On the southern edge of Neuss, in a residential area near the Rhine, lies one of the most important Roman military sites in Germany, though you would hardly know it from the surface. This was Novaesium, a legionary fortress that housed thousands of soldiers for much of the first century, and it is known as the Koenenlager after Constantin Koenen, the local archaeologist who excavated it systematically in the late nineteenth century. His work revealed the layout of an entire legionary camp, with headquarters, barracks, granaries and a hospital, and it became a model for Roman military archaeology. The site is part of the Lower German Limes, listed by UNESCO in 2021.
Today most of the fortress lies under houses and gardens, with a few information boards and markers, but the Clemens Sels Museum in the town centre displays finds from the excavations, including weapons, pottery and jewellery. Neuss itself is one of the oldest cities in Germany, founded in Roman times, and its old town has a Romanesque basilica dedicated to St Quirinus, a fine market square and remnants of medieval walls. The Rhine harbour, one of the largest inland ports in Europe, keeps the town busy.
Riding around Neuss means dealing with urban traffic, motorways and industrial areas, as it sits right across the river from Düsseldorf in one of the most densely populated parts of Germany. Speed cameras are frequent, and traffic jams are common at rush hours. Still, the Rhine meadows offer pleasant, flat riding along the dykes and through villages, and the area south towards Dormagen and Zons has quiet lanes. For hills and curves, head into the Bergisches Land on the other side of the Rhine or to the Eifel for a longer day out.
Neuss has everything a rider needs in the way of pumps and places to eat. The local brewery tradition includes Altbier, a dark top-fermented beer also brewed in Düsseldorf, served in small glasses. Try a Rhenish speciality such as Sauerbraten, marinated pot roast with red cabbage and potato dumplings, or a snack of Halve Hahn, a rye roll with a thick slice of cheese, which despite its name contains no chicken at all.