanks, where villages and farms were built, and lower, wetter land in between. Utrecht itself grew out of a Roman fort on the river, and the medieval city later developed around the cathedral, whose Dom tower, more than a hundred metres high, is still the tallest church tower in the country.
Riding in the Netherlands is flat, orderly and often windy. Cyclists have the priority almost everywhere, and you will share the roads with thousands of them, along with tractors and the occasional slow canal-side road. The best routes around here follow the dikes along the rivers, the Lek to the south, the Vecht to the north, where the road runs along the top of the dike with water on one side and green meadows and farms on the other. The weather changes quickly, with showers and strong winds, especially in autumn and spring.
Vleuten and De Meern have fuel, shops and cafés, and Utrecht offers everything. Have lunch by the canals in the city centre, where the old wharf cellars along the Oudegracht now house restaurants at water level, and try a slice of apple pie with whipped cream at any café.