Trans Euro Trail – Netherlands

Netherlands TET Day 3
🗓: 2 Apr | 🌍: Emmerich, Germany to Belgium border

Our third day of riding through some “off-the-beaten-path” roads of the Netherlands. Our day started near the Rhine River just over the border in Germany.

Good morning. We were both grateful for a good nights sleep.

Emmerich, Germany

After packing, we took a short detour from the Trans Euro Trail to walk along the Rhine River boardwalk.

A statue of linesman looks over the river and numerous canal barges. Water commerce has always been important to this region.

We enjoyed walking along the boardwalk and the warmth of the morning sun.

TET Netherlands

Moving along. We crossed the Rhine back into Netherlands and enjoyed dirt roads through farm lands…

…A nice surprise. This is a reconstruction of a Waco CG4 glider and it commemorates the Airborne landings of September 1944 and the liberation of the Netherlands.

There are many WW2 memorial all over western Europe.

This memorial is unique because it’s interactive and fun to climb in. There is also a nearby touch-screen display that describes the role the Gliders played in the Airborne landings of 1944. The language is in Dutch but there are subtitles in German or English.

We enjoyed a morning brunch of peanut butter and coconut spread sandwiches.

Just down the road is another reminder of the battle that occurred here between allied airborne forces and the Germans.

Imagine the view of thousands of paratroopers being dropped from the skies!

A US Army Captain checks the documentation of a captured German soldier.

It’s nice to see these fields producing food for tens-of-thousands instead of being the killing fields for thousands.

Many of the roads we rode on were recently forested and had the accompanying smell of fresh cut pine.

Bleijenbeek Castle originally built in 1300. It was lain in ruins after the bombardment by the British RAF on 21 and 22 February 1945. There has been an effort to restore it for visitors but it is currently closed.

This is farm country and many tractors were being used to prepare the soil for spring planting.

One section of trail had these WW2 bunkers spaced evenly along the canal.

Ayrshire dairy cows relaxing in the early afternoon sun.

We stopped for a late lunch in Loonse en Drunense Duinen where I was temped to ride my mule along this wooden walkway built to cross the swampy marsh. The cost vs reward was too high, and besides, I don’t think it was designed for 700 lbs of motorcycle, gear, and rider.

I was actually surprised how many roads were open to motorcycles though; especially within the park areas.

A fluffy horse trots over to see what we’re all about. Reminder: Bring carrots next time!

Dutch for “we just cross”. I didn’t see any pigs but did see two deer.

The rain started as forecasted at 1PM. Fortunately, it wasn’t bad enough to turn the trails into mud.

We made it to Belgium just before dark!! It ended up taking us three days to cross the Netherlands via the Trans Euro Trail. Slow going but full of memories!

Since we only lived about 1.2 hours away and I needed to have my kick-stand welded, we opted to head home and take a day off from riding.

We’ll head back to Belgium later in the week to ride the Belgium 🇧🇪 TET to France. Check it out here: Trans Euro Trail Belgium