CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
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.
A 321 km round trip from Utrecht - roughly 5 h 20 in the saddle. It goes by way of Tiel Inundation Canal, Elst-Grote Kerk, Till and Alpen-Drüpt. It crosses from Netherlands into Germany - carry ID and check the toll rules. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Concrete is not usually romantic, but a Dutch group shelter manages it. Type P was a standard design of bunker built in the 1930s along the New Dutch Water Line, the old defensive belt that ran in an arc around Utrecht, Amsterdam and the middle of the country. Each shelter was a small, low, rectangular box of reinforced concrete with a flat roof and a narrow door, designed to protect a squad of soldiers from artillery and aircraft while they waited for the real fighting to start. Hundreds were built, and when you find one, usually half hidden in grass or trees, it looks like a stout, silent animal.
Read the complete Group shelter type P write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Group shelter type P is where the day begins. Next is Tiel Inundation Canal.
Tiel is a river town on the Waal, the main branch of the Rhine in the Netherlands, in the middle of the Betuwe, a region of orchards, dykes and meadows between the Waal and the Lower Rhine. Just outside the town, a wide, straight channel runs through the fields, crossed by bridges and lined by dykes. This is the Tiel inundation canal, built in the late nineteenth century as part of the New Dutch Waterline, the defensive system of controlled flooding that protected the heart of Holland, and it is now part of the UNESCO-listed Dutch Water Defence Lines.
Read the complete Tiel Inundation Canal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Tiel Inundation Canal comes up about 49 km into the recorded legs. Next is 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 86 km into the recorded legs you reach Elst-Grote Kerk. Next is Till.
The Lower Rhine around Kalkar and Kleve is wide, flat country: green polders, willows along drainage ditches, brick farmhouses and church spires visible for miles. Till is a small village here, part of Bedburg-Hau, just off the Rhine embankments between Kalkar and Kleve, with Emmerich across the river. It lies close to the line of the Roman frontier, the Lower German Limes, which followed the Rhine to the North Sea.
Read the complete Till write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Till, about halfway. Next is Alpen-Drüpt.
On the flat farmland of the Lower Rhine, between Alpen and Rheinberg, there is little to catch the eye: fields of maize and potatoes, poplars along ditches, brick farmhouses and the occasional windmill. Yet this was once the edge of the Roman world. The Rhine formed the frontier of the empire, and along its banks the Romans built legionary fortresses, forts, watchtowers and temporary camps. Alpen-Drüpt is one of the sites included in the Frontiers of the Roman Empire, Lower German Limes, inscribed by UNESCO in 2021; like many on the list, it survives mainly below ground, known from aerial photographs and excavations rather than standing ruins.
Read the complete Alpen-Drüpt write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Alpen-Drüpt sits at 163 km, about halfway. Next is back through Till.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Till write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Till comes up about 194 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Elst-Grote Kerk.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Elst-Grote Kerk write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 235 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Elst-Grote Kerk. Next is back through Tiel Inundation Canal.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Tiel Inundation Canal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Tiel Inundation Canal, late in the day. Next is Group shelter type P.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Group shelter type P write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 321 km.
Group shelter type P → Tiel Inundation Canal is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Tiel Inundation Canal → Elst-Grote Kerk is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Elst-Grote Kerk → Till is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Till → Alpen-Drüpt is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Alpen-Drüpt → back through Till is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Till → back through Elst-Grote Kerk is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Elst-Grote Kerk → back through Tiel Inundation Canal is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Tiel Inundation Canal → Group shelter type P is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.