Why this ride
A 77 km round trip from Veldhuizen - roughly 1 h 39 in the saddle. On the way it passes Bunnik-Vechten | Marsdijk, Dutch Water Defence Lines and back through Bunnik-Vechten | Marsdijk.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Utrecht-Limes road | Zandweg and Dutch Water Defence Lines
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 77 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 1 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. 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
Utrecht-Limes road | Zandweg 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 18 km into the recorded legs. Next is Dutch Water Defence Lines.
3. 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
about 39 km into the recorded legs you reach Dutch Water Defence Lines. Next is back through Bunnik-Vechten | Marsdijk.
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 Utrecht-Limes road | Zandweg.
5. 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
Back at Utrecht-Limes road | Zandweg. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Utrecht-Limes road | Zandweg to Bunnik-Vechten | Marsdijk
Utrecht-Limes road | Zandweg → Bunnik-Vechten | Marsdijk is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Bunnik-Vechten | Marsdijk to Dutch Water Defence Lines
Bunnik-Vechten | Marsdijk → Dutch Water Defence Lines is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Dutch Water Defence Lines to back through Bunnik-Vechten | Marsdijk
Dutch Water Defence Lines → back through Bunnik-Vechten | Marsdijk is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Bunnik-Vechten | Marsdijk to Utrecht-Limes road | Zandweg
back through Bunnik-Vechten | Marsdijk → Utrecht-Limes road | Zandweg is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.