Why this ride
From Maarssen it runs 91 km to Maarssen; allow about 1 h 44 of riding. The stops in between: Bunnik-Vechten | Provincialeweg, Woerden-Centrum and back through Bunnik-Vechten | Provincialeweg. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Dutch Water Defence Lines and Woerden-Centrum
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 91 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 1 h 44
- 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. 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 Bunnik-Vechten | Provincialeweg.
2. Bunnik-Vechten | Provincialeweg
A modern fort and a Roman one stand within a couple of kilometres of each other here, and both exist because of the same river. Vechten, on the Kromme Rijn just east of Utrecht, was the Roman fort of Fectio, one of the best-known sites on the Lower Germanic frontier. It lay at a point where the Rhine split, with the branch that became the Vecht heading north, and that made it a perfect depot. Soldiers, grain, and building stone all went through here, and archaeologists have pulled a remarkable amount out of the ground, including altars, bronze statuettes and the debris of a busy harbour.
Read the complete Bunnik-Vechten | Provincialeweg write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Bunnik-Vechten | Provincialeweg comes up about 19 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 45 km into the recorded legs you reach Woerden-Centrum. Next is back through Bunnik-Vechten | Provincialeweg.
4. back through Bunnik-Vechten | Provincialeweg
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bunnik-Vechten | Provincialeweg write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Bunnik-Vechten | Provincialeweg, late in the day. Next is Dutch Water Defence Lines.
5. 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 at Dutch Water Defence Lines. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Dutch Water Defence Lines to Bunnik-Vechten | Provincialeweg
Dutch Water Defence Lines → Bunnik-Vechten | Provincialeweg is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Bunnik-Vechten | Provincialeweg to Woerden-Centrum
Bunnik-Vechten | Provincialeweg → Woerden-Centrum is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Woerden-Centrum to back through Bunnik-Vechten | Provincialeweg
Woerden-Centrum → back through Bunnik-Vechten | Provincialeweg is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Bunnik-Vechten | Provincialeweg to Dutch Water Defence Lines
back through Bunnik-Vechten | Provincialeweg → Dutch Water Defence Lines is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.