Roermond, Park de Meinweg and Sint Odiliënberg

De Meinweg National Park consists of a terraced landscape of approximately eighteen square kilometers, which is incredibly rare in the Netherlands. The erosion of the waters of the Maas and the Rhine has taken tens of thousands of years to form the unique landscape here. There are large differences in height between the various plateaus, with the highest point being approximately 80 meters above sea level. You will encounter oak-birch forests, swamp forests, and dry and wet heathland with fens and stream valleys. Plants such as round sundew, small sundew, common sundew, yellow birch, gale and bell gentian grow on the heath. Wild animals are there too. Foxes, stoats, beech martens and polecats hunt between the trees and on the heath, while deer and wild boars dart between the bushes. Sixty hundred bird species live in the area, but the area is best known for the large number of reptiles and amphibians. You will encounter sunbathing vipers and sand lizards, see the smooth snake, catch a glimpse of rarer specimens such as the pond frog, the garlic toad, the great crested newt or see one of the fifty butterflies or one of the 340 species of moths. The route takes you past two watermills in the village of Vlodrop. The first, the Gitstappermolen, was built around 1377. The center mill has two pairs of grinding stones and had a wooden building until 1750. It was demolished and a stone building with two paddle wheels was built in its place. One of them was used to grind grain, the other to store oil. The oil mill was removed around 1918, the other mill was restored in 1988. The other water mill is the Vlodropper mill, which runs on the water power of the Rothenbach. In 1834 the mill was built as an undershot mill that ground oil and corn. In 1879 a fire broke out in the mill and it was decided not to replace the oil mill. The flour mill was rebuilt as a turbine mill. The milling company was closed down in 1974.