Woerden is a small Dutch town on the Oude Rijn, the old Rhine, halfway between Utrecht and Leiden, in the middle of the Green Heart of Holland, a landscape of polders, meadows, ditches and cows. Its centre is a compact old town ringed by canals, with a castle, a big church and a windmill on the old ramparts. The Romans were here too: Woerden lies on the line of the Lower German Limes, and the remains of a Roman fort lie beneath the town centre.
The Roman fort at Woerden, known in Latin as Laurium, guarded the Rhine frontier, and excavations have turned up wooden ships, timber structures and everyday objects preserved in the wet soil. The Limes in the Netherlands is part of the UNESCO Frontiers of the Roman Empire site. The town's museum displays some of the finds, and markings in the streets show where the fort stood.
Woerden later became a fortified town, and its castle, built in the fifteenth century, still stands. The town was a strategic point on the Old Dutch Waterline, the defensive system of flooded land that protected Holland, and in 1672, when French troops occupied it, the town suffered terribly. Woerden is also known as a cheese town: it is the heart of a dairy region, and in summer it holds a traditional cheese market, where farmers bring their wheels of Gouda-style cheese to be weighed and sold.
Riding here is flat and relaxed. The roads follow canals and dykes through polders, past farms and windmills, and they are narrow, with lots of cyclists. The Dutch take cycle lanes seriously, so be aware. The roads along the Oude Rijn and toward the lakes of the Nieuwkoopse Plassen and the Reeuwijkse Plassen are scenic, especially in the soft light of the early morning or evening.
Woerden has fuel, food and all services. Local specialities are cheese, of course, and the bakeries sell stroopwafels. The best time to visit is in summer, when the cheese market runs, or in spring, when the meadows are full of birds and the polders turn green.