Why this ride
A 293 km round trip from Maarssen - roughly 4 h 59 in the saddle. The stops in between: Seventeenth-Century Canal Ring Area of Ams, Woerden-Centrum, Leiden-Roomburg | Besjeslaan and Van Nellefabriek. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Dutch Water Defence Lines and Van Nellefabriek
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 293 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 4 h 59
- 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
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 35 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 34 km
- Named road
- Dutch Flower Route
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. 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 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 39 km into the recorded legs. Next is Woerden-Centrum.
3. 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
about 81 km into the recorded legs you reach Woerden-Centrum. Next is Leiden-Roomburg | Besjeslaan.
4. Leiden-Roomburg | Besjeslaan
The Rhine ends in a whimper rather than a bang. After its long journey from the Alps, its old main branch, the Oude Rijn, winds quietly through the flat polders of South Holland past Leiden toward the North Sea, and for the Romans this sluggish waterway was the northern frontier of the empire. At Roomburg, on the edge of Leiden and Leiderdorp, stood the fort of Matilo, guarding the river and the canal that linked it with the Meuse, and today its site is part of the Roomburgerpark, a green space with information points and outlines marking where the fort stood. It belongs to the Lower Germanic Limes, listed by UNESCO in 2021.
Read the complete Leiden-Roomburg | Besjeslaan write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Leiden-Roomburg | Besjeslaan, about halfway. Next is Van Nellefabriek.
5. Van Nellefabriek
The Van Nelle factory, on the edge of Rotterdam, is one of the most beautiful industrial buildings ever made. Built between 1925 and 1931 for a company that processed coffee, tea and tobacco, it is a long, light building of glass and steel, with curtain walls that let daylight flood into the workspaces. The designers, Johannes Brinkman and Leendert van der Vlugt, created what became an icon of modernist architecture, a factory of light and air for its workers. It was added to the UNESCO list in 2014.
Read the complete Van Nellefabriek write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Van Nellefabriek sits at 146 km, about halfway. Next is back through Leiden-Roomburg | Besjeslaan.
6. back through Leiden-Roomburg | Besjeslaan
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Leiden-Roomburg | Besjeslaan write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Leiden-Roomburg | Besjeslaan comes up about 184 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Woerden-Centrum.
7. 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
about 218 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Woerden-Centrum. Next is back through Seventeenth-Century Canal Ring Area of Ams.
8. 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 Dutch Water Defence Lines.
9. 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
The route ends here after 293 km.
Leg by leg
Dutch Water Defence Lines to Seventeenth-Century Canal Ring Area of Ams
Dutch Water Defence Lines → Seventeenth-Century Canal Ring Area of Ams is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Seventeenth-Century Canal Ring Area of Ams to Woerden-Centrum
Seventeenth-Century Canal Ring Area of Ams → Woerden-Centrum is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Woerden-Centrum to Leiden-Roomburg | Besjeslaan
Woerden-Centrum → Leiden-Roomburg | Besjeslaan is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Leiden-Roomburg | Besjeslaan to Van Nellefabriek
Leiden-Roomburg | Besjeslaan → Van Nellefabriek is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Van Nellefabriek to back through Leiden-Roomburg | Besjeslaan
Van Nellefabriek → back through Leiden-Roomburg | Besjeslaan is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Leiden-Roomburg | Besjeslaan to back through Woerden-Centrum
back through Leiden-Roomburg | Besjeslaan → back through Woerden-Centrum is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Woerden-Centrum to back through Seventeenth-Century Canal Ring Area of Ams
back through Woerden-Centrum → back through Seventeenth-Century Canal Ring Area of Ams is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Seventeenth-Century Canal Ring Area of Ams to Dutch Water Defence Lines
back through Seventeenth-Century Canal Ring Area of Ams → Dutch Water Defence Lines is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.