Mheer, Margraten and Gulpen

Climbing, descending, climbing... and descending again. The hilly Limburg is a challenge for cyclists, but the reward is certainly worth it. Work your way up to peaks and plunge into valleys, discovering one landmark after another in history. This cycle tour leads around the rolling landscape of the Sint Jansbos. This slope forest turns into the Biebosch on the northwest side. You will pass many small church villages, where you get a good feeling of the outdoors in Limburg. One of these is Margraten, which was honored in 2005 with a visit by Queen Beatrix and the then American president George W. Bush. They visited the war cemetery there. Gulpen is also popular; The Nacht van Gulpen is organized here once a year in June: a 70-kilometre walking tour that attracts hundreds of participants. But you will probably be most impressed by the historic core of Mheer, which will probably be preserved as a protected village view. With 39 national monuments, there is a lot to see, such as Mheer Castle. It is a castle with four wings and a U-shaped lower court. The small courtyard within the four wings is accessible via a footbridge over a dry canal. The west wing is the oldest part of the castle; this part of the castle was built in the early fourteenth century. The north wing was built at the end of the same century and the east wing, which has a robust round tower on top, dates from the fifteenth century. The tower was built on foundations from the late eleventh century. The south wing was built around 1570 and the current castle was complete. Above the entrance gate of the outer bailey you will see a bluestone mezekouw. Mheer Castle is the only castle in the Netherlands with a so-called pitch nose. You will also pass two historic water mills. On the edge of the town of Gulpen you can see the Neubourger mill on the stream of the same name. This mill is also called the Roex Mill. It is a medium-speed watermill that was installed in 1712 to grind paper. Until 1840, with the exception of the period 1809-1816, the mill ground clothing into pulp, from which paper was manually made. In 1853 it was decided to convert the mill into a grain mill, in which a turbine with iron movement was installed in 1907. Further modernization was carried out in 1930, when an electric motor was installed in the mill. A restaurant and pancake house is located in the current national monument. Finally, you will pass Groenendael Castle and the Groenendaalsmolen. Originally the Groenendaalsmolen, which grinds on the water of the Gulp near Euverem, belonged to Groenendaal Castle. The exact year of construction is unknown, but what we do know is that the watermill was used to grind corn and was also called the"Groenendalsmolen\\\". In 1871, the mill and associated house had fallen into such disrepair that they were demolished and rebuilt. A grim fact is that in 1939 an eighteen-year-old maid was grabbed by a rotating axle. His injuries were so serious that he died. The mill was completely converted into a house in 1966, thus losing its function as a flour mill. Because the mill is privately inhabited, it cannot be visited.