Why this ride
261 km from Utrecht to Utrecht, about 3 h 43 of riding. The stops in between: Corbulo's canal | Vlietwijk, Dutch Water Defence Lines and back through Corbulo's canal | Vlietwijk. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Zilveren schaats and Dutch Water Defence Lines
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 261 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 3 h 43
- 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 71 km this is Dutch Flower Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 71 km
- Named road
- Dutch Flower Route
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Zilveren schaats
The Dutch are proud of skating, and Utrecht's Silver Skate is the sort of name that makes sense only here: a country of canals that freezes about one winter in ten, where the whole nation drops its work when the ice holds and goes out to skate.
Read the complete Zilveren schaats write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Zilveren schaats is where the day begins. Next is Corbulo's canal | Vlietwijk.
2. Corbulo's canal | Vlietwijk
The Vliet, a calm green waterway running between Leiden and The Hague, looks like any other Dutch canal, lined with reeds, cyclists and the occasional houseboat. But it follows, more or less, the route of one of the oldest canals in Western Europe. In about AD 47, the Roman general Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo ordered his soldiers to dig a canal linking the Rhine and the Meuse estuaries, so that boats could move supplies along the coast without risking the North Sea. The historian Tacitus says Corbulo did it partly to keep his troops busy. Traces of the Fossa Corbulonis have been found here at Vlietwijk, near Voorschoten, and the site is part of the Lower German Limes World Heritage Site, inscribed in 2021.
Read the complete Corbulo's canal | Vlietwijk write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Corbulo's canal | Vlietwijk comes up about 60 km into the recorded legs. Next is Dutch Water Defence Lines.
3. 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
about 131 km into the recorded legs you reach Dutch Water Defence Lines. Next is back through Corbulo's canal | Vlietwijk.
4. back through Corbulo's canal | Vlietwijk
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Corbulo's canal | Vlietwijk write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Corbulo's canal | Vlietwijk, late in the day. Next is Zilveren schaats.
5. Zilveren schaats
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Zilveren schaats write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Zilveren schaats. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Zilveren schaats to Corbulo's canal | Vlietwijk
Zilveren schaats → Corbulo's canal | Vlietwijk is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Corbulo's canal | Vlietwijk to Dutch Water Defence Lines
Corbulo's canal | Vlietwijk → Dutch Water Defence Lines is 71 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Dutch Water Defence Lines to back through Corbulo's canal | Vlietwijk
Dutch Water Defence Lines → back through Corbulo's canal | Vlietwijk is 71 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Corbulo's canal | Vlietwijk to Zilveren schaats
back through Corbulo's canal | Vlietwijk → Zilveren schaats is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.