Beautiful! - Water views on the Lower Rhine
Green across borders and a paradise for cyclists is the Maas-Schwalm-Nette Nature Park on the Lower Rhine. The three rivers that give the park its name, numerous lakes + streams, forests, meadows + moors characterise the landscape. Daniel Aßmann cycles from Nettetal via Wachtendonk to the Dutch side to Venlo + Roermond and back via Wassenberg to Schwalmtal. Along the way he discovers 40-metre-high redwood trees and gnarled pollarded willows, the best observation point in NRW for ospreys and a rolling forest laboratory for children. He stops at historic water mills and castles, medieval towns and unusual hands-on museums.
He enjoys the idyll while paddling on the Niers, needs stamina for wakeboarding on the Effelder Waldsee, and gets palpitations while climbing the ruins of the former Venlo air base. Time travel through Wassenberg with Ritter Gerhard on his tablet Daniel Assmann discovers his first "water view" at the Krickenbeck Lakes near Nettetal + uses a QR code to get everything he needs to know about their origins, from peat digging to bird paradise, on his smartphone. On a journey through time in the historic town centre of Wassenberg with town writer + Fleischhauer, he encounters the medieval knight Gerhard - on the tablet and in 3-D. From Venlo to Roermond Cycling on a canal? That's possible on Napoleon's never-completed North Canal in the "Grooten (Great) Heide" near Venlo.
Nearby is a cross-border former military airport: today a memorial - and a place for artists, climbers + glider pilots. Daniel Aßmann finds porcelain vases from the 3D printer in the ceramics museum in Holtmühle Castle near Venlo + art with a chainsaw in De Meinweg National Park near Roermond. Weaving baskets and spinning flax - craftsmanship with tradition Characteristic pollarded willows line the rivers + streams of the Lower Rhine. They provide the material for an ancient craft that is still cultivated today at the Baerlo country farm near Nettetal: basket weaving. Daniel Aßmann finds out how the saying "experience his "blue wonder"" came about in the Flax Museum in Wegberg, where children can learn how linen is made from the plant.
In a traditional grain distillery in Schwalmtal he distils his own gin - with juniper, coriander + freshly picked flowers from the garden.
Broadcasting on 27th of March 2022 at 08.20pm on WDR/ARD
Music: POPVIRUS Library