Tiel Inundation Canal and Utrecht-Limes road | Zandweg

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 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. 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. 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 back through Bunnik-Vechten | Marsdijk.

4. 4. 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.

5. 5. 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

   Back at Tiel Inundation Canal. That is the ride.