Amsterdam Cycle Route 10:
Linear urban extension, Green Heart, Amstel river

Non-tourist cycle routes around Amsterdam. This route exits the city via Amstelveen, a linear post-war extension. It goes into the still-rural 'Green Heart' and returns along the river Amstel, in its rural and urban settings. 42 km, 4 hours. Revised January 2008.

Dit is geen recreatieve fietsroute, en geen zinvolle tijdsbesteding voor autochtone Nederlanders. Zij worden verwezen naar de fietsroutes van bijvoorbeeld de ANWB.

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Recommended maps: the best map of landscape and structure of the Amsterdam region is the ANWB/VVV Topografische Fietskaart Amsterdam / Noord-Holland Noord, map 13 in this series, at scale 1:50 000. The map costs € 10, but these are probably the best cycling maps in the world. For historic comparisons see the Topografische Dienst reproduction of the 1854 military map, sheet 25. There are two specialised map shops in Amsterdam: Pied à Terre / van Wijngaarden (Overtoom 135-137), and A la Carte (Utrechtsestraat 110/112).

start in front of the former Heineken brewery (now 'Heineken Experience'), at Stadhouders kade 78. This was a functioning brewery until the 1990's. The canal in front is the former city moat (of the 17th-century city). The bends in this canal mark the position of the former bastions, they were removed in the late 19th century. The brewery itself is a 19th century industrial expansion: on the 1854 map there are open fields here.

facing the canal, turn right along the Stadhouders kade. Turn right at the next corner, into 1e (Eerste) van der Helst straat. This district, De Pijp, is a 19th-century expansion - in fact a classic example of 19th century urban growth in Dutch cities. The houses in the side streets are typical of that period, but many have been replaced by urban-renewal infill. Most of the brewery site has also been redeveloped, and the area is gentrifying rapidly.

at the small 'square' Gerard Dou plein, go diagonally left, into the continuation of the Eerste van der Helst straat. (All the streets here are named after artists of the Golden Age).

cross the Albert Cuyp straat, the best known street market in the Netherlands (Monday to Saturday, until late afternoon). The next section of the Eerste van der Helst straat is pedestrianised, step off your bike.

go straight on, past Sarphati park. Cross the Ceintuur baan, a 19th-century ring road (route of tram 3). The houses are of better quality than those in the first side streets.

continue along 2e (Tweede) van der Helst straat. At van der Helst plein, go to the right around the square, past Den Hartog Drukkerij, into the continuation of the Tweede van der Helst straat.

at the next corner, turn right into the Lutma straat. Cross the Ferdinand Bol straat, the route of tram 12 and 25.

pass through the square Cornelis Troost plein, then go to the left toward the church tower, into Pijnacker straat.

at the church turn right, along the van Hilligaert straat. Cross the Boeren wetering canal, toward the petrol station.

opposite the petrol station, just before the next bridge, turn right, along the tree-lined canal. This is the Reynier Vinkeles kade, but a tree hides the sign. The expensive canalside houses form part of Plan Zuid, the 1920's expansion of Amsterdam designed by H. P. Berlage.

cross the route of tram 5 and 24, and continue along the Reynier Vinkeles kade. At the next bridge, the canalside street ends: turn left across the bridge here. The incongruous and ugly building on the right is the Amsterdam Hilton.

at the next traffic lights cross a broad avenue, Apollo laan. On the other side is a new (or newly re-faced) office building at nr 151: turn right past it. At the corner turn left into another broad avenue, Minerva laan.

Minerva laan is aligned north-south, and extends to the site of the 'southern station' in the 1920's Plan Zuid. It was intended as a grand entrance avenue to Amsterdam: the Hilton site would have been occupied by a public building.

cross Minerva plein, surrounded by 1930's apartment blocks, and continue along Minerva laan. At the next canal, there is only a cycle bridge. (The Second World War interrupted the completion of Plan Zuid and its successor, the AUP of 1935).

cross the cycle bridge and continue towards the office buildings ahead. Minerva laan still has a broad central reservation, but it is lined with suburban houses with gardens.

These houses were built because the 'southern station' was delayed for 50 years - and they are now worth a lot of money, because of their strategic location. Amsterdam-Zuid station opened in 1981, together with a cut-off line to Leiden via Schiphol airport. In the 1980's it was designated as an employment zone, one of several along the ring motorway. Development later stagnated, but has now restarted. The new plans are on a massive scale, beyond anything foreseen earlier - one million m² of offices, 9 000 apartments, and retail and entertainment development. The project will take 20 years to complete.

at the end of Minerva laan, go straight on, under the low road viaduct, toward the station entrance. The rail line and metro are in the motorway central reservation. There are plans to put the motorway and rail line underground, creating a single development site.

pass the large underground cycle storage, Locker. Step off your bike and walk through the station - watch out for police! (They have to fulfil a quota of traffic fines per day, and cyclists in the station passage are an easy target).

The station itself, already expanded from the 1980's original, is now being rebuilt, with a connection to the future North-South metro line. From 2009 high-speed trains from Germany via Arnhem, and from Brussels and Paris via the southern high-speed line (HSL-Zuid), will serve the station. At present, this is a tangential line: in the future, it will be more of a duplicate for Amsterdam Centraal Station.

leave the station by the narrow south exit, and cross the footbridge toward the office towers and the construction site ahead, Go past the ITO-Toren, and then turn right.

go on along the cycle path, past the construction sites. It brings you to the corner of De Boele laan and Buitenveldertse laan, and the Vrije Universiteit campus.

The VU is the second university of Amsterdam, with an orthodox-Protestant tradition. Many European universities relocated to suburban campus sites in the 1960's and 1970's, as student numbers expanded.

go along Buitenveldertse laan, (cycle sign for Amstelveen), following the light metro line. Here it runs in central reservation, at surface level - a cheap alternative for a full metro, and predictably it is now inadequate.

The road and metro line continue along the length of the Amstelveen extension of Amsterdam. Planning in the 1950's included urban extensions in the form of 'fingers', a version of a famous Copenhagen plan. Between the fingers would be wedges of open space. This extension has retained the intended linear character, with a clear north-south transport axis for road and metro - although the light metro line was not completed until the 1990's. The whole extension has about 100 000 inhabitants, almost all in post-war housing. There is only one former village: old Amstelveen. The generally higher incomes are not reflected in the housing style. Many of the blocks are indistinguishable from 'social housing' flats: they just look better maintained, and there is more green.

at the station A. J. Ernststraat, pass a cluster of shops: typical of 1950's and 1960's planning. The effect of motorisation on the scale of retailing was not appreciated until later. These clusters were built for a lifestyle, where the housewife walked to the shops to do the family shopping. This cluster still has a baker, a butcher, and a greengrocer: some have lost all retail functions.

beside Uilenstede station, cross a canal at right angles. These transverse canals are remnants of the former landscape - polders with drainage canals running almost exactly east-west, to the Amstel river.

This canal is the boundary of Amsterdam and the gemeente Amstelveen. 'Uilenstede' itself is the complex of flats visible behind the station: student housing built to cope with the growth of the universities in the 1960's and 1970's. The area is an exception to the age and social structure of Amstelveen. Uilenstede ('owl-town', the owl is the symbol of learning) came to symbolise student boredom. There is nothing to do there, except cycle into Amsterdam, or - according to student mythology - jump off the roof.

continue and pass the Esso petrol station: the main road is now called Benelux baan. The office blocks on the left are in the office zone Kronenburg. Amstelveen never had traditional industry: office and service jobs dominated, since it was built, and many people work at (or around) Schiphol airport.

at Kronenburg station, at the traffic lights, turn right into the Rembrandt weg. This route now turns toward the old village of Amstelveen, through typical 1960's suburban expansion.

London and Paris swallowed up surrounding villages as they grew: the village streets survive within the agglomeration. Amsterdam, however, was surrounded by thinly-populated grassland. Only four village cores south of the IJ are completely surrounded by later building: Sloterdijk, Diemen, Sloten, and Amstelveen. The website of the Amsterdams Historisch Museum has an animated map of the growth of the city from 1000 to 2000.

pass the local shopping centre, and continue along Rembrandt weg - do not turn off into Laan Walcheren.

800 m on, Rembrandt weg curves slightly right: this is the edge of the 'city centre' of Amstelveen. After another 300 m, the 1960's street becomes part of a typical 1990's Netherlands shopping centre. Continue into the central square, Stadsplein. Ahead is the new cultural centre, with theatre and a concert venue.

The street still has a street market on Fridays, but most shops are now in enclosed mall. Most of the new buildings are infill, on the oversized central square of the 1960's development. In the 1950's, planners decided not to expand the old village core, but to build a new centre here. It is now the top-level retail centre for Amstelveen itself, and for surrounding commuter villages: to the south, the next large centres are Leiden and Utrecht.

cross the square diagonally right, and exit at the right end of the cultural centre, go on to the traffic lights. On the left is the bus station of Amstelveen: its largest transport centre, and not even connected to the metro.

at the traffic lights, cross toward the new Cobra Museum voor Moderne Kunst. This is a prestige cultural object, often part of urban 'revitalisation' projects: it is a form of marketing.

at the corner of the museum, turn left across the main road (Keizer Karel weg). Go slightly left into the first street of houses-with-gardens, Thorbecke laan.

pass several side streets, and at the mr. F. A. van Hall weg, turn left. After 100 m turn right, up the short cycle path to the railway embankment. This rail line from Amsterdam, built just before the First World War, facilitated the early suburban expansion of Amstelveen. (It is now a museum tram line, operating in summer only).

turn left across the track, following the cycle sign for Schiphol. (The cycle path is split, with the rail track in the middle). You now cross the busy A9 motorway (Alkmaar - Haarlem - Schiphol - Amstelveen - Utrecht). It follows the line of the Haarlem-Hilversum provincial highway built in the 1930's - the first 'tangential' infrastructure in the region.

continue along the cycle path, to the old station of Amstelveen. Built in 1912, it still has the station name in tile above the entrance.

A network of local rail lines was built south and west of Amsterdam between 1912 and 1918 (see Cycle Route 1). The line to Amstelveen was opened in 1915, it split about 1 km further south of here, and continued to Aalsmeer and Uithoorn. From Aalsmeer there was another branch to Leiden, the Uithoorn branch continued to connect with the Utrecht main line. In a few places the lines encouraged suburban development: if they had developed into a full commuter network, the regional structure would be quite different. Instead they were closed by 1950.

at the old station turn right, along Stations straat, follow the cycle sign for Schiphol. The street name sign is above the door of nr. 15-17 (one of several official buildings, built in this street in the 1920's as Amstelveen began to expand).

at the end, turn left along Dorps straat. This is the village street of Amstelveen, also part of a centuries-old road from Amsterdam to Leiden. Pass at nr. 75 the old Town Hall, one of the few 'original buildings' (built 1896, so it is not very old anyway).

The line of the street itself is probably the oldest surviving heritage here. The village was destroyed by fire in 1792, and most of the mainly 19th-century houses were demolished after 1950. In 1963, the council decided to demolish the entire village core. That was before Europe discovered Heritage: in 1977, the council decided to rebuild it.

continue along the cycle path. Ahead is a level crossing of the old rail line. Just before the level crossing, turn right across the road, and go along the footpath toward the water, 100 m ahead. Cycle slowly at the end, because the path ends on a wooden jetty in a lake, with no warning sign. The is the Amstelveense Poel, a lake created by deep turf cutting.

Between 1400 and 1920, almost all land between the Amstel river and the Haarlemmermeer lake was cut away for turf. At first the turf was cut on the surface, but after 1600 it was cut underwater. No advanced technology was necessary - simply a boat, and a spade with a long handle. That left a lake: most were reclaimed again by 1900. (The present soil in those polders is the underlying clay, 4 or 5 meters under sea level). On your right the present town hall of Amstelveen. The church tower on the left is at Bovenkerk, a hamlet which suburbanised at the same time as Amstelveen.

turn back from the jetty. Cross the road again to the cycle path, and turn right, crossing the rail line. 20 m further, turn left into the cycle path, toward the semi-circular apartment block.

follow the cycle path down. At the street (Kastanje laan), facing nr 20, turn right.

pass more apartment blocks, and cross the Keizer Karel weg (again). Continue along Linden laan.

650 m further, at the main road (van der Hoop laan), turn right, past the shops.

at the traffic lights, cross the Sportlaan. The sports fields here mark the limit of 1960's Amstelveen - in the 1980's it started to expand southwards again.

at the next traffic lights, continue along the van der Hoop laan - but cross the road, and use the cycle path on the left-hand side. The route is easier to follow, if you switch here.

cross the next traffic lights, continue along Poortwachter - still using the cycle path on the left-hand side of the road.

the road Poortwachter bends to the right, turn right here. Then turn first left, into Grote Beer - the street name sign is missing.

the road bends left: just after the bend, turn off right into Brink (sign hidden behind leaves), toward the Heineken sign (on a cafe). Go along the footpath past this cafe (ZulleWe), to the corner with the post office. This is the local shopping centre Middenhoven: in front is the light metro station Brink.

cross the light metro line, and go slightly left into the cycle path. It runs along a decorative watercourse, with a few wooden bridges.

follow this path along the watercourse: don't turn off into the housing. Cross the last (third) wooden bridge, and cycle toward the open land ahead.

200 m further is Nesser laan: you are now in open polder landscape with grazing Frisian cattle (sheep in winter). Nesser laan is a polder access road, with some surviving farm buildings. Ahead of you is the rest of the Bovenkerker polder, reclaimed around 1770. Diagonally left is the church tower of Nes aan de Amstel. 4 km south is Uithoorn, with about 25 000 inhabitants.

Since the 1960's there are vague plans to extend Amstelveen across the polder, to join with Uithoorn. This is controversial because it is an extension into the 'green heart' of Holland - more on that issue later. To indicate the scale of the extension: Uithoorn is already one-quarter of the distance from central Amsterdam to Rotterdam.

turn left along Nesser laan. To the left, the housing of Amstelveen simply stops dead: such sharp urban edges are the result of strong planning controls.

cycle on alongside a small drainage canal: visible ahead is the river dike of the Amstel river. The river originally ran through uninhabited peat bogs: they were settled in the Middle Ages, at first as farmland. The Bovenkerker polder is part of the secondary land reclamation, after turf cutting.

pass an intermediate pump in the drainage canal (green metal boxes on a wooden platform). The blue enamel water gauge here indicates a level of 5,50 m under sea level. Pass here on the left the 'corner' of Amstelveen: along its east side there is an equally sharp urban edge, the line of a planned Amsterdam-Rotterdam motorway. The wedge of open space is now visible, extending toward the Rembrandt tower at Amstel station (the city's tallest building).

at the main pumping station, the road rises to the first dike. This is not the river dike: the water drains into an intermediate canal. It is the ring canal of the Bovenkerker polder, which is about 5 km long and 3 km wide. Water is pumped from polders into ring canals, and then another step into rivers or lakes - multiple water levels are characteristic of the Dutch polder landscape.

instead of going directly to the river, turn right in the direction of Nes a/d Amstel, passing the pumping station. Cross the first of several cattle grids (veerooster), and cycle along the ring canal.

Four landscape elements are visible here: the river-dike, a strip of grassland about 100 to 300 m wide, the ring canal, and the regular ditches in the low-lying polder. Its depth is the result of turf-cutting: it had become a lake like the Amstelveense Poel, and was drained around 1765. Strips of higher ground were often left at the margin of the turf-cutting, called bovenlanden or 'upper lands'. The grassland on the left is an example: it is about 3 m higher than the polder. Sometimes, however, only a peat dike - veendijk - was left between a river and the lower land. In the summer of 2003, the driest ever recorded, these dikes dried out, lost their strength, and in two cases collapsed. Since more droughts are expected in future, they are being replaced or reinforced where necessary, an expensive operation.

after 300 m pass the remains of a windmill. Originally there were 10 windmills here to drain the polder, the predecessor of the diesel pumps. If the visibility is good, you can see (right) the control tower of Schiphol airport

approaching the village of Nes, cross the canal on a wooden cycle bridge. 100 m on, stop at the open space, next to the primary school De Zwaluw, 'The Swallow', from an old name of the village.

go left across the field toward the church, past the basketball court, and through the gap in the bushes beside the benches. There is a footpath here, turn left and it leads to the rear entrance of the churchyard.

go to the left around the church, passing the graveyard, and out through the front gate. The church, St Urbanus, is a neo-gothic catholic church built in the 1890's.

turn right along the bank of the Amstel river which gives its name to Amsterdam (Aemstelredam). Pass, on the riverbank, a small statue of Aagje Deken and Betje Wolf, 18th-century literary figures. Nes is a small village, most of the houses on the river are 19th-century. At Cafe De Vergulde Zon, you can stop for a coffee, there is a riverbank platform.

pass recently built houses: Nes lost population after the second World War, falling to 314 inhabitants in 1969. Since then it has grown again to 900, see Geschiedenis van Nes a/d Amstel.

Left to the free market, Nes would be ten times that size, a collection of riverside apartment blocks. Official policy in the 1990's was to stop village growth, and concentrate new housing in large urban-edge extensions, the VINEX locations. However the policy failed to prevent village-by-village sprawl. After pressure from neoliberal economists and the developers lobby, the Balkenende government abandoned most planning controls in 2004.

about 1 km after the church, opposite nr. 187, cross the river by a cable ferry. The ferry operates until 20.00 every weekday, until 18.00 on some Sundays, winter Saturdays, and holidays, and it costs just 35 cents. On the other side you are in the Province of Utrecht. This is about half-way through the route, and you now turn back toward Amsterdam

cycle down from the dike, to the road behind (Waver dijk). Turn left, following the cycle sign for Ouderkerk. There is a map here, of all the cycle routes in the Province.

pass on the right Fort Waver-Amstel - built 1908-1912, now used as wine cellars. It is part of the late 19th-century defence line, the Stelling van Amsterdam. The defence system was based on inundations: most of the polder behind the fort would have been deliberately flooded. Amsterdam would have been surrounded with an almost complete circle of shallow water, up to 10 km wide. The system was never tested, but it may have deterred a German invasion in World War I.

the road rises: cycle along the bank of the small Waver river, towards a white lifting bridge ahead. You are now looking back towards Amsterdam Zuid-Oost, the Amsterdam Arena stadium is the most prominent building. Beside it the cluster of offices around Bijlmer-Arena station.

cross the white cycle bridge, and turn right. There is an information sign here, provided by a farmers organisation.

Such public relations is a necessity for farmers, in a country which is seriously considering a general abandonment of agriculture. (Poland is often mentioned as a replacement location). The sign tells how the farmers are good for Nature, and protect the meadow birds. It also explains about the specific landscape here. You are on the ring dike of De Ronde Hoep, a mediaeval polder - built between 1100 and 1300. Apart from the motorway across its northern tip, its structure is preserved (about 1000 hectares). It was originally peat bog, reclaimed from the dike inward. The centre is open, without a single building.

cycle on along the Waver: it forms the provincial boundary here, on this side you are back in the province of Noord-Holland. To the right is the polder landscape of De Ronde Venen, an approximately circular group of 19th century polders. This landscape is the Green Heart, the still agricultural centre of the Randstad.

The Randstad is the collective name for the ring of cities including Amsterdam, Haarlem, Leiden, Delft, Rotterdam, Gouda, and Utrecht. Historically, this area is the core of the Netherlands state. Depending on the definition, the Randstad has about 7 million inhabitants. A 'Greater Randstad economic region' would include about 10 million people. So you are in the middle of one of the worlds 20 largest urban concentrations, and yet there are cows grazing all around you. To the north, several of the employment concentrations in Amsterdam are also visible, as clusters of office blocks. Now, what would happen here, if all planning controls were lifted? The disappearance of the Green Heart under urban sprawl was the classic nightmare of Netherlands planning. It is now fashionable for architects and planners to denounce the 'Green Heart' concept: there are several plans for conversion of the entire area into a landscaped park-suburb.

2 km along the dike, there is another lifting bridge: turn right across it. Cycle about 200 m along the Hoofd weg, to look at the pumping station, and the main canal of the Polder Groot-Mijdrecht Noord.

Like others in the area, this polder was reclaimed from peat bog, then cut away for turf, abandoned, flooded, and reclaimed again. The second reclamation, in the 19th century, was only possible with steam pumps, since the turf-cutting had lowered the land (now 5-6 m under mean sea level. This polder is strictly speaking a droogmakerij - a 'dry-makery'. It has a classic droogmakerij landscape, very regular in layout. The main road, 'Hoofd weg', runs due south along the main drainage canal, in fact National Grid line 122 runs exactly along the canal. The lateral roads are at 1 km intervals. The depth of the polder means that groundwater flows into it, from all sides. The polder has the worst brackish seepage in the region. Continual pumping extracts this groundwater near the surface. The ground shrinks - about 8 mm per year - and the problem gets worse. The Province is considering flooding of the polder as an option for around 2020, recreating the lake as it was around 1850. Some fields, across the canal here, have already been flooded. The project is opposed by polder residents (website Koe of Jetski?) and is a political issue: even premier Balkenende visited the polder.

turn back, back over the bridge, and then turn right, to continue along the dike of De Ronde Hoep.

continue through the settlement of Waver, a cluster of houses rather than a village. It has no church, the traditional defining feature of a 'village' in the Netherlands. Visible across the river are the earthworks of Fort Botshol or Fort in de Waver-Botshol - the concrete fort was never completed here. Behind the fort is the Botshol nature reserve.

about 2 km on, you are diametrically opposite Nes aan de Amstel. Pass on the right a lifting bridge, Stokkelaars brug. Here the river Winkel joins the Waver (and here too you can stop, for ice cream).

pass, behind nr. 47, the old pumping station (gemaal), and beside it the new one which now drains the Ronde Hoep polder.

pass right another lifting bridge (Voetangel brug), and cafe De Voetangel, 'since 1626'. Here the river Holendrecht joins the Waver: they flow on with a new name, the Bullewijk.

continue toward Ouderkerk: ahead the A9 motorway embankment cuts across the landscape, although some trees have been planted along it. Pass under the motorway bridge into Ouderkerk aan de Amstel. The two inclined red masts here are apparently Art.

pass left new housing: there are strong development pressures in Ouderkerk - a heritage village only 10 minutes drive from Amsterdam. Cycle straight on along the river bank, passing right a new lifting bridge (to serve the housing developments).

pass on the opposite bank the Beth Haim cemetery of the 'Portugese-Israelites' of Amsterdam - funerals came here by boat.

The cemetery dates from 1614, soon after the community is recorded in Amsterdam. The expulsion of the Jews from Portugal was in 1497, so there was no direct settlement. The name "Portuguese" was possibly applied to all Jews from the south. The cemetery is the probable site of the castle of the Lords of Amstel - no traces remain. Ouderkerk, not Amsterdam, was the central settlement of early mediaeval Amstelland, the region along the Amstel river. Around the year 1000 the settlement began, at the meeting of two semi-tidal creeks in marsh forest - the creek banks were slightly higher then the surrounding peat bog. Before the existence of Amsterdam was even recorded, the Lords of Amstel tried to carve out an independent princedom, between the territories of the Counts of Holland and the Bishop of Utrecht. They failed, and their castle was destroyed in 1204. The subsequent rise of Amsterdam gave them a mythical status, as predecessors of the city's power.

continue to the neo-gothic church ahead, beside the wooden lifting bridge into the village core of Ouderkerk. As at Nes, the church is named after St. Urbanus, the patron saint of the Lords of Amstel.

turn right over the bridge. (Just beyond this bridge, the Bullewijk joins the Amstel). Cycle along Kerk straat, church street. As you pass the older church (1774), stay left in the older section of street, with the shops.

at the end of Kerk straat, at the town hall of Ouder-Amstel, turn left into the village street, Dorps straat. The Amstel is now on your left.

the street continues as Hoger Einde Zuid. At the end of the village, cross the main road, go straight on into Hoger Einde Noord. After 300 m, you are on the right bank of the Amstel.

pass, on the opposite bank, a few remaining 17th-century or 18th-century country houses. There were once about 60, along the Amstel and Vecht rivers. These houses of Amsterdam merchants (and their equivalents near Venice) are early-modern prototypes of the suburb.

pass windmill De Zwaan, a polder drainage mill (1638). Further on, the Arena dominates the view on the right. These fields now have a primarily recreational function: there are new cycle paths across them toward Amsterdam Zuid-Oost.

as you pass nr 12, there is a small obelisk on the opposite bank. It is a banpaal - a boundary marker of the city of Amsterdam. At one German mile (7,4 km) from the city gates, they marked the limit of city jurisdiction. Exiles who passed them, back into the jurisdiction, faced execution.

pass on the opposite bank the 'Rembrandt windmill'. It was not his windmill, but he sketched here, there is a statue of him sketching, and hundreds of tourists arrive here every day in summer. They all stand in front of the windmill and have their picture taken: in fact it was moved here, from the other side of the city.

5 km after Ouderkerk pass under the bridges of the ring motorway, the ring metro, and the Schiphol-Almere rail line. The area ahead is surprisingly undeveloped: the river-bank road was cut by an industrial area and canal. Pass on the right Volkstuinen, allotment gardens. The river bank itself is overgrown, there are houseboats behind the trees. There are plans to develop this area, but they are strongly opposed by the Volkstuinen associations.

pass the rowing clubs Skøll and Poseidon, and then you are back at the river bank: ahead is the viaduct of the Utrechtse Brug, the start of the motorway to Utrecht.

go under this viaduct, on the cycle path nearest the river (cycle sign for Centrum). The cycle path then rises to a new cycle viaduct over the Duivendrechtse Vaart (this is the canal that cut off the river bank from the city). Visible right are the towers beside Amstel station, on the former Omval: compare Rembrandt's view from the north with the present.

cycle on past a former 19th-century gasworks and waterworks: the wooden lifting bridge is the entrance to a small dock basin.

the road turns right: in this former industrial area, redevelopment has started. At the end of this street (Korte Ouderkerker dijk, the old dike name) it joins the Spakler weg. On the embankment opposite is the metro station of the same name.

without crossing the road, turn left along the cycle path, towards the office towers.

Here you join the return route of Route 5.

go straight on, continue on the cycle path between the towers, direction Centrum. Pass (right) the Hogeschool van Amsterdam - Hogeschool is the equivalent of the former British polytechnics. They are allowed to call themselves 'universities', but only outside the Netherlands.

Behind it is Amstel Station, built in the 1930's as the southern gateway station on the line to Utrecht - a function it never fully acquired. Now it is one of several peripheral stations with clusters of office employment.

continue along the riverside road Weesperzijde: on the opposite bank is 1920's urban expansion, with the red-brick blocks along the Smaragd straat.

at the Ruysch straat, cross the tram line, continue past grander 19th-century riverside houses. Cycle through a tunnel under a bridge approach road, and pass the Amstel Hotel, the most prestigious in the city. Then turn diagonally left to rejoin the riverside road, beside Grand Cafe De Hoge Sluis: the road here is simply called Amstel.

at the 19th-century bridge with lanterns, Blauw brug, the Amstel river bends west (left). Ahead is is Amstel 1 - the Town Hall and Opera complex, the end point of this route.