Friday 6 July 2007

Vennbahn: Bahnhof Konzen/Fringshaus

Next stop on my trip was the geocache Vennbahn, Bahnhof Konzen which was right beside the point where the railway crosses the B258. Of course, this road is also the subject of a border interest in its own right since it crosses a short piece of Belgian territory between here and the Fringshaus without connecting in any way to the Belgian road system.

The following (Belgian) map will hopefully help to put this in perspective, especially in relation to the "German Farm" whence I had just come.


This photo is taken looking into Belgium from a point some 150m south of the railway.


Here is where we cross into Belgian territory, still looking north-ish.

This is a short video of the traffic on this road. The Belgian road signs are very clear on the other side of the railway.





I then drove the length of the Belgian part of the road to the Fringshaus and parked in their car park. While there were a few tracks leading off the main road, as shown on the map, they were typically marked with notices indicating that access was not permitted. I seem to recall they indicated that they were military areas.

This photo is taken from just before the Fringshaus, looking back southwards into Belgium - the border is where the road markings change.


I crossed over the road and walked a short way into Belgium and took this photo looking back northwards into Germany.


Panning round to the right a bit you can see the Fringshaus's car park firmly located in Germany, even though the Fringshaus itself is in Belgium.


Standing in the car park, these two shots are looking south-west down the (Belgian) laneway that is almost covered by the blue arrow in my map above. The border runs along the other side of the main road from where I am standing.



...and this is a shot of the Fringshaus (in Belgium) from its car park (in Germany). From later research it seems as though the car park itself might have been a Belgian counter-enclave at one time before being returned to German sovereignty.



Now on to Lammersdorf.

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