Distance: 74 km
Elevation: 739 m
Duration: 4:15
Weather: grey and chilly, but crucially no rain, 13C
Today was planned and executed to perfection.
When I planned today’s ride I saw that a huge rain front was coming this way, promising persistent rain from about 15:00 onwards for the rest of the day. And we’ll, let’s be honest cycling in the rain isn’t as nice as cycling when it is dry.
But still I wanted to cycle and also cover a certain distance. So I got up early (breakfast before 8:00) and started riding before 9:00 in a dry but gray day. The first 20 km I had planned myself (thanks to Komoot) as I didn’t want to ride into Aachen to find the beginning of the Vennbahnweg. It had a bit of up and down but nothing too bad. Riding through rather grayish villages, including Kelmis, once the “capital” of Neutral Moresnet. One has to admit that it didn’t look any special. But that was probably to be expected.
In Raeren just before finally getting on the Vennbahnweg, I had my first stop of the day in a German bakery and my tartlet of the day.
While at breakfast the language was still French (although in the evening before at the same hotel it has been Dutch), today’s ride was entirely in German, although I only ventured about 50 m into Germany proper. Because on one hand side I was riding trough the German speaking part of Belgium, and really it seemed that everything defaulted to German. On the other hand side even when I was (nearly) in Germany on the Vennbahnweg, I actually wasn’t, because the small territory of the cycle way, which once upon a time was a railway line, is in Belgium. So often it just cuts through the center of a village, but the 5 m of the cycle path are in Belgium. As one can clearly see from the different road signs. Belgian cycle way on the left, German on the right:
The Vennbahnweg is definitely a great cycling way. With very easy gradients, that one hardly ever feels, wizzing through a remote landscape of the Eifel. Making the same trip without the rail line, would have been much more draining because of the rolling terrain.
For some brief moments the sun came out, so I changed from my ROS Castelli jacket to a cycling t-shirt, but literally the moment I had changed the sun had gone not to be seen again.
At about 37 km in, at Lammersdorf, I consulted Google maps for upcoming restaurants, but I shouldn’t have bothered. A few hundred meters later there was a sign saying “Mittagstisch in der Kantine” (a very traditional way to announce lunch in the canteen). And it was open for passerby’s as well.
It was the canteen of Otto Juncker a steel manufacturer, and today Tuesday was Lasagne day. Huge portions for steel workers, too large for cyclists:
Warmed up and well fed I continued and from there it would only go flat or slightly downhill. The uphill had been mastered and it felt easy thanks to the rail line.
In some parts one can also rent small “cycle trains” and make a trip on a stretch of remaining tracks:
Definitely a great way to see this remote area.
As said in the introduction, I managed to time the ride to perfection. It started raining, initially only a few droplets, in the moment I had completed checkin. Tonight I am staying in a huge holiday complex on a lake (which I haven’t gone yet to see) with camping, bungalows and rooms. I took a room and Roubaix must share with others but is also in the dry and even got his shower before mine:
No comments:
Post a Comment