RIDE THE DAMS?

[47Steve]

Hi All,
Last year whilst travelling through the Netherlands to catch our ferry from Ijmuden back home, I stopped for some fuel. There was a Dutch guy in the garage that I had a brief conversation with, who told me there was some good roads known to the locals as Riding The Dams. He did outline where they were but I cannot remember. Is anyone aware of these who can point me in the right direction?

TA Steve

 

[Wapping]

I suspect he means riding (maybe cycling) along the series of dams, that hold the North Sea off the tulip fields.

There is also a ‘dams / dykes route’ more inland

 

[Jesim1]

I'm sure I seen this mentioned on a TV program a while back, but they were doing it by push bike, and it was often narrow and straight with 90 degree turns for the canals, it may have been good scenery and fine for a cycle, but it looked tedious for a motorbike

Hope it was something else I seen and you find what you looking for

 

[47Steve]

Thanks for the replies, He was a biker and had recommended doing the route but for the hell of it, I cannot make out where he was on about. Was looking for a more interesting route back to the ferry as the Netherlands seems very basic / boring roads???

 

[Barnoe]

Is he talking about the Dutch Dykes?

I rode them a few years back, really nice peaceful ride, especially if like me you get great weather.
Very little traffic on them either.

 

[Wapping]

You could maybe adopt and adapt parts of this:

Holland-Cycling.com - LF Waterline Route (LF Waterlinieroute)

The LF Waterline Route takes you along the major Dutch Waterlines, military lines of defence that relied on forts, bunkers, fortress towns and inundated land to defend the country.

www.holland-cycling.com

 

[Barnoe]

To be honest i had never heard of them and ended on them by accident.
I ended up on a dyke and stopped as I thought it was for cyclists only... it looks like a cycle path.

After speaking with a local he said Motorbikes are fine, "go and enjoy!"

Obviously being what they are, in places they are high up and great vantage points, great views as you ride along and plenty of picnic style areas to stop at for a coffee and sandwich
Some areas are almost at water level and have great bridges and windmills, fields of colourful flowers and you pass beautiful homes.

Its not a fast route its more talking on headsets and pointing at stuff lol, so any speedsters will find it boring, especially as its very flat and no twisties lol
For old farts who wants to see things typically dutch its perfect.

 

[Wapping]

Its not a fast route its more talking on headsets and pointing at stuff lol, so any speedsters will find it boring, especially as its very flat and no twisties lol
For old farts who wants to see things typically dutch its perfect.

Indeed.

Like the very similar roads, canals and dykes that extend into Belgian / French Flanders, they are ‘different’ to the norm, which makes a great change from ‘Doing the Alps’ yet again.

 

[47Steve]

FANTASTIC, that sounds very much what he was on about.

Dykes, Dams, cycles, Motorbikes, all sounds the same to me

 

[ShakeyGS]

Two possibilities:
1. Riding the Delta works down the west coast of The Netherlands. You can cross into Belgium via the toll free Westerschelde tunnel.
2. The German Saurland where the erstwhile "Busted" Mohne, Sorpe and Eder dams are located

 

[47Steve]

Two possibilities:
1. Riding the Delta works down the west coast of The Netherlands. You can cross into Belgium via the toll free Westerschelde tunnel.
2. The German Saurland where the erstwhile "Busted" Mohne, Sorpe and Eder dams are located

We are heading back from Roermond up to Ijmuden. Was looking to incorporate some interesting routes (if any) on the way back to the ferry.

 

[Redboots]

Maybe he meant the Ruhr dams

Thread 'Dams of the Rhur Valley'

Jan 19, 2013

I thought i'd throw this out to all the seasoned traveller's out there ...

I've got 4-5 days free around the middle of May and a group of us have decided to head out to Germany and take in the Dams which were targeted during the famous Dambusters raid ....

I'm interested if anyone can recommend any good accommodation in the Rhur Valley region of Germany ... We are planning on visiting the Mohne Dam, the Sorpe Dam and the Eder Dam (which I personally thought was a cheese) ...

Looking for somewhere with a bit of character which we will use as a base, rather than staying at the...

• JamieMagic
• Replies: 9
• Forum: Battlefields & Military Interest

 

[Wapping]

Maybe he meant the Ruhr dams

Maybe those on the Nile and Yangtze?

 

[Redboots]

Maybe those on the Nile and Yangtze?

I'll raise you, Zambezi

 

[47Steve]

Think I'l stick

 

[Ectopic]

My first thought on seeing the thread title was the German dams in the Ruhr.

Whether or not that's what he meant is pure conjecture but, in any case, it is a lovely area for biking. From personal experience, though, that water all comes from the sky and (in May at least) it rained a lot!

 

[tomb1051]

There are two options :
- Dams in the South-West (Zeeland), where after the flooding of this area in 1953 they have installed a network of dams to prevent. The only open acces to sea is for the Antwerp port.
- Dams in the centre of the Netherlands (IJsselmeer), where you can cross in the North along the Waddenzee and in the middle between Lelystad-Enkhuizen. In combination with a trip along 11 cities in Friesland a nice tour.
Regards from the Netherlands.