Why this ride
A 340 km round trip from Tiel - roughly 5 h 23 in the saddle. On the way it passes Bunnik-Vechten | Marsdijk, Works along the IJ before Diemerdam, Fort near Heemstede and Dutch Water Defence Lines. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Tiel Inundation Canal and Dutch Water Defence Lines
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 340 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 5 h 23
- 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
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 34 km this is Dutch Flower Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 34 km
- Named road
- Dutch Flower Route
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. 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.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Tiel Inundation Canal is where the day begins. Next is Bunnik-Vechten | Marsdijk.
2. Bunnik-Vechten | Marsdijk
Two layers of Dutch defence history sit on top of each other just south-east of Utrecht. Around two thousand years ago, the Romans built a fort here called Fectio, at the point where a branch of the Rhine met the Vecht, with a harbour for the fleet that patrolled the river frontier. Its remains lie buried in the fields near Vechten and are part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire, Lower German Limes, a World Heritage site since 2021. Close by stands Fort bij Vechten, a nineteenth-century fortress of the New Dutch Waterline, a defensive system that could flood large areas of land to stop an invading army. That system is itself part of the UNESCO site of the Dutch Water Defence Lines. The fort now houses a museum explaining how the waterline worked, and how a country below sea level turned water into a weapon.
Read the complete Bunnik-Vechten | Marsdijk write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Bunnik-Vechten | Marsdijk comes up about 45 km into the recorded legs. Next is Works along the IJ before Diemerdam.
3. Works along the IJ before Diemerdam
Just east of Amsterdam, where the city's suburbs give way to water and polders, a narrow strip of land runs out along the old shore of the IJ and the IJmeer toward Muiden. The Diemerdam is an old dike, and the works along the IJ before it are part of the Dutch Water Defence Lines, the system of forts, dikes, sluices and inundation fields that the Dutch built over centuries to defend their cities by flooding the land around them. The Defence Line of Amsterdam, a ring of forts around the capital, was listed by UNESCO in 1996 and later joined with the New Dutch Waterline into a single site.
Read the complete Works along the IJ before Diemerdam write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 92 km into the recorded legs you reach Works along the IJ before Diemerdam. Next is Fort near Heemstede.
4. Fort near Heemstede
Between Haarlem and the bulb fields of the Dutch coast, near the town of Heemstede and the hamlet of De Glip, lies a squat, grassy fort surrounded by a moat. This is the Fort near Heemstede, built around the turn of the twentieth century as part of the Defence Line of Amsterdam, a ring of forts, dykes and flooding zones around the city, and now part of the UNESCO-listed Dutch Water Defence Lines.
Read the complete Fort near Heemstede write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Fort near Heemstede, about halfway. Next is Dutch Water Defence Lines.
5. Dutch Water Defence Lines
Forget mountains and passes: the Dutch defended Amsterdam with water. Between the 1880s and the 1920s, the army built a ring of forts around the capital at a distance of roughly fifteen to twenty kilometres, the Stelling van Amsterdam, designed to flood the surrounding polders to a depth too shallow for boats but too deep to wade through. Forty-odd forts, along with dykes, sluices and batteries, formed the ring, and the area north of the city near De Rijp and the Beemster was part of it. The Defence Line of Amsterdam gained World Heritage status in 1996, and in 2021 it was extended to include the older New Dutch Waterline further south, the whole now known as the Dutch Water Defence Lines.
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 sits at 151 km, about halfway. Next is back through Fort near Heemstede.
6. back through Fort near Heemstede
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort near Heemstede write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Fort near Heemstede comes up about 209 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Works along the IJ before Diemerdam.
7. back through Works along the IJ before Diemerdam
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Works along the IJ before Diemerdam write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 244 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Works along the IJ before Diemerdam. Next is back through Bunnik-Vechten | Marsdijk.
8. back through Bunnik-Vechten | Marsdijk
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bunnik-Vechten | Marsdijk 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 | Marsdijk, late in the day. Next is Tiel Inundation Canal.
9. Tiel Inundation Canal
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Tiel Inundation Canal 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 340 km.
Leg by leg
Tiel Inundation Canal to Bunnik-Vechten | Marsdijk
Tiel Inundation Canal → Bunnik-Vechten | Marsdijk is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Bunnik-Vechten | Marsdijk to Works along the IJ before Diemerdam
Bunnik-Vechten | Marsdijk → Works along the IJ before Diemerdam is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Works along the IJ before Diemerdam to Fort near Heemstede
Works along the IJ before Diemerdam → Fort near Heemstede is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort near Heemstede to Dutch Water Defence Lines
Fort near Heemstede → Dutch Water Defence Lines is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Dutch Water Defence Lines to back through Fort near Heemstede
Dutch Water Defence Lines → back through Fort near Heemstede is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fort near Heemstede to back through Works along the IJ before Diemerdam
back through Fort near Heemstede → back through Works along the IJ before Diemerdam is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Works along the IJ before Diemerdam to back through Bunnik-Vechten | Marsdijk
back through Works along the IJ before Diemerdam → back through Bunnik-Vechten | Marsdijk is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Bunnik-Vechten | Marsdijk to Tiel Inundation Canal
back through Bunnik-Vechten | Marsdijk → Tiel Inundation Canal is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.