Dormagen and Krefeld-Gellep

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Dormagen

   Dormagen is not the sort of place that ends up on postcards, and it does not try to be. It is a working town of some sixty thousand on the left bank of the Rhine between Cologne and Düsseldorf, dominated on its northern side by a huge chemical park whose pipes and stacks glow at night. Yet the name itself comes from Roman times: Durnomagus was a fort on the Lower German Limes, the Rhine frontier that UNESCO listed in 2021, and a cavalry unit was stationed here to patrol the river and the road along it.

   Read the complete Dormagen write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Dormagen is where the day begins. Next is Neuss-Koenenlager.

2. 2. 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.

   Read the complete Neuss-Koenenlager write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Neuss-Koenenlager comes up about 16 km into the recorded legs. Next is Krefeld-Gellep.

3. 3. Krefeld-Gellep

   Most people pass Krefeld-Gellep without a second thought, because the view is dominated by the harbour of Uerdingen, chemical works and Rhine barges. Yet this is one of the most important Roman and early medieval sites on the Lower Rhine. The Roman fort here was called Gelduba, and it belongs to the Lower German Limes, the frontier along the river that UNESCO recognised in 2021. Tacitus mentions Gelduba in his account of the Batavian revolt of 69 and 70 AD, when legions and rebels fought around the camp, and archaeologists have found traces of that violence in the ground.

   Read the complete Krefeld-Gellep write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 48 km into the recorded legs you reach Krefeld-Gellep. Next is back through Neuss-Koenenlager.

4. 4. back through Neuss-Koenenlager

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Neuss-Koenenlager write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Neuss-Koenenlager, late in the day. Next is Dormagen.

5. 5. Dormagen

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Dormagen write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Dormagen. That is the ride.