Surprising Kerkrade

In the border region of Kerkrade you drive through a surprisingly beautiful area of green hills, cozy villages and old sights. Along the way you will find enough places to enjoy a local specialty.

Rimburg Castle
In Rimburg you will pass the Trinity Church, a beautiful national monument from 1726. A little later you will cross the Worm, a tributary of the Roer that forms part of the Dutch-German border. On the water are the eighteenth-century Rimburgermolen and Rimburg Castle, a fortress that originally dates from the twelfth century. Historically, these two buildings belong to Rimburg, but since 1816 they have been on German territory.

Strijthagerbeek valley
The route also takes you through several small-scale nature reserves. In the valley of the Broicher beek you will see swamp forests and moist flowery meadows. It is nice and quiet cycling here in this bird-rich area. The Strijthagerbeekdal in Kerkrade is a beautiful landscape where you will see a sixteenth-century castle, among other things. Megaland is also located here, where Pinkpop takes place every year.

Eurode
The area through which this route takes you is also called Eurode. This is the name of an official partnership between the Dutch Kerkrade and the German Herzogenrath. Eurode has existed since 1991, but actually has a much longer history. Since the twelfth century, Kerkrade and Herzogenrath have formed one city. The inhabitants spoke the same dialect (Ripuarisch, a German variant of Limburgish), shared the same culture and had many family ties. After Napoleon's defeat, Kerkrade was added to Limburg in 1815. However, Herzogenrath fell into Prussian hands. Incidentally, Kerkrade is one of the few places in the Netherlands where Ripuarisch can still be heard.