Round border area at Lommel and Valkenswaard

Your route starts at Grandcafé Markt 14. From here you make a nice round through the border area. At Junction 228 you will pass Joe\\\'s Bridge. The bridge served as a springboard for the ground offensive of Operation Market Garden: the British XXXth Army Corps entered the Netherlands here on 17 September 1944. The bridge had been captured from the Germans by the Irish Guards a week earlier. Despite German counter-attacks, they held out. and the bridge was named after their commander: JOE Vandeleur. The Achelse Kluis is a Trappist abbey. This has been a religious site for centuries. In 1656 a border chapel was built near here. Bring a beer from the brewery! In the adjacent Leenderbos you can still find a number of old'kampkes\\\', old heathland.