Droogmakerij de Beemster and Elst-Grote Kerk

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Droogmakerij de Beemster

   In 1612 a lake north of Amsterdam disappeared. Wealthy merchants, flush with money from the Dutch trading boom, financed the draining of the Beemster, and the engineer Jan Adriaenszoon Leeghwater used dozens of windmills to pump the water out into a ring canal. What remained was a polder several metres below sea level, laid out in a perfectly regular grid of roads, canals and fields based on Renaissance ideas of order and proportion. The Beemster was inscribed by UNESCO in 1999 as a masterpiece of creative planning, and from above it looks like a ruled sheet of paper.

   Read the complete Droogmakerij de Beemster write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Droogmakerij de Beemster is where the day begins. Next is Utrecht-Limes road | Zandweg.

2. 2. 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

   Utrecht-Limes road | Zandweg comes up about 67 km into the recorded legs. Next is Elst-Grote Kerk.

3. 3. Elst-Grote Kerk

   Elst is a commuter town in the Betuwe, the flat river island between the Rhine and the Waal, halfway between Arnhem and Nijmegen. At first glance there is nothing remarkable about its big brick church on the market square. The surprise lies underneath it. Excavations in the twentieth century found the remains of two Roman temples beneath the floor, built one after another on the same spot, dedicated to a local god adopted into the Roman world. The site belongs to the Frontiers of the Roman Empire, Lower German Limes, inscribed by UNESCO in 2021, and the foundations can be seen in the church cellar when it is open.

   Read the complete Elst-Grote Kerk 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 Elst-Grote Kerk. Next is back through Utrecht-Limes road | Zandweg.

4. 4. 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

   back through Utrecht-Limes road | Zandweg, late in the day. Next is Droogmakerij de Beemster.

5. 5. Droogmakerij de Beemster

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Droogmakerij de Beemster write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Back at Droogmakerij de Beemster. That is the ride.