Walking along the German line and through the forests around Heijen

Just outside Gennep you can go for a lovely walk. This route takes you through the Genneperheide, the Heijense Bossen and over the Duits Lijntje, a former railway line.

Genneperheide
Before you set off, you can have a drink and a bite to eat at Old Inn, a cosy café with a Burgundian feel. From here you can walk straight into the Genneperheide, a gently rolling nature reserve that lies on an old river dune of the Maas. The winding path takes you through a coniferous forest that was planted around 1930 for mining. It is wonderfully peaceful to walk here between the fragrant Scots pines.

Seven Morning Ivy
Further on you walk into the Heijense Bossen, where you will find more variety between deciduous and coniferous trees. At the edge of the forest you can look out over the fields for a while, before you walk back onto the Genneperheide. A NATO camp used to be here, now you can enjoy the silence at the De Zeven Morgensiep fen. The last part of the route you walk over the Duits Lijntje, the former railway line between Boxtel and the German Wesel.

German Line
The German Line was opened in 1873 by the North Brabant German Railway Company (NBDS). With this railway line they wanted to create a direct, and therefore shorter, connection between the seaports of Antwerp and Rotterdam and the German hinterland. Until 1910 this railway line played a role in the transport of goods and people between London, Berlin and even further east into Russia. Until 1914 members of the royal families of England, Wales, Prussia and the Russian Tsar family used this railway connection to travel to each other. The NBDS went bankrupt due to the First World War, after which the NS continued to operate the line. Passenger transport was stopped in 1950, freight transport in 2004.