Beautiful! - Water views on the Lower Rhine
Cross-border green + a paradise for cyclists is the nature park Maas-Schwalm-Nette at the Lower Rhine. The three rivers that give the park its name, numerous lakes and streams, forests, meadows + moors characterize 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-meter-high redwood trees and gnarled pollarded willows, the best observation point in NRW for ospreys + a rolling forest laboratory for children. He stops at historic water mills and castles, in medieval towns + extraordinary hands-on museums. While paddling on the Niers he enjoys the idyll, while wakeboarding on the Effelder Waldsee he needs stamina + while climbing on the ruins of the former air base Venlo he gets palpitations.
Time travel through Wassenberg with Ritter Gerhard on the 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 center of Wassenberg with town writer + Fleischhauer, he encounters the medieval knight Gerhard - on the tablet and in 3-D.
From Venlo to Roermond: Riding a bike on a canal? That's possible on Napoleon's never-completed North Canal in the "Grooten (Great) Heath" near Venlo. Nearby is a cross-border former military airport: today a memorial - and a place for artists, climbers and glider pilots. Daniel Aßmann finds porcelain vases from the 3-D printer in the ceramics museum in Holtmühle Castle near Venlo and 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 at the Flax Museum in Wegberg, where children can learn how linen is made from the plant. In a traditional grain distillery in Schwalmtal, he distills his own gin - with juniper, coriander and freshly picked flowers from the garden.
Broadcasting on 16th of May 2021 at 08.15pm + 23rd of May 2021 at 03.45am on WDR/ARD
Music: POPVIRUS Library