Water is the oldest luxury a city can have, and Roman Nijmegen insisted on it. A legion and a town of thousands needed clean drinking water, and the springs in the foothills at the edge of the plateau, near what is now Berg en Dal, provided it. The Romans built an aqueduct to carry it down to the fortress, a gently sloping channel which ran for several kilometres. Most of it was buried or built at ground level, so the remains are traces in the soil rather than tall arches, and archaeologists have followed it by digging and mapping, with a few sections uncovered and marked. It is one of the few places in the Netherlands where you can walk the line of a Roman water supply, and it forms part of the Lower German Limes on the UNESCO list.
The Cortendijk part sits in a landscape that makes the engineering feel sensible. At the foot of the wooded hills the springs still rise, and the land slopes gently down to the plain. The hills are the push moraine left by the glaciers of the last Ice Age, and the springs come from the water that percolates through the sandy slopes. Roman engineers simply used what nature had arranged.
The riding here is the Dutch version of hill country: low, wooded ridges, small climbing roads and sunken lanes, with views toward the Rhine delta. Villages like Berg en Dal have large villas set among beech trees, a legacy of the nineteenth-century rich who came to escape the city. The Afrika Museum there is one of the most unusual in the country. Roads are narrow and signed with low speed limits, and there is a constant flow of cyclists, especially at weekends.
Fuel and food are best found in Nijmegen, a short ride away, although the villages have cafes and small shops. Local fare includes asparagus in spring, and pancakes in any season.
If you want to stretch the day, the Ooijpolder to the north has bird life and wide views, and the woods of Groesbeek to the south are good for quiet lanes. Spring and autumn are the best times, with leaf colours in October, and the rain can come suddenly, so pack a waterproof.