Along the water, through nature in the Boxmeer area

Boxmeer is located on the left bank of the Maas and is surrounded by beautiful meadows and nature reserves. It is wonderful to cycle through the vast landscape or along the banks of the Maas. The route first introduces you to the unique landscape of the Maasheggen and De Maasduinen National Park. The Maasheggen form a unique landscape in Western Europe. Nowhere else will you find so many hawthorns and blackthorns together. Thanks to human intervention, these shrubs grow into each other and form an impenetrable hedge that meanders through the landscape like a ribbon, just like the nearby Meuse. The spiky hedges served as field boundaries, gave the animals shelter from the wind and provided wood for making tools. This'weaving\\\' of hedges already existed in Roman times: Julius Caesar described his annoyance about it, it took him a lot of effort to pass these green walls with his army. Only around Boxmeer have many centuries-old hedges been preserved. At Vierlingsbeek you cross the Maas to Bergen, after which you bend a little later to another beautiful old landscape: the Maasduinen National Park. It may not be obvious, the combination of dunes and Limburg. But our southernmost province does have them, even if they are river dunes. These sand hills emerged at the end of the last ice age, when the Rhine and Meuse left behind large amounts of sand and clay. During dry periods, the west wind blew the river sand into drifting dunes. These dunes are almost all covered with forest, which was the only way to protect the surrounding fields and meadows from drifting grains of sand. In addition to rolling forests, you also drive through heathland and past fens. In this nature reserve you will pass two more striking buildings. The first is the ruins of Bleijenbeek Castle. In February 1945, this castle was destroyed by an RAF bombing raid. The ruins have been neglected ever since. Bleijenbeek Castle must have been built at the end of the fourteenth century: its western predecessor was probably engulfed by the Maas. The castle's most famous owner was the infamous sixteenth-century general Maarten Schenck van Nijdeggen who served both warring parties during the Eighty Years' War. A little later you drive past the Nooit Gedacht belt mill. Past Afferden you cycle through the low floodplains of the eastern bank of the Maas. In the village of Heijen you will pass the Heyen castle from the sixteenth century. The Maas functioned as friend and enemy: the canals made the fortress almost impregnable, but the water also often flooded the area, so that the castle was cut off from the outside world. During the Eighty Years' War, the Spanish-minded scoutmaster Thomas de Hodaye escaped through the window in the prison room. He was helped by his lover: she had rowed across the Maas to give him the necessary tools. In Gennep you cross the Maas again, after which you drive through the landscape of the Maasheggen back to Boxmeer. Here you can take a trip to Boxmeer Castle, where the Boxmeer Castle Museum is located in the former cellar.