Berg en Dal sits on the side of the Nijmegen ridge, a rare bump of ground in a country built mostly of rivers and polders. The ridge is a push moraine, a pile of gravel and sand shoved up by ice during the last glaciation, and it rises above the Waal and the German border forest of the Reichswald. In Dutch terms it is mountainous, with beech woods, steep lanes and villas set among trees, and the road through Kerstendal winds along the foot of the slope with real if modest bends.
This is also Roman country. Nijmegen was a legionary fortress and then a town, Ulpia Noviomagus, and it is often called the oldest city in the Netherlands. A town of that size needed fresh water, and the springs on the wooded ridge were an obvious source. The aqueduct that the label refers to is part of that Roman water supply, which carried water down from the hills to the settlement, and it is a reminder that these engineers thought about plumbing as seriously as roads and walls.
Close by you will find some surprising places. A museum of African art stands in the woods at Berg en Dal, and a biblical open-air museum, the Heilig Land Stichting, recreates scenes from the lands of the Bible. During the Second World War this area was at the edge of the fighting of Operation Market Garden in 1944, and the bridge at Nijmegen over the Waal, taken in a daring assault, is still remembered with reverence.
The riding is gentle but enjoyable, a rolling run of woodland lanes, with cyclists and walkers as the real owners. Weekends in the nice season are crowded with Dutch and German day-trippers, and speed limits are enforced, so go quietly and enjoy the trees. Autumn is the best time, with beech leaves turning copper, while winter can be icy in shady dips. The Reichswald ride continues into Germany over the border, where the forest road is wider and faster.
Fuel and food are easy: Berg en Dal and the nearby villages have small shops and cafes, while Nijmegen, a few kilometres away, has everything. Try a pancake at one of the forest cafes, the Dutch way of ending a ride.