Province of Limburg The Meuse River between Belgium 🇧🇪 / Netherlands 🇳🇱

The Meuse is not only a border river but also an important waterway for trade and shipping.
At Maaseik, Dilsen-Stokkem, it is still very natural. Here you can find flood meadows, old river arms, and gravel lakes.

For thousands of years, the river has deposited sand and gravel, creating new river courses.
On one side are the Meuse landscapes, and on the other, the forests of the Hoge Kempen National Park 🇧🇪.

The White City of Thorn 🇳🇱 is steeped in history. It is nearly 800 years old, the streets are paved with traditional river pebbles, and the houses are painted white. History shows that in the late 17th century, a tax based on the size and number of windows was imposed by the French. Some windows were bricked up. To give this patchwork a nicer frame, the house fronts were whitewashed.

Jan van Eyck was born in Maaseik 🇧🇪 at the end of the 13th century. He is honored through some street art paintings and by the campus, middle school, and the Van Eyck boarding school.

The name Roermond 🇳🇱 derives from the mouth of the Rur River into the Meuse. The city was the scene of the harshest witch trials in the Netherlands in the 16th century.
The St. Christopher Cathedral shapes the market and city life.
A purely late Romanesque church, and thus the only one in the Netherlands, is the Münster Church in Roermond from the 13th century. It was extensively restored in the 19th century by architect Pierre Cuypers. It served as a monastery and burial church.

If you are cycling in this area, you should not only travel the sluicing route but also the cycling path through the water in Bokrijk 🇧🇪. About 200 meters through the lake, where the water is exactly at eye level in the middle of the path.
Conclusion: The Meuse connects idyllic water landscapes and historical places that invite exploration and lingering.