Nijmegen, Opheusden, Hemmen

When you cycle through the Betuwe, you’re unknowingly pedalling past centuries of history. A series of noble estates are the highlights of this cycle route. You start at Buitenplaats Oosterhout, a domain with roots dating back to the 14th century, located just outside Nijmegen. Via quiet dike roads, you reach the nearby Landgoed Loenen in Slijk-Ewijk, once owned by the noble Van Boetzelaer family. Both homes with a story, leafy lanes and beautiful gardens. Along this route lived many family members of the noble houses you’ll encounter further down the road, in the area around Hemmen.

The former heerlijkheid Hemmen was once an important resting point on the route from Wageningen to Nijmegen. A tiny village that’s home to Castle Hemmen, inhabited for centuries by the Van Lynden family. Only the garden and ruin remain, but the surrounding estate with its old lane structure and fruit trees still tells the story. At the initiative of the noble family, the small station Hemmen‑Dodewaard was built here, on the condition that all residents could use it.

A bit further on lies the site of the former little castle Boelenham, for centuries the watch castle of Hemmen’s heirs, and later swallowed by the flood of 1809. In the village itself, you can still visit the birthplace of Gijsbertus Cuperus (1644–1716), an influential antiquarian and politician who played an important role in the Golden Age of Dutch science.

The route eventually leads towards Dodewaard, where near the station you’ll come across a charming and private museum: in a collector’s garden, the Schimmelpenninck collection is on display. It recalls the glory days of the tobacco industry in Wageningen, where millions of cigars were once produced each year, until the factory closed in 2000.

And so this cycle route connects more than just landscapes: it’s a journey past country houses, castles, townsfolk and industry. A ribbon of stories between Nijmegen, Wageningen, the Waal, Nederrijn and the Linge.