Fruit and tobacco: Betuwe and Utrechtse Heuvelrug

Your route starts at Residence Rhenen. From Rhenen you can take a nice bike ride over the Utrechtse Heuvelrug, past special historical discoveries. You can also swing into the Neder-Betuwe along the banks of the Neder-Rijn. From Rhenen you first set course for the Utrechtse Heuvelrug. In the nineteenth century there were several tobacco plantations here on the relatively warm southern slope, such as Plantage Willem III. This plantation was founded in 1853, but in the early 1900s tobacco cultivation was already less profitable. In the half-open landscape there are still a few characteristic barns in which the tobacco leaves were dried. You wind further over the Utrechtse Heuvelrug and drive via the nice Leersum to Amerongen with the castle of the same name. You cycle back along the south bank of the Neder-Rhine, through the Neder-Betuwe, known for its fruit growers.