Two faces along the Lower Rhine

Around the Nederrijn you can cycle wonderfully over dikes through varied landscapes. Above the river you cycle along the wooded foot of the Utrechtse Heuvelrug, to the south you come through the grasslands and orchards of the Betuwe.

Blue Room Just after you cross the Nederrijn for the first time, you will pass through the riverbank reserve De Blauwe Kamer. This area is allowed to flood regularly, so that a rugged nature reserve has been created. Here you will see flowery grasslands, willow forests and marshes. The area is an ideal habitat for birds, and the osprey can sometimes be seen there. In the middle of nature are the ruins of the brick factory De Blauwe Kamer. From 1900, around 500,000 bricks were baked here every week for 75 years.

Blossom in the Betuwe South of the Nederrijn you will also drive through a beautiful landscape. Especially if you visit the Betuwe in the spring, because then the surroundings are coloured in a fairytale-like way by the many blossoming fruit trees. Along the river there are many grasslands and old waterways. Every now and then you will see one of the many storks flying over that breed here.

Plantage Willem III Elst is not only the place where the apple Elstar was developed. In the nineteenth century, there were several tobacco plantations on the relatively warm southern slope of the Utrechtse Heuvelrug. Between Elst and Rhenen, you cycle past the former site of Plantage Willem III, which was founded by the Ruys family in 1853. In the early 1900s, tobacco cultivation became less profitable due to crop diseases and the supply of cheaper and better tobacco from abroad. You now cycle between dry grasslands, heathland and forest. In the semi-open landscape, there are still several characteristic barns in which the tobacco leaves were dried.