Amsterdam Cycle Route 9:
dike villages, grassland landscape, heritage tourism

Non-tourist cycle routes around Amsterdam. This route leaves Amsterdam along relict dike settlements and interwar garden-city housing, goes through the oldest reclaimed marshes, to the heritage-tourism island of Marken, returning along the mediaeval sea dike. 47 km, 4-5 hours. The return route is an exposed coastal dike, and is difficult with west and south-west wind. 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 at the ferry landing behind Centraal Station, Route 8 also starts here. The waterfront has been shifted 40 m into the water, to make room for a new bus station, and the road will be put in tunnel. The entire station island is being redeveloped.

cross the IJ by the main ferry - 'Buiksloterweg veer'. (There are two landing points for this ferry). Ahead, the Shell laboratories complex is being redeveloped.

The IJ estuary was once wider, land has been reclaimed on both sides. Centraal Station was built in 1889 on an artificial island, cutting the city off from the estuary. A ferry was for centuries the only connection, to what is now Amsterdam-Noord. Until the housing projects of the 1920's it remained rural. After many plans for a bridge, a road tunnel (IJ-tunnel) opened in 1968. Amsterdam-Noord has 90 000 inhabitants.

cycle away from the ferry, along the entrance basin of the Noordhollands Kanaal (1824). Shipping waits here, to enter the locks ahead.

The canal was one of several attempts to by-pass the shallows to the east of Amsterdam. Curiously, the leading maritime city of early-modern Europe had one of the least accessible harbours. Solutions included the Nieuwe Vaart canal in the east of the city, a never-completed canal through the island of Marken (later in this route) , and extra floats under ships. The Noordhollands Kanaal allowed ships to be drawn by teams of horses to Den Helder, on the open North Sea coast. The North Sea Canal, cut straight through the dunes in 1876, finally guaranteed port access.

go straight on to the locks, past the weatherboarded 1920's house with pyramidal roof. Cross the locks using the footbridge across the lock-gates. The construction site is for the North-South metro line, opening 2013.

go past the construction site, along the cycle path, on past the yellow huts. At the end of the path, the ventilation towers of the IJ-tunnel are on your left, there is a basketball court in front. Go left, along the road here, the curving Meeuwen laan.

turn second right, at the green-tiled mosque, into the Valken weg. Continue straight on, past local shops, into the Sperwer laan.

at the end, go straight on: follow the cycle sign for Zunderdorp / Schellingwoude, and continue along the Adelaars weg, alongside the motorway.

Adelaars weg is the line of the former steam tram, north to Purmerend and other small towns (finally closed in the 1950's). The low-density housing was built in the 1920's. This area is only 2 km from the city centre: when the metro opens, the barrier effect of the IJ river will disappear, and gentrification has already begun. The future metro line will run in the central reservation of the motorway.

continue straight on: at a cluster of shops, cross the road (this is also Meeuwen laan). turn left, and then right, following the cycle signs for Zunderdorp / Schellingwoude, into the Nieuwendammer dijk.

pass at first 19th-century and 20th-century houses, the older village core is 1 km on. This street is located on the oldest element of urban structure in Amsterdam-Noord, the mediaeval sea dike.

Nieuwendam is one of the four mediaeval settlements along it, along with Buiksloot, Schellingwoude and Durgerdam. You can see it is a dike, because the alleyways between the houses slope sharply down from the road. Many are typical dike houses - apparently single-storey when seen from the road, but with another level below. The sea was on the right-hand side, at least until the 1870's, when much of the IJ estuary was reclaimed.

continue toward the village core of Nieuwendam. Pass the first church, a Catholic church dating from 1889. Some houses here are weatherboarded, and painted in Zaans groen, a dark green which is the 'regional colour' north of the IJ.

It is typical in Dutch villages, that the oldest churches are protestant. After the Reformation, the Protestants got all the existing churches, and catholic churches were forbidden. The emancipation of Catholics in the 19th century led to a wave of Catholic church building, that continued into the 1920's.

pass Cafe 't Sluisje, and go over the lock (sluice) which gives the cafe its name. It is the reason for the existence of a settlement here: it was originally a fishing village around a small harbour, with access to the canals of the polders behind the dike.

beside nr 331, turn left into Kerkepad, church path. This too is a typical feature of a dike village - a path leading inland to the church. The church (protestant) is surrounded by newer infill.

pass the church: the small graveyard is raised above ground-water level. After this point, the remnants of mediaeval settlement end abruptly. Everything else has been added since the First World War. (The website of the Amsterdams Historisch Museum has an animated map of the growth of the city from 1000 to 2000).

turn right, along the cycle path of the Purmer weg. This area was built in the 1920's, influenced by the Garden City Movement. 200 m on, pass its centre, the roughly hexagonal Purmer plein. Here a local retail function has survived changes in the scale of retailing.

continue along Purmer weg: left and right are streets with weatherboarded entrance portals. Although it counts as architectural heritage, the area is not gentrified as yet.

the road makes a 45-degree turn, into the Volendammer weg: follow the sign for Monnickendam. There is a small open space here, with a monument for the war years.

The Commemoration of the Dead at these monuments, on the evening of 4 May, is symbolic of national unity. This 1950's sentiment is increasingly irrelevant, three generations after the war. The neighbourhood also seems symbolic of a vanished social vision: a land of white Dutch working families, in neat houses with neat gardens, divided by religion, but with a strong sense of national and social identity, and a common past. The vision was not all wrong: remember that most of the world's population still can not afford this standard of housing.

continue along the Volendammer weg. The inter-war built-up area ends here. After the 1920's expansion, came came the worldwide depression, the Second World War, and post-war austerity. There is a park with a lake - and beyond it is where the city started to expand again. Here in Nieuwendam-Noord urban expansion did not restart until the 1960's. If there are many people on the street, you can see that this is a typical immigrant housing area. (The older low-rise housing remains 'white').

cross the IJdoorn laan, the main transverse route through Amsterdam-Noord, and continue along the Volendammer weg.

Many of these 4/5-storey blocks will be demolished in the next 10 to 20 years - not because they are derelict, but because they are cheap. Demolition has already started at the local shopping centre. Replacing low-rent housing with new apartments, replaces low-income tenants with high-income owners. For neoliberal urban theorists, that is an unquestioned advantage.

pass under the viaduct of the ring motorway. Just after it, at the council depot (Stadsdeelwerken) go left onto the cycle path. Continue, between the car park and allotments, to the white wooden footbridge.

as you cycle onto the bridge, the city ends. The ring motorway is the boundary of the built-up area, as planned in the 1920's. (A ring canal for shipping was also planned, but never built). This is probably one of the sharpest urban edges in western Europe.

The polder landscape ahead is free of recent buildings, a high-grade protected landscape. Only very great market and political pressure will erode it - but the first signs are already there. The borough council of Amsterdam-Noord is considering a plan to "open up" the area, by placing the ring motorway in tunnel. After that, sprawl would be almost inevitable.

cycle on into the open polder landscape of Waterland. Pass under the Amsterdam ring power line, into a preserved mediaeval settlement landscape, with church towers indicating the small villages. The sea dike forms the horizon to the right, you can see the yacht masts at Durgerdam. This route now follows an almost straight line towards Monnickendam.

at the next road, follow the signs to Monnickendam, onto Poppendammer gouw. The numbers in circles on the signs are the nodes of a cycle route network, here you go toward node 76.

cycle on along Poppendammer gouw, a low-lying road through grassland. Look back at Amsterdam, for the contrast.

This is classic Netherlands grassland landscape. Until the middle ages, most of the province of Holland was uninhabited peat bog. Reclamation converted it into a dense population concentration, of European significance. The peat here was originally above sea level. It shrank when ploughing exposed it to air, and a sea dike was then necessary (around 1300). Since then, the region has been grassland. Ironically, the grazing cattle, used as an icon of Holland for three centuries, may permanently disappear into sheds in the coming years. It is more economical to harvest hay and bring it to them. But then, some people expect all Dutch commercial agriculture to move to Poland anyway - leaving the government to subsidise the cows, as a 'rural heritage feature'.

about 2,5 km on, pass a small pumping station - a metal silo with a blue pyramid roof. The church of Broek in Waterland is visible left, and right are two clusters of wind turbines - three at Marken, the rest in the Flevo polder.

pass a sign for the pedestrian ferry to the village of Holysloot, and after it another cycle sign: continue toward Monnickendam / node 75. (On the left is the reclaimed lake Belmer meer, visibly lower than the surrounding land)

at the next cycle sign, turn left, following the sign Zuiderwoude / Monnickendam / node 57.

enter the gentrified village of Zuiderwoude, across a wooden lifting bridge, in front of the church. The park benches here (facing the lake), are a resting place for cyclists, on their way from Broek in Waterland to Marken. A sign explains the history of the area: the lakes are the result of early-mediaeval flooding. The village looks idyllic: but remember that without intensive planning control, a sea of Amsterdam suburban houses would have reached it by now. You are 11 km from the Amsterdam Stock Exchange.

turn right at the church, toward node 53, follow the signs for dorpshuis / school.

at the end of the village, the road bends left, follow the sign for Marken. Cycle on toward the wind turbines, and the sea dike, Monnickendam is visible left.

at the end of the road, go up the steps, to the cycle path on the dike. Turn right, toward Marken.

You are now again on the mediaeval sea dike of North Holland and West-Friesland. Beside the steps is a green cast-iron pillar with the number 26: this is one of the dike marker posts, at 1 km intervals. Ahead, to the right, is the island of Marken. This is the shore of the Gouwzee, an arm of the Zuiderzee. The dike lost its primary function when the Afsluitdijk (enclosure dike) was completed at 13.02 on 28 May 1932. Marken was, until the late 19th century, a very poor fishers island, inaccessible during winter storms. It was cut off from the rest of Holland by a flood in 1164 - in the early Middle Ages much land was lost in the region. The sea broke through into the fresh-water lake Almere, forming the Zuiderzee (Zuyder Zee in the old spelling). Marken continued to shrink by flood erosion, until the 1932 enclosure dike reversed the effects of the mediaeval breakthrough - converting the Zuiderzee back into a freshwater lake. In 1959 a dike joined Marken to the mainland, completing its transformation into a heritage tourism destination.

800 m before the wind turbines, the 1959 dike to Marken joins the old sea dike: go straight on. At the three wind turbines, the dike turns north.

The former sea coast is visible, from Amsterdam to the wooded ridge of the Gooi (with the Hilversum TV tower, about 22 km away). The nearer buildings are the centre of the new city of Almere in the Flevo polder (reclaimed 1968). To the north-east, on clear days, you can see the Lelystad telecom tower: most of Lelystad is below the horizon.

cycle along the dike, built as a ring dike for the future polder Markerwaard. That reclamation plan was abandoned, in the face of increasing environmental protest, and also the growing water-sport lobby. Closer to the island, the settlement pattern is visible: raised clusters of houses. At the ring dike of the island, the road dips into the low-lying land: the island is itself a polder (263 hectares).

the parking area for cars and tour coaches marks the start of tourist Marken: cycle left around it, to the wooden Beatrix brug. (The island's only supermarket, Deen, is opposite the car park).

cross the Beatrix brug and follow the only road (at first), then the signs for Haven. At the harbour itself, some original houses have been preserved, now cafes, restaurants, or souvenir shops for heritage tourism - in summer with Marken folk in traditional costume.

turn right and then next right, away from the harbour toward node 52. Pass through a newer section of the village, cross the Juliana brug, and turn left at the signs for 'Kerk' / node 52, to Kerkbuurt (church quarter).

This settlement was founded by monks from the monastery Mariëngaarde in Friesland, around 1235. The monks organised the construction of dikes to protect the island, and built a monastery here on artificially raised ground. In later centuries more of these artificial mounds were added, about 1,5 m above sea level: they are called a 'terp' in Friesland. The largest cluster of houses is around the harbour (Haven), the others are: Kets, Wittewerf, Grotewerf, Rozenwerf, Moeniswerf, and Kerkbuurt. At the terp edges and near the harbour, some houses are built on piles. The island terp cluster on Marken, and the local architecture, are unique in the Netherlands.

pass the church and the small museum, and follow the path out of Kerkbuurt into open land. At the bus stop (bus 111 to Amsterdam), turn right, toward node 52. Use the cycle path.

cycle back towards the main car-park: further on, the island's lighthouse is visible (left). In cold winters it was threatened by kruiend ijs - ice piled up by the wind, see the picture at this Marken site. Also visible are the other clusters of houses: they give a better impression of the original settlement structure.

pass the car-park, back onto the road to the dike. It is slightly curved: beside the road (right) is the never-completed exit canal from Amsterdam, avoiding the Pampus shallows. It was cut in 1825, and later filled in, or silted up - but still visible on satellite images. It may seem strange to cut a canal through an island, when you can sail around it already, but with the technology of the time, that was the best option to avoid the shallows.

pass the wind turbines, and then turn left, following the sign for Durgerdam. Use the cycle path (left). This route now follows the old Waterland sea dike, back to Amsterdam. At first, there is reclaimed land on the 'seaward' side.

1 km on, pass the yacht harbour of Uitdam: the path now runs along the top of the curving dike. At the small village of Uitdam, the cycle path drops back down to the road. This is a farming rather than a fishing village, oriented to the polder, the landward side. After the village, the path climbs back up to the dike.

pass another cast-iron marker for 30 km, it has the inscription Noorder IJ en zee dijk. On the land side are lakes, such as Barnegat near dike post 32, often old dike breach lakes. Some have themselves been reclaimed as a polder within the polder, such as Blijkmeer polder alongside post 33. Note the small ring canal around this former lake.

pass Kinsel meer, the largest of the lakes. Ahead on the seaward side of the dike is the IJdoorn promontory. A new marshy lagoon - "new nature" - was created here, by building a breakwater parallel to the dike. Beside the iron lighthouse tower at the point is a fortified battery of the 19th century defence line Stelling van Amsterdam. This battery guarded the entrance to the IJ estuary.

the cycle path ends, go on into the village of Durgerdam. This is a harbour village, oriented to the seaward side: it still is a yacht harbour, though without the tourist pressure of Marken. Note the local colour tradition: here the houses are white, blue-grey, or cream, rather than in Zaan green.

at the small weatherboarded church (1687), the dike makes a right-angle turn. The new arch bridges to Amsterdam's newest suburb, IJburg, are visible to the south.

100 m before the ring power line, turn right onto the cycle path in the fields. 1 km further on, it passes under the ring motorway, and then under the approach viaduct of the arched Schellingwoude bridge. Follow the cycle signs for Centrum.

after the cycle path ends, you enter another dike village, Schellingwoude. The road is on the dike, the houses are all on the landward side, and there is still some open water, with moored boats. So, this dike settlement has retained its basic structure: but everything else you can see is a 19th-century or 20th-century addition.

at nr 269, turn left to look at the lock complex, along a raised dike road. This 19th-century dike separated the IJ estuary from the Zuider zee. The houses below on the right were built for the staff of the lock complex, Oranje Sluizen. At the locks is a viewing platform (with the anchor), looking toward the apartment blocks of the gentrified eastern dock basins.

turn back from the locks, and continue along the Schellingwouder dijk. Further on, there is reclaimed land in the former estuary (sports fields).

after nr 83, the original dike is cut by a never-completed road project. Go onto the cycle path, turn right and then left, sign for Centrum. Be careful crossing the road here!

cycle on toward Centrum. At first this appears to be a dead-end road, but it turns right to rejoin the old dike road. You are now back in Nieuwendam. On the left some remaining industrial areas: the land looks like parkland, but it is probably heavily polluted. Nevertheless the street is gentrified: Finance Minister Wouter Bos lives here.

cycle into the village core of Nieuwendam. Pass the path where you turned off (on the outward route), and cross once again the lock at Cafe 't Sluisje.

however, instead of retracing the outward route, at nr 185 turn off left, onto the Nieuwendammer kade, and on past a boatyard.

the road turns right, along a lateral canal built during the 1870's reclamation (Zijkanaal K). The road again turns right, at a chemical plant. The 1908 map shows its forerunner here, a small sulphuric acid factory.

the road turns left: continue along Ketjen weg, past the antenna mast (this new link road may not be shown on maps). Turn onto the Van Hasselt weg, through a new warehouse/trading zone.

This was a 1920's canal - older maps show the 'Van Hasselt Kanaal' here. The original plan was to divert shipping through here, allowing reclamation of the river behind Centraal Station, or at least the construction of bridges. The line of the former canal is planned to become an east-west axis, leading to a metro station.

at the roundabout, turn left along the main road, Meeuwen laan. Just after you pass the Dirk van den Broek supermarket (at Haviks laan), turn left across the road.

go under the block on pillars, the street name is Motor wal. This area is one of the earliest of the docklands redevelopments in Amsterdam: it never acquired an upmarket image.

cycle along the Motor wal, a former dock basin. At the end, the whole of the eastern docklands are visible, from the mouth of the Amsterdam-Rhine Canal to Centraal Station. Again, almost all of this was reclaimed in the 19th-century.

turn right along the Noord wal. At the end of Noord wal, use an unnamed footpath along the water's edge: it brings you to the IJplein ferry.

cross by the ferry (every 15 minutes), to the landing stage behind Centraal Station, the end point of this route.