Reichswald Route

This cycle route largely passes through German territory and introduces you to the moraine landscape between Nijmegen and Kleve. You cycle through different landscapes, from a hilly area with lots of arable farming to vast meadows.

The route leads through the beautiful nature of the Reichswald, a forest area between Gennep, Kleef and Goch, one of the largest nature reserves in the Lower Rhine. In the Middle Ages, the forest was a popular hunting ground for imperial visitors to the Nijmegen Valkhof, but also for the dukes of Gelre and Cleves.

The Reichswald was also part of the battle scene during the First and Second World Wars. In various places there are still remains of bunkers from the First World War in the ground, which are now peacefully used as a shelter and wintering place by animals, such as stone martens, bats and toads.

At the beginning of 1945, an important part of Operation Veritable took place in the forest. This was an Allied campaign with the aim of expelling the German troops from the Reichswald. Deep in the forest, the infantry units fought in bloody hand-to-hand combat for the positions of the trenches. Traces of these trenches can still be seen and are silent witnesses to the bloody battle that took place here. The memory of this lives on in the many monuments and war cemeteries in the area.

During this Reichswald Route you will not only pass through beautiful and impressive nature, but you will also cycle past sights. This takes you through historic Kranenburg, the more than 1,000-year-old church of Zyfflich, the highest point in the region: the Duivelsberg and the old railway line between Nijmegen and Kleve, which is used as a cycling route (by draisine!).