Two views along the Lower Rhine

Around the Lower Rhine you can cycle along dikes through varied landscapes. Above the river you drive along the wooded foot of the Utrechtse Heuvelrug, to the south you pass through the grasslands and fruit orchards of the Betuwe.

Blue room
Just after crossing the Lower Rhine for the first time, you pass through the De Blauwe Kamer riverbank reserve. This area may flood regularly, creating a rugged nature reserve. Here you will see flower-rich grasslands, willow forests and swamps. The area is an ideal habitat for birds, and the osprey can also sometimes be seen there. The ruins of the De Blauwe Kamer brick factory still stand in the middle of nature. From 1900, approximately 500,000 bricks were baked here every week for 75 years.

Blossom in the Betuwe
You also drive through a beautiful landscape south of the Lower Rhine. Especially if you visit the Betuwe in the spring, because then the area turns magically beautiful due to the many blooming fruit trees. There are many grasslands and old watercourses along the river. Every now and then you see one of the many storks flying over that breed here.

Willem III Plantation
Elst is not only the place where the Elstar apple 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 drive past the former site of Plantation 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 are now cycling here between dry grasslands, heathland and forest. In the semi-open landscape there are still a few characteristic barns where the tobacco leaves were dried.