A beautiful route past the stadiums of FC Utrecht, AFC Ajax and Feyenoord.
Football is war. Is that why the Kromhout barracks, from which the Royal Netherlands Army is controlled, is located opposite the Galgenwaard stadium in Utrecht? But the stadium “De Galg” can accommodate 23,750 spectators, and around three thousand men and women work on the barracks grounds. So football seems more popular than war.

Galgenwaard sounds nasty, like medieval public hangings, but there is no evidence for that. The land on which the FC Utrecht stadium now stands has been used peacefully for agriculture and horticulture for centuries.
Open terrain, which is why the then Ministry of War had difficulty building the stadium in the 1930s. Because that was seen as a “field-obstructing building” within the fortification belt of Utrecht. And entirely in line with Dutch defense strategy, from 1982 onwards, canals around the playing field made it impossible for spectators to enter the playing field of Nieuw Galgenwaard. Open terrain, with a strategic water feature here and there. The landscape outside the built-up area, immediately after the stadium, also looks like this. Sports fields alternate with meadows and patches of forest. The Kromhout barracks was built on the remains of the former Vossegat fort, which was part of the Dutch Waterline. More of those old forts appear along the route. Fort Ruigenhoek is located on an island with monumental trees and dense shrubs, built at the end of the nineteenth century to defend the Ruigenhoeksedijk if a Spaniard, French, British, German or other enemy should dare to attack our low country by the sea.
Westbroek, Oud-Maarsseveen, and Tienhoven glide by. Here and there, narrow strips of land lie parallel to the road in the water. On these so-called legakkers there are some bushes, trees and here and there a house, only accessible via a revolving bridge that makes such a house a difficult fortress to conquer. The peat area continues to sink due to dehydration and then the water rises again.

Typical of the Netherlands Waterland is the large number of water lines that were intended to protect our property and the honor of our womenfolk. Over the centuries, as many as ten such lines used the flooded earth tactic: the use of flooding to halt an enemy advance.
One of the most beautiful waterlines in our country is located around Amsterdam. The Defense Line of Amsterdam is a ring of 45 forts around the capital. The plan for this was already devised in 1805, but the protective ring of fortifications and flood areas around the capital was only constructed from 1880 onwards. The forts are all located about fifteen to twenty kilometers from the center of Amsterdam. The Defense Line was intended to be the last refuge of the Dutch army when all other lines, including the New Dutch Waterline, had been conquered by the enemy in wartime.

Along the Vecht and its surroundings there are capital buildings that today can only be financed by football heroes and members of the KNVB Politburo. Villas that the average Jan or Jantien Modaal can only dream of while he or she drives past them on his motorcycle. Nieuwersluis has a protected villagescape, part of the old earthen defense wall is still intact. Fort and fortress stand side by side. The fort dates back to the war against the Spanish and stopped the advancing French armies in 1672. It could withstand a long siege, because there were farms within the fort walls and there was of course enough water.
The route changes from Vechtoever in Nieuwersluis and meanders further north to that beautiful city built on stilts. But before that happens, Loenen and Abcoude are still on the route. Loenersloot Castle used to stand in the middle of waste, empty and wet grounds. Now it is an oasis in the hustle and bustle of the 21st century Randstad. Just like the fort of Abcoude, the first land fort of the Defense Line of Amsterdam. Due to the invention of the high-explosive grenade, the walls of those forts no longer offered sufficient protection after the First World War, making them obsolete as defensive objects.

The name says it all. The Arena: the stage where battles are fought in front of tens of thousands of spectators. If football is war, then the stadiums outside arenas are also fortresses for the respective football clubs. And just like fortresses, football stadiums also become outdated at some point. In 1996, the new Amsterdam stadium took over the task of the old De Meer. Now De Arena is the largest stadium in the Netherlands with a capacity of 55,865. Okay: it is not only the home of Amsterdam's Ajax, but also of the Dutch national team, if national pride has to be fought for again at international level. The roof can be closed in bad weather and the Arena generates all the necessary electricity itself with solar energy. In 2018, the name was changed to Johan Cruijff Arena, in tribute to the most famous Dutch football general ever.
The Amsterdam ArenA is figuratively speaking the center of the stadium tour. After that, it is important to leave the urban traffic woes of Amsterdam behind you as quickly as possible. Fortunately, since the stadium is located on the southern edge of the city, this will soon be possible.

Ouderkerk aan de Amstel glides past, a textbook example of the Dutch towns on the route that have largely retained their charm of yesteryear. There is a narrow road along the Waver from Ouderkerk aan de Amstel, you have to be careful of packs of racing cyclists here and every now and then you have to pull over to give way to an agricultural machine or truck. The Amsteldijk meanders along the Amstel to Uithoorn and the following lakes along the route, water that gives this tour a typically Dutch character. The use of that water, without the help of bunkers and forts, is also typically Dutch to halt any enemy advance. There is also another fort along the Waver. Where Amstel and Oude Waver meet, Fort Waver-Amstel rises above the polder land, also part of the 135 kilometer circle of the Defense Line of Amsterdam. A few crankshaft turns further on, near Uithoorn is the Fort aan de Dreacht, to defend the accesses that formed the Drecht and the Kromme Mijdrecht with their dikes running along them.

In South Holland, the forts are slowly but surely disappearing from view. However, more and more companies appear to be lying along the road. Would it be true, the saying goes that money is earned in Rotterdam and spent in Amsterdam? After the war, Rotterdam developed as the city of workers, the hard workers. The city where shirts are already sold with their sleeves rolled up. In the reconstruction years after the war, the hard work paid off: Rotterdam significantly surpassed Amsterdam economically: a larger port, the first metro...

Below Gouda the route loosely follows the course of the Hollandsche IJssel, an old and therefore meandering river. There were many brick factories that used clay from the floodplains for the production of bricks. There was already a brick oven near Gouderak in 1338, and in 1543 there were eight. The IJsselstones produced were used for the construction of quay walls and churches, but also for defense works such as castles, city walls and strongholds. The Dorpsstraat runs on top of the dike, narrow between the houses of Gouderak, but then offers a view of the water on the right and farms and meadows on the left.
After Ouderkerk aan de Amstel, the route now reaches Ouderkerk aan den IJssel. There the route turns left over the Schaapjeszijde, an extremely narrow and straight road between ditches and meadows. Holland through and through. Just like the windmills of Kinderdijk, on the other side of the Lek, where a ferry sails from Krimpen aan de Lek. After the typical Dutch windmill spectacle, the Oost-Kinderdijk continues along the Noord. The route continues through Alblasserdam and then follows the winding course of the Alblas through the flat polder land. A rural stage follows in the built-up areas of Dordrecht and Zwijndrecht before the route takes you via Barendrecht to the city center of Rotterdam.

Dutch football clubs fight each other like mercenary armies, but when FC Oranje has to play against a foreign country, the hatchet is temporarily buried and smoke comes out of the peace pipe. Then 010, 020, 030 and others stand shoulder to shoulder in a sea of orange-colored outfits and the same battle song sounds from all throats: Go, Holland go....
In another setting, such a belligerent song would be heavily criticized. But football is sacred and then non-Randstad residents accept that Holland apparently stands for the whole of the Netherlands, which would otherwise provoke intense indignation. In war and in football, everything is allowed. And the lion in football boots dares to take on the whole world. Bread and circuses to keep the people happy. Roman rulers distributed free grain to the citizens of Rome and organized gladiator fights in the arenas. The expression comes from the Roman writer Juvenal (ca. 60-140 AD). He referred to free food distributions and free performances in the circus or in the amphitheater. He meant that the Roman people had blinders on to the decline of the Roman Empire. As long as bread was distributed and games were organized, the people were satisfied and did not look further than their noses. Football as the opiate of the people.

But who should deny his or her pleasure? Some people like to rock with thousands of like-minded people in the stands, others prefer to ride their motorcycle on the beautiful roads that can still be found in densely populated and built-up Holland, as our stadium tour proves. 030, 020, 010… start your engines.

Go Holland go. The tones of this battle song mingle with the wind. If football is war, then the stadiums outside arenas are also fortresses for the respective football clubs. On to the football fortress of Rotterdam! Of the three stadiums on this tour, De Kuip has the most peaceful name. But unlike the stadiums of Utrecht and Amsterdam, the Feijenoord fortress is not on the edge of the city, but in the middle of it. Rotterdam is the city of workers, of daring construction projects. Take the construction of the Willemsspoortunnel, which was no less than eight meters underground. An absolute record. The reconstruction after 1945 is also a textbook example, of course. But Rotterdam is also an old city. The RottaNova residential complex is being built at the Markthal on Blaak. Named after the river Rotte, after which Rotterdam is named again. A thousand years ago a settlement was founded on this spot: Rotta. It consisted of farms on mounds. But there were a lot of floods. The Rotters got tired of constantly raising the ceiling. Dikes were then built, and in 1270 a dam was built in the river. Traces of that dam, and the associated locks, were found meters below street level. Above this will be the new mega residential complex RottaNova, made by the same construction company that also built De Kuip. A barracks will be built on a fort, a residential tower fortress on a dam.
Completely in line with Rotterdam's no-nonsense approach, De Kuip was built in record time. Ten months after the first pile was driven, the stadium was completed on July 23, 1936. The historic Feijenoord Stadium in Rotterdam was drastically outdated in 1994 and was in need of a total renovation. The completely renovated Kuip was officially opened by Prince Willem Alexander on November 16, 1994, after eight intensive months of construction. In total, the stadium can accommodate 47,500 spectators during football matches. Just like the Arena, De Kuip is more than a football arena, world-class artists have been performing in both stadiums for decades.

There must be differences and similarities. There has always been rivalry between the football clubs Adam and Rodam and their supporters. The club from the east of there, FC Utrecht, wisely stays out of this.
Real wars usually don't happen in such quick succession. The warring parties need time to lick their wounds and repair the damage. But football continues as usual, every year. The Classic is called the match that has been played again and again between Ajax and Feijenoord since 1921.