By bike through the Selfkant: Gangelt – Wassenberg – Heinsberg

A flat loop on the German–Dutch border. About 55 km by bike in the Heinsberg district of North Rhine-Westphalia, in the far west of Germany. The route is flat (30–85 m above sea level) and runs along the rivers Wurm and Rur through the Selfkant, a region that is almost surrounded by the Netherlands and has the westernmost point of Germany, and past Wassenberg and Heinsberg.

The route. Gangelt – Selfkant – Waldfeucht – Wassenberg – Heinsberg – Gangelt.

On the way. Cycle paths through fields, orchards and small villages, with the border crossings that you hardly notice; the Dutch Limburg villages Vlodrop and Koningsbosch lie just across. Near Gangelt is the NATO air base of Geilenkirchen with its AWACS surveillance planes. Wassenberg and Heinsberg are small old towns with churches and market squares.

Good to know. The area is on the cycle network of the Rhineland and of Limburg with numbered junctions: follow the numbers. The wind can be strong on the open fields, and there are many places for a coffee break. The music is a German song.

Picture: The westernmost point of Germany, in the Selfkant, Alupus, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.