NR669: Kleve-Europaradbahn-Nijmegen-Düffel-Kleve

Along the Europa RadBahn from Kleve via Kranenburg and Groesbeek to Nijmegen and back through the Düffel to Kleve

Between the municipalities in the German-Dutch border area, there are many connections on political, economic and cultural levels. A new bond that connects people on both sides of this border is the Europa RadBahn, which links the German town of Kleve with the Dutch city of Nijmegen. On the German side, NRW's currently longest fast cycling route (11 km) was completed in July 2019 after only two and a half years of planning and implementation. The route is approximately 30 km long in total and connects the two university locations Kleve and Nijmegen.

The Europa RadBahn starts at the Kleve DB train station, but due to better parking facilities, we start our tour near the draisine station. We are here on the route of the former Rheinische Bahn, which once connected Duisburg with Kleve and was later extended via Kranenburg and Groesbeek to Nijmegen. After the route fell into a deep sleep in the 1960s, the Grenzland Draisine started operating in 2008 between Kleve, Kranenburg and Groesbeek. Whereas noisy steam engines used to run along this line, nowadays one rides almost silently on muscle-powered bicycle draisines through a varied and green landscape. Next to the railway bed of the Grenzland Draisine now runs the Europa RadBahn route. On this fast cycle path, cyclists have absolute priority. Before road crossings, cyclists are detected early by sensors and the traffic lights are generally turned green in time for them.

This way, we make quick progress and soon reach the Kranenburg draisine station. Here we briefly leave the route to look at the picturesque historic town center of this small municipality. Shortly afterwards we reach the border and soon after the Dutch town of Groesbeek. Here the Grenzland Draisine operation ends. However, the tracks continue through a hilly landscape with forests and heath.

On the outskirts of Nijmegen we leave the Europa RadBahn and now head towards the center of the oldest city in the Netherlands

(founded by the Romans). And by the time the cycle paths have become wider and the car lanes narrower and we have reached the futuristic buildings of Radboud University, where parking wardens show arriving students the way to free bicycle parking spaces, we imagine ourselves having arrived in bicycle paradise, to quote Matthias Gastl (MdB), who reports extensively on his website about the pioneering traffic policy measures of this city. Further interesting reports can be found on the blogs Fahrradherz and Grenzerlebnisse. Large parts of the city center are free of car traffic, which, contrary to what is often claimed in Germany, does not negatively affect retail trade. In the city center of Nijmegen life pulses and trade thrives, especially where car traffic is excluded.

With a heavy heart, we say goodbye to our paradise and roll down relaxed from the center of Nijmegen to the Waal, which we follow a little upstream on the dike. At the outskirts of Wercheren we first see the magnificent white Thorn´schen Hof on the left side of the path and shortly afterwards on the other side of the road the Thorn´schen Mühle, a gem of Dutch mill construction. The mill was painstakingly restored a few years ago and expanded to include a modern catering operation. From the beer garden there is a great view of the adjacent Düffel (nature reserve).

After we have refreshed ourselves with coffee and cake in the Thorn´schen Mühle, we ride into the Düffel, a German-Dutch natural and cultural landscape, and after a few minutes we cross the border unnoticed. The diked polder and the river marsh contained therein somewhat resemble the Frisian coast and are home to rare plants and animals. Through the quiet villages of Zyfflich, Niel and Mehr we reach Donsbrüggen, where we then rejoin the Europa RadBahn, which we follow for a few more kilometers to the swan city Kleve. In the area of the zoo we enjoy a view from the fast cycle path over the Prinz-Moritz Canal to the Springenberg, relics of a time when Kleve was a spa town. Shortly afterwards, in the area of the Kleve draisine station, our eventful tour ends.