Why this ride
93 km from Middenbeemster to Middenbeemster, about 1 h 52 of riding. The stops in between: Seventeenth-Century Canal Ring Area of Ams, Fort along the Pampus and back through Seventeenth-Century Canal Ring Area of Ams.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Droogmakerij de Beemster and Fort along the Pampus
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 93 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 1 h 52
- 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. 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 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 28 km into the recorded legs. Next is Fort along the Pampus.
3. Fort along the Pampus
Out in the open water of the IJmeer, a few kilometres off the old fortified town of Muiden, a low circular fortress sits on an artificial island. This is Pampus, one of more than forty forts that make up the Defence Line of Amsterdam, a ring of fortifications built around the city in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The idea was simple and very Dutch: in case of attack, large areas of land around the city would be flooded to a depth that was too shallow for boats and too deep for soldiers to wade, and the forts would guard the roads, railways and dykes that crossed the flooded zone. Pampus guarded the approach to Amsterdam by water. The line was listed by UNESCO in 1996.
Read the complete Fort along the Pampus write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 45 km into the recorded legs you reach Fort along the Pampus. Next is back through Seventeenth-Century Canal Ring Area of Ams.
4. 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, late in the day. Next is Droogmakerij de Beemster.
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.
Leg by leg
Droogmakerij de Beemster to Seventeenth-Century Canal Ring Area of Ams
Droogmakerij de Beemster → Seventeenth-Century Canal Ring Area of Ams is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Seventeenth-Century Canal Ring Area of Ams to Fort along the Pampus
Seventeenth-Century Canal Ring Area of Ams → Fort along the Pampus is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort along the Pampus to back through Seventeenth-Century Canal Ring Area of Ams
Fort along the Pampus → back through Seventeenth-Century Canal Ring Area of Ams is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Seventeenth-Century Canal Ring Area of Ams to Droogmakerij de Beemster
back through Seventeenth-Century Canal Ring Area of Ams → Droogmakerij de Beemster is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.