Amsterdam day out · Utrecht-Limes road | Veldhuizen

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Amsterdam

   Amsterdam is built on water and wood. The city was founded in the thirteenth century as a fishing village on a dam across the Amstel, and in the seventeenth century it grew into the richest trading city in the world, and the canals that circle the centre in concentric arcs were dug in that Golden Age. Merchants built tall, narrow houses along them, with gabled fronts and hoisting beams so that goods could be lifted to the upper floors. The canal ring is on the UNESCO list. The houses lean forward slightly, partly by design, and sink on their wooden piles, so that some visibly tilt.

   Read the complete Amsterdam write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Amsterdam is where the day begins. Next is Woerden-Centrum.

2. 2. Woerden-Centrum

   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.

   Read the complete Woerden-Centrum write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Woerden-Centrum comes up about 42 km into the recorded legs. Next is Utrecht-Limes road | Zandweg.

3. 3. Utrecht-Limes road | Zandweg

   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.

   Read the complete Utrecht-Limes road | Zandweg write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   At least about 56 km into the recorded legs you reach Utrecht-Limes road | Zandweg. Next is Utrecht-Groot Zandveld.

4. 4. Utrecht-Groot Zandveld

   West of Utrecht, where the old city fades into meadows and a newly built suburb called Leidsche Rijn, a flat green belt of polder and ditches runs between the villages of Vleuten, Veldhuizen and De Meern. The low land here was part of a defence system that worked by water, the Dutch Waterline, and the Groot Zandveld label refers to this country.

   Read the complete Utrecht-Groot Zandveld write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Utrecht-Groot Zandveld, about halfway. Next is Utrecht-Limes road | Veldhuizen.

5. 5. Utrecht-Limes road | Veldhuizen

   This is a ride along an old frontier that is now a residential suburb. When the Romans held the lower Rhine, the river itself was the border of the empire, and a chain of forts, watchtowers and roads ran along its south bank. One of the forts stood where Utrecht is now, under the name Traiectum, and another, with a fine reconstruction, lies in the modern district of Leidsche Rijn. The whole frontier, the Lower German Limes, was added to the World Heritage list in 2021. Today it is hard to see anything of it, because the Rhine silted up and shifted, and the land is mostly polder, pasture and new housing estate.

   Read the complete Utrecht-Limes road | Veldhuizen write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Utrecht-Limes road | Veldhuizen sits at 63 km, about halfway. Next is back through Utrecht-Groot Zandveld.

6. 6. back through Utrecht-Groot Zandveld

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Utrecht-Groot Zandveld write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Utrecht-Groot Zandveld comes up about 73 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Utrecht-Limes road | Zandweg.

7. 7. back through Utrecht-Limes road | Zandweg

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Utrecht-Limes road | Zandweg write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 78 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Utrecht-Limes road | Zandweg. Next is back through Woerden-Centrum.

8. 8. back through Woerden-Centrum

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Woerden-Centrum write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Woerden-Centrum, late in the day. Next is Amsterdam.

9. 9. Amsterdam

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Amsterdam write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   The route ends here after 132 km.