A bike tour in Holland

  
The best way to see Holland is by bike. We had a few bike rides and one day we biked 44 km We biked the following route :Wijchen - Ravenstein - Megen - Appeltern - Batenburg - Wijchen This took us a bit over 3 hours including a coffee, a walk and we had to wait for the ferry.

We started not far from the castle of Wijchen which is 14th century. In 1609 Emila, daughter of Prince Willem of Orange bought the castle and another important fact is that in 1991 we married in this castle.

We arrived in Ravenstein and biked alongside this beautiful pond

Ravenstein a little city with an old centre. Ravenstein was founded in 1360. To levy tolls for ships on the Meuse, vassal Walraven Van Valkenburg moved his castle to where Ravenstein is now  in 1355. A settlement grew around the castle of Walraven. Walraven is my maiden name but no I am not related :)

 When we arrived in Megen we came across another biker. A bakers boy with a basket full of bread.. This is the second statue as the first one was stolen.

This is a gate tower build in the 14th century which used to be part of the wall around Megen. It was used as a prison. Nowadays the storks live on top of it. We had a coffee opposite this tower.

We walked through the old town centre. People lived in this area since 2000 BC The celts and later the Romans lived here. Meginum was first mentioned in 721 as the capital of the county Megen.
Megen received town rights in 1357 and a fortress was built. Megen is well known for its two monasteries.
My mum always talked about "het broertje van Megen" or Bruurke of Megen (1868-1950), a brother who became well known because of his simple lifestyle.

Waiting for the ferry to cross the river Meuse

We biked through Batenburg and stopped at the ruin's of Castle Batenburg. This castle is from 527 AC and was destroyed in 1794 by the French troops. It still has its charms though.

This farmhouse is next to the ruin. You can see many beautiful farmhouses in batenburg

For centuries the farmers grounded their corn in the Batenburg mill

There is a pink bike when you come in and leave Batenburg. A bit of a challenge to get on this one. My brother  informed me that  pink bikes are placed everywhere on the route of the Giro d'italia. This is an annual bicycle race held in Italy , which passes through other countries as well.