Terheijden Country Side
A beautiful and family-friendly cycling tour along the Terheijden Country Side, near Breda, featuring beautiful and endless amounts of nature and friendly sunshine.
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I must start off by recommending to take this bike ride on a sunnier/warmer day, as the views that can be found throughout it are made even more beautiful by clear blue skies. If you are Dutch getting your own bike here is simply done by train, but if you are a tourist bike rental places are not hard to find, especially in the nearby city of Breda, which is a fairly doable distance away from Terheijden by bike.
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We started our bike ride right outside Breda, and mostly took bike-only paths with no cars, making this bike ride very children friendly. You can also walk this tour, and despite taking you a little longer the route is just as pleasant. Along the walk you will be sure to run into couples walking their dogs, families out with their children, or even a wandering photographer.
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As can be seen by the above photo several routes can be taken to get to the city centre of Terheijden, but we chose to take the first from the top.
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To each side of you at this point you will see endless plains of grass, crops, and occasional river streams.
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For the initial part of this route we biked along the river stream, which is parallel to the road we took.
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Along the way you will find several plaques like this one which have information about the location you currently find yourself at. Despite being mostly in Dutch (sorry foreigners), the illustrations are also very interesting to take a look at.
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Here we took a smaller side road which was for bikes only, which allowed us to be a little more careless and enjoy the view a lot better.
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We finally approached the small dock, where a small ferry boat comes at the press of a button (located on the pole which you can see in this picture) and for one euro takes you to the other side of the river, which is the centre of Terheijden.
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Next to the dock there is a board which shows several routes (biking) around the province of Brabant.
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The ferry boat finally arrived quite full. It fits around 7-10 people and their respective bikes.
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While on the ferry you can see several different cute houses and boats. This short ferry ride is along a port.
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Having finally arrived at the ferry boat's destination you will see a plaque illustrating the fort of Terheijden. This fort is called Fort de Kleine Schans and was commissioned in 2008 by the Foundation for West Brabant Lines of Defense.
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This project is part of the overall project Lines of Defense of West Brabant, and aims to assign a different function to the rivers so that further decay can be prevented. The lines have a significant role in tourism and recreational areas. This contribution was also made to strengthen the natural landscape values and to preserve the cultural heritage of Brabant.
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At this point you see the Terheijden mill from a distance. This mill is called De Arend which translates to "The Eagle" in English. The mill was built in 1742, commissioned by the noble family of Nassau-Siegen Breda.
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Upon getting closer a large memorial stone bricked can be seen. After a fire, the mill was rebuilt in 1756. During the French time The Eagle came into private hands. The mill's final possession in the 60s of the 20th century then went to the municipality of Terheijden, and was restored to today's The Eagle.
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At this point you will find several sheep. They get very close but you should watch out for the electrified fence.
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You can see even more families around this area of the route.
The mill is still in use and can be visited during the opening hours of the mill shop. At the mill shop you can buy cake mixes ready to go to the oven made by the mill and its workers themselves, and theres several other pastries you can buy here.
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Further down the route you will arrive at Terheijden's main church, The Saint Anthony Abbot Church. This church was severely damaged during the liberation in World War Two. The restoration work on the church is clearly visible. The ANWB has placed a marker on the church to show the places of the restoration after the Second World War.
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