Berg en Dal-aqueduct | Kerstendal and Neuss-Koenenlager
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
320 km
Riding-time estimate
4 h 23
Journey
Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 320 km round trip from Hengstdal - roughly 4 h 23 in the saddle. On the way it passes Wesel-Flüren | Flürener Feld 1, Neuss-Koenenlager and back through Wesel-Flüren | Flürener Feld 1. It crosses from Netherlands into Germany - carry ID and check the toll rules. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Berg en Dal-aqueduct | Kerstendal
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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Berg en Dal-aqueduct | Kerstendal is where the day begins. Next is Wesel-Flüren | Flürener Feld 1.
2. Wesel-Flüren | Flürener Feld 1
The Rhine at Wesel is broad and powerful, the main artery of northwestern Europe, and in Roman times it was the frontier of the empire. The Lower German Limes, listed by UNESCO in 2021, ran along the river from the Alps to the North Sea, with forts, camps and watchtowers guarding the crossings. At Flüren, on the edge of Wesel, archaeologists have found traces of Roman activity on the Flürener Feld, probably a temporary camp or military installation linked to campaigns across the river into Germania. Nothing is visible on the surface, but the site sits on the edge of the Rhine plain, with the river and its floodplain stretching away to the horizon.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Wesel-Flüren | Flürener Feld 1 comes up about 83 km into the recorded legs. Next is Neuss-Koenenlager.
3. Neuss-Koenenlager
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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Berg en Dal-aqueduct | Kerstendal. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Berg en Dal-aqueduct | Kerstendal to Wesel-Flüren | Flürener Feld 1
Berg en Dal-aqueduct | Kerstendal → Wesel-Flüren | Flürener Feld 1 is 83 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Wesel-Flüren | Flürener Feld 1 to Neuss-Koenenlager
Wesel-Flüren | Flürener Feld 1 → Neuss-Koenenlager is 78 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Neuss-Koenenlager to back through Wesel-Flüren | Flürener Feld 1
Neuss-Koenenlager → back through Wesel-Flüren | Flürener Feld 1 is 79 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Wesel-Flüren | Flürener Feld 1 to Berg en Dal-aqueduct | Kerstendal
back through Wesel-Flüren | Flürener Feld 1 → Berg en Dal-aqueduct | Kerstendal is 81 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.