Why this ride
From Tiel it runs 201 km to Tiel; allow about 3 h 39 of riding. It goes by way of Bunnik-Vechten | Marsdijk, Utrecht-Limes road | Zandweg, Bunnik-Vechten | Provincialeweg and Dutch Water Defence Lines.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Tiel Inundation Canal and Dutch Water Defence Lines
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 201 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 3 h 39
- 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. 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 Utrecht-Limes road | Zandweg.
3. Utrecht-Limes road | Zandweg
Two thousand years ago the Rhine marked the northern edge of the Roman Empire here, and along its southern bank the army built a chain of forts, watchtowers and a road to link them. In the western suburbs of Utrecht, in the new district of Leidsche Rijn and the old village of De Meern, that road has been found again under the fields, a gravel and clay embankment with ditches either side, and part of it can be traced along the street called Zandweg. Nearby, at Castellum Hoge Woerd, the outline of a Roman fort has been rebuilt in a modern form, with a museum, a theatre and an observatory, and a flat-bottomed Roman river barge, found here in 1997 almost intact and complete with the cargo and personal belongings of its skipper, is on display. The Lower German Limes became a World Heritage site in 2021.
Read the complete Utrecht-Limes road | Zandweg write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 63 km into the recorded legs you reach Utrecht-Limes road | Zandweg. Next is Bunnik-Vechten | Provincialeweg.
4. 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, about halfway. Next is Dutch Water Defence Lines.
5. 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 sits at 86 km, about halfway. Next is back through Bunnik-Vechten | Provincialeweg.
6. 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 comes up about 120 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Utrecht-Limes road | Zandweg.
7. back through Utrecht-Limes road | Zandweg
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Utrecht-Limes road | Zandweg write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 137 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Utrecht-Limes road | Zandweg. 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 201 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 Utrecht-Limes road | Zandweg
Bunnik-Vechten | Marsdijk → Utrecht-Limes road | Zandweg is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Utrecht-Limes road | Zandweg to Bunnik-Vechten | Provincialeweg
Utrecht-Limes road | Zandweg → Bunnik-Vechten | Provincialeweg is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Bunnik-Vechten | Provincialeweg to Dutch Water Defence Lines
Bunnik-Vechten | Provincialeweg → Dutch Water Defence Lines is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Dutch Water Defence Lines to back through Bunnik-Vechten | Provincialeweg
Dutch Water Defence Lines → back through Bunnik-Vechten | Provincialeweg is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Bunnik-Vechten | Provincialeweg to back through Utrecht-Limes road | Zandweg
back through Bunnik-Vechten | Provincialeweg → back through Utrecht-Limes road | Zandweg is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Utrecht-Limes road | Zandweg to back through Bunnik-Vechten | Marsdijk
back through Utrecht-Limes road | Zandweg → back through Bunnik-Vechten | Marsdijk is 18 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.