Imperial Forest

Behind Groesbeek, the Dutch hilly landscape almost imperceptibly transitions into German territory. Here you enter the vast Reichswald with its straight roads and paths. In this forest area, you can take long walks without encountering anyone.
The Dutch part of the route is completely different: open, varied, a few villages, and a gem of a nature reserve: De Bruuk.

REICHSWALD

The expansive, tranquil Reichswald covers no less than 5100 hectares. Characteristic are the straight paths that together form an orderly grid structure. Here, in the 15th century, the border between the Netherlands and Germany was drawn. It was then divided into the Gelderland Nederwald and the German Oberwald. More about the origin and a bit of war history: Wikipedia.

BORDER QUESTIONS

In the past, many goods were smuggled across the border. Hendrik-Jan Janssen, the Dutch owner of the German Boscafé Merlijn, knows all the smuggling stories. "The plans were hatched in this café," he says.

After World War II, dynamos were smuggled from Germany into the Dutch Grafwege. Coffee and nylon, in turn, went to Kranenburg. But other goods also found their way across the border, even under the watchful eye of the customs officer.

Hendrik-Jan: "For example, there was a man who regularly crossed the border on a bicycle. His saddlebags were filled to the brim with sand. The customs officer was sure the man had something to hide, but what? Only years later, when the officer retired, did he ask what was in those saddlebags. The smuggler realized: The sand was a successful distraction because he was smuggling bicycles!"

DER BRUUK

On Dutch soil, the route initially leads through the Bruuk, a surprising nature reserve with wet meadows, swamps, and willow groves. This is one of the few places in the Netherlands where there are still blooming grasslands, such as bluegrass meadows.

They were created because some meadows were too wet for grazing in the past. The only thing that could be done was hay harvesting. However, with the hay, the minerals also disappeared from the soil. The result was an increasingly nutrient-poor soil.