Why this ride
270 km from Voorschoten to Voorschoten, about 4 h 08 of riding. It goes by way of Dutch Water Defence Lines and back through Dutch Water Defence Lines. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Corbulo's canal | Vlietvoorde and Dutch Water Defence Lines
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 270 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 4 h 08
- 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.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Corbulo's canal | Vlietvoorde
A straight line on a Dutch map is nearly always a canal, and this one is two thousand years old. The Fossa Corbulonis, or Corbulo's canal, was dug in AD 47 by Roman soldiers under the general Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo, to link the Rhine with the Meuse and give supply ships a safe route that avoided the open sea. It ran through the dunes and marsh of what is now South Holland, and today the line of the Vliet, the canal between Leiden and Delft, follows part of it. Corbulo, so the story goes, dug it to keep his idle legions busy, and the emperor Claudius called his troops back from beyond the Rhine soon afterwards. Vlietvoorde, near Voorschoten, is one of the places where the route can be traced, and the site is part of the Lower German Limes, which won World Heritage status in 2021.
Read the complete Corbulo's canal | Vlietvoorde write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Corbulo's canal | Vlietvoorde is where the day begins. Next is Dutch Water Defence Lines.
2. Dutch Water Defence Lines
The Dutch had a clever idea for defending their heartland: instead of building walls, they would drown the approaches. The Dutch Water Defence Lines, a World Heritage site, consist of a long belt of land around Amsterdam and Utrecht that could be flooded deliberately in wartime, with water deep enough to stop soldiers on foot and wagons, but too shallow for boats. Forts, dikes, sluices and pumping stations controlled the water. The New Dutch Waterline, built in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, ran south-east of Amsterdam through the area around Maarssen and the Loosdrecht lakes, and it was mobilised during the First and Second World Wars, though aircraft and modern artillery had made it largely obsolete by then.
Read the complete Dutch Water Defence Lines write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Dutch Water Defence Lines comes up about 69 km into the recorded legs.
3. Dutch Water Defence Lines
Forget mountains and passes: the Dutch defended Amsterdam with water. Between the 1880s and the 1920s, the army built a ring of forts around the capital at a distance of roughly fifteen to twenty kilometres, the Stelling van Amsterdam, designed to flood the surrounding polders to a depth too shallow for boats but too deep to wade through. Forty-odd forts, along with dykes, sluices and batteries, formed the ring, and the area north of the city near De Rijp and the Beemster was part of it. The Defence Line of Amsterdam gained World Heritage status in 1996, and in 2021 it was extended to include the older New Dutch Waterline further south, the whole now known as the Dutch Water Defence Lines.
Read the complete Dutch Water Defence Lines write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 139 km into the recorded legs you reach Dutch Water Defence Lines. Next is back through Dutch Water Defence Lines.
4. back through Dutch Water Defence Lines
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Dutch Water Defence Lines write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Dutch Water Defence Lines, late in the day. Next is Corbulo's canal | Vlietvoorde.
5. Corbulo's canal | Vlietvoorde
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Corbulo's canal | Vlietvoorde write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Corbulo's canal | Vlietvoorde. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Corbulo's canal | Vlietvoorde to Dutch Water Defence Lines
Corbulo's canal | Vlietvoorde → Dutch Water Defence Lines is 69 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Dutch Water Defence Lines to Dutch Water Defence Lines
Dutch Water Defence Lines → Dutch Water Defence Lines is 70 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Dutch Water Defence Lines to back through Dutch Water Defence Lines
Dutch Water Defence Lines → back through Dutch Water Defence Lines is 64 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Dutch Water Defence Lines to Corbulo's canal | Vlietvoorde
back through Dutch Water Defence Lines → Corbulo's canal | Vlietvoorde is 68 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.