Why this ride
From IJmuiden it runs 180 km to IJmuiden; allow about 3 h 01 of riding. It goes by way of Seventeenth-Century Canal Ring Area of Ams, Fort Werk IV, Culvert near Offerhausweg and back through Fort Werk IV. The coast is the point of it.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Coastal Fort near Ijmuiden and Culvert near Offerhausweg
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 180 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 3 h 01
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Scenic road chapters
Dutch Flower Route
Slow enough to look. The surface follows the shoreline, so the corners arrive where the water decided, not where an engineer did. Water arrives beside the road and stays for 32 km. The line follows the shore because there is nowhere else for it to go.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 32 km
- Named road
- Dutch Flower Route
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Coastal Fort near Ijmuiden
At the mouth of the North Sea Canal, where giant locks let ocean-going ships into the waterway that leads to Amsterdam, a round island fort sits in the middle of the harbour. This is Fort IJmuiden, also called Forteiland, built in the 1880s as the westernmost stronghold of the Defence Line of Amsterdam, a ring of forts, dikes and flood fields designed to protect the capital by inundating the land around it. The Defence Line, now part of the UNESCO-listed Dutch Water Defence Lines, is one of the more ingenious military systems ever devised: rather than walls, it relied on water a few decimetres deep, too shallow for boats and too deep for marching.
Read the complete Coastal Fort near Ijmuiden write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Coastal Fort near Ijmuiden is where the day begins. Next is Seventeenth-Century Canal Ring Area of Ams.
2. Seventeenth-Century Canal Ring Area of Ams
Nobody rides a motorbike into the Amsterdam canal ring for the curves. You come because in the early seventeenth century, the city at the height of its Golden Age planned an extension of startling ambition: three main canals, the Herengracht, Keizersgracht and Prinsengracht, laid out in concentric arcs around the medieval core, lined with tall, narrow merchants' houses with gabled roofs and hoisting beams. Work began in 1613, and the result, a UNESCO site since 2010, is still one of the most admired examples of urban planning in the world.
Read the complete Seventeenth-Century Canal Ring Area of Ams write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Seventeenth-Century Canal Ring Area of Ams comes up about 32 km into the recorded legs. Next is Fort Werk IV.
3. Fort Werk IV
The Gooi, the area east of Amsterdam around Bussum, Naarden and Hilversum, is one of the few places in the western Netherlands with hills, if you can call low sandy ridges hills. It is a region of heathland, woods and wealthy villages. On the edge of Bussum, close to the fortified town of Naarden, stands Fort Werk IV, a small fortification that was part of the New Dutch Waterline and the Defence Line of Amsterdam, and is now part of the UNESCO-listed Dutch Water Defence Lines.
Read the complete Fort Werk IV write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 62 km into the recorded legs you reach Fort Werk IV. Next is Culvert near Offerhausweg.
4. Culvert near Offerhausweg
The name tells you what is here, a culvert, a small tunnel for water under a path or a bank, and the humble nature of the place is its charm. The Netherlands is a country made of managed water, and this part of Utrecht, on the eastern edge of the city near the university campus of De Uithof, is cut by streams, ditches and old defensive works that were all designed to move water about, or to hold it back. A culvert is the kind of detail that engineers make a country work with, and that most travellers never see.
Read the complete Culvert near Offerhausweg write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Culvert near Offerhausweg, about halfway. Next is back through Fort Werk IV.
5. back through Fort Werk IV
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort Werk IV write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Fort Werk IV sits at 119 km, about halfway. Next is back through Seventeenth-Century Canal Ring Area of Ams.
6. back through Seventeenth-Century Canal Ring Area of Ams
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Seventeenth-Century Canal Ring Area of Ams write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Seventeenth-Century Canal Ring Area of Ams comes up about 146 km into the recorded legs. Next is Coastal Fort near Ijmuiden.
7. Coastal Fort near Ijmuiden
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Coastal Fort near Ijmuiden write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Coastal Fort near Ijmuiden closes the day.
Leg by leg
Coastal Fort near Ijmuiden to Seventeenth-Century Canal Ring Area of Ams
Coastal Fort near Ijmuiden → Seventeenth-Century Canal Ring Area of Ams is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Seventeenth-Century Canal Ring Area of Ams to Fort Werk IV
Seventeenth-Century Canal Ring Area of Ams → Fort Werk IV is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort Werk IV to Culvert near Offerhausweg
Fort Werk IV → Culvert near Offerhausweg is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Culvert near Offerhausweg to back through Fort Werk IV
Culvert near Offerhausweg → back through Fort Werk IV is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fort Werk IV to back through Seventeenth-Century Canal Ring Area of Ams
back through Fort Werk IV → back through Seventeenth-Century Canal Ring Area of Ams is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Seventeenth-Century Canal Ring Area of Ams to Coastal Fort near Ijmuiden
back through Seventeenth-Century Canal Ring Area of Ams → Coastal Fort near Ijmuiden is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.