CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
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 207 km round trip from Nijmegen - roughly 4 h 17 in the saddle. On the way it passes Till, Fort Pannerden, Kalkar-Kalkarberg and back through Fort Pannerden. It crosses from Netherlands into Germany - carry ID and check the toll rules.
Nijmegen calls itself the oldest city in the Netherlands, and it has a good case. The Romans founded a military camp on the hill here in the last years BC, and a town followed, which was given full town rights around AD 100. Many centuries later, on the same hill by the Waal, Charlemagne built a palace, the Valkhof, and Frederick Barbarossa rebuilt it in the twelfth century as a magnificent imperial residence. Little survives except for a chapel and a ruined apse, but the Valkhofpark, with its terraced slopes and view across the river, still marks the site of one of the most important places in the medieval empire.
Read the complete Nijmegen-Valkhof area | Valkhofpark write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Nijmegen-Valkhof area | Valkhofpark is where the day begins. Next is 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.
Read the complete Till write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Till comes up about 32 km into the recorded legs. Next is Fort Pannerden.
Right where the Rhine enters the Netherlands and splits in two, the Dutch put a fort. Fort Pannerden was built around 1870 at the point where the river divides into the Waal, flowing west toward Nijmegen and Rotterdam, and the Pannerdens Kanaal, which feeds the Nederrijn and the IJssel. Control the split, and you control how much water goes where, which in a country defended by deliberate flooding mattered enormously. The fort, a low, heavy brick and earth structure surrounded by a moat, guarded the dykes and sluices that could send water into the defensive lines further west. It is counted among the Dutch Water Defence Lines listed by UNESCO.
Read the complete Fort Pannerden write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 63 km into the recorded legs you reach Fort Pannerden. Next is Kalkar-Kalkarberg.
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.
Read the complete Kalkar-Kalkarberg write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kalkar-Kalkarberg, about halfway. Next is back through Fort Pannerden.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort Pannerden write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fort Pannerden sits at 125 km, about halfway. Next is back through Till.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Till write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Till comes up about 174 km into the recorded legs. Next is Nijmegen-Valkhof area | Valkhofpark.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Nijmegen-Valkhof area | Valkhofpark write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Nijmegen-Valkhof area | Valkhofpark closes the day.
Nijmegen-Valkhof area | Valkhofpark → Till is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Till → Fort Pannerden is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort Pannerden → Kalkar-Kalkarberg is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kalkar-Kalkarberg → back through Fort Pannerden is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fort Pannerden → back through Till is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Till → Nijmegen-Valkhof area | Valkhofpark is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.