Berg en Dal-aqueduct | Mariënboom and Moers-Asberg
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
195 km
Riding-time estimate
3 h 24
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.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
195 km from Hengstdal to Hengstdal, about 3 h 24 of riding. On the way it passes Till, Xanten-CUT, Moers-Asberg and back through Xanten-CUT. It crosses from Netherlands into Germany - carry ID and check the toll rules. The line favours views over speed.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Berg en Dal-aqueduct | Mariënboom
The hills south-east of Nijmegen have a second history that has nothing to do with Rome. On Sunday 17 September 1944, thousands of American paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division landed on the heath and fields around Groesbeek, as part of Operation Market Garden, to seize the high ground and the bridges over the Maas and Waal. They succeeded in many things, but the push to Arnhem failed, and the front line stayed near here through a bitter winter. Nijmegen was liberated only partially, and fighting went on across the Reichswald forest just over the German border until the spring of 1945. The National Liberation Museum in Groesbeek tells the story, and the Canadian War Cemetery, with over two thousand graves, set among beeches, is one of the most moving places in the area.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Berg en Dal-aqueduct | Mariënboom is where the day begins. Next is Till.
2. Till
The Lower Rhine around Kalkar and Kleve is wide, flat country: green polders, willows along drainage ditches, brick farmhouses and church spires visible for miles. Till is a small village here, part of Bedburg-Hau, just off the Rhine embankments between Kalkar and Kleve, with Emmerich across the river. It lies close to the line of the Roman frontier, the Lower German Limes, which followed the Rhine to the North Sea.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Till comes up about 34 km into the recorded legs. Next is Xanten-CUT.
3. Xanten-CUT
Xanten is an old Roman town that still behaves like a small, cosy market town on the Lower Rhine, and right next to it lies one of the largest archaeological parks in Germany. Colonia Ulpia Traiana, CUT for short, was founded around AD 100 under the emperor Trajan, who gave it the rank of a colonia and his family name. At its height it was a walled city of several thousand people, the second most important Roman city in the province of Lower Germany after Cologne.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 56 km into the recorded legs you reach Xanten-CUT. Next is Moers-Asberg.
4. Moers-Asberg
Asberg is a quiet district on the southern edge of Moers, on the left bank of the Lower Rhine, and beneath its houses and fields lies the Roman fort of Asciburgium, one of the earliest military bases on the Rhine frontier. It was founded around the time of the emperor Augustus or soon after, garrisoned by cavalry and auxiliary troops, and abandoned toward the end of the first century, when the Rhine shifted its course and moved away from the fort. The site is now part of the Lower German Limes UNESCO site, and although there is little to see above ground, information boards and outlines help you imagine the scene.