Near the Dutch border, where the Rhine flows through wide meadows and dyked farmland, the small town of Kalkar holds a surprising amount of history. The Kalkarberg is a low rise near Altkalkar, and on it stood the Roman fort of Burginatium, one of the posts along the Lower German Limes, now part of the UNESCO-listed Frontiers of the Roman Empire. The rise would have given a valuable view over the river plain, and the fort controlled the road between Xanten and Nijmegen. Today it is fields and trees, but the shape of the land still hints at the old fortification.
Kalkar itself is a medieval market town of fourteen thousand people with a fine market square and a brick town hall. The church of St. Nicolai houses an exceptional collection of late Gothic carved altars, made by local workshops when Kalkar was prosperous from cloth and trade. It is one of the treasures of the Lower Rhine, and even if you are not a church person, the detail in the carvings is extraordinary.
There is also a more recent curiosity. On the edge of town stands a fast-breeder nuclear reactor that was completed but never operated. After years of controversy, it was sold and turned into an amusement park, Wunderland Kalkar, with a climbing wall on the cooling tower. It is a strange and very German monument to the politics of the 1980s and 1990s.
For riders, the area is flat and open, with straight roads, wind and wide skies. The dyke roads along the Rhine are narrow and quiet, and give views over the river with barges moving slowly. Watch out for cyclists and sheep. Fuel and food are easy in Kalkar, and nearby Xanten, with its Roman archaeological park and cathedral, makes a good next stop. Spring, with geese on the meadows, and autumn, when tens of thousands of Arctic geese winter on the Lower Rhine, are especially atmospheric times to visit.