I started my Netherlands End to End at the Highest Point, down at Drielandenpunt near Maastricht, so – as I’d been a couple of days in Rotterdam – I couldn’t resist going to the Lowest Point today, between there and Gouda. At 6.76m beneath NAP (normaal Amsterdams piel, in other words, essentially, sea level) it’s the lowest point in the Netherlands, and indeed the European Union.
Yes, yes, it depends what you mean by ‘lowest point’. The previous day I’d cycled well below that when I rode through the Benelux Tunnel south of Rotterdam, dipping down to around -28m. And if I’d been a miner in the 1970s at Emma Mine not far from Heerlen, I could have descended to -980m.
But obviously we want an outdoor low point we can cycle to and stroll around, and this spot on the outskirts of Nieuwekerk aan den IJssel has been determined by the Dutch equivalent of the Ordnance Survey as the most bottomest genuine bit of the country with such requirements in mind.
Getting there was, of course, a stress-free and pleasant cycle out through Rotterdam’s suburbs and lakesy woods on fabulous bike paths. The lowest-point monument – overlooking the busy A20 motorway that runs parallel to the country lane I rode to get here – is an imposing affair, with the prosaic backdrop of a lorry depot.
The land here got so low when the large lake of Zuidplas – formed as a result of decades of peat dredging – was drained in 1841 to create Zuidplaspolder. In 1986 the ‘height’ of this spot was deemed to be 6.74m under sea level (recently fixed at 6.76m), and the monument was installed in 1995, when its status as the national nadir was confirmed.
We have lorry company’s founder, BC Van Vliet Senior, to thank for the monument, by the way. His connection with another famous Van Vliet – Don, aka Captain Beefheart – is not known at this time.
Pleased with my collection of the Netherlands’ Highest, Lowest, Central, Furthest North, and Tri, Points, I just had time to gather another trophy-visit – by having Gouda for lunch in Gouda, up the road, in the town’s main square – before heading to Amsterdam tonight and, tomorrow, home.
It’s been a trip with a great deal of point, in every sense.