Heading back to Brussels after staying the night in Luxembourg I first explored a rather interesting open mining area that had been turned back into a nature reserve and then went to explore the BEFRLU tripoint. There is apparently a new border marker on the LU side. This is a rather ugly place compared with the beauty of the BEDELU spot. The following 2 videos include my approach, visiting the tripoint itself, and driving completely around it. Being a wet tripoint it is not practical to do the 3 country run so I thought this was the next best thing.
Here first is the Google map of the area.
View Larger Map
The first video starts with me coming from LU along the E44 (LU 5), turning north onto the 51 which becomes the 804 on entering BE. I go round the roundabout and back to the tripoint.
The higher quality version is on YouTube
On leaving the tripoint I go south on the 51, east on the E44, enter FR and then turn north onto the N18, up to the roundabout and then east onto the d46b back to the earlier roundabout which again I go right around and exit back westwards.
The higher quality version is on YouTube
This is the last entry in my blog for this trip.
Saturday, 10 May 2008
Friday, 9 May 2008
Luxembourg
Northernmost point in Luxembourg and on to the Lancaster Memorial.
Here is a google map of the northernmost point.
View Larger Map
And of the Lancaster Memorial:
View Larger Map
For a higher quality version see the YouTube page hosting this video
Next, on to the BEDELU tripoint/tri-line
For a higher quality version see the YouTube page hosting this video
Here is a google map of the northernmost point.
View Larger Map
And of the Lancaster Memorial:
View Larger Map
For a higher quality version see the YouTube page hosting this video
Next, on to the BEDELU tripoint/tri-line
For a higher quality version see the YouTube page hosting this video
Vennbahn - L106 to Mützenich to Kalterherberg, Ruitzhof Enclave
Leaving the Aderich area I drove along the L106 through Mützenich to Kalterherberg and then into the Ruitzhof enclave. I have had to divide this video into two because of the YouTube 10 minute time limit.
Part One (Hosted at You Tube Here):
Part Two (Hosted at YouTube here):
Unfortunately one feature of my camera that I had not realised about is the "drop protection" that turns it off when it thinks it is being dropped. Because it writes the video image directly to a hard drive, this is to protect the disk. When I started to drive over the rough track at the end of the Ruitzhof enclave, the bouncing made it think it was being dropped and so it turned itself off. Sadly I didn't notice this until a long time afterwards so there was no video of the return journey recorded.
Part One (Hosted at You Tube Here):
Part Two (Hosted at YouTube here):
Unfortunately one feature of my camera that I had not realised about is the "drop protection" that turns it off when it thinks it is being dropped. Because it writes the video image directly to a hard drive, this is to protect the disk. When I started to drive over the rough track at the end of the Ruitzhof enclave, the bouncing made it think it was being dropped and so it turned itself off. Sadly I didn't notice this until a long time afterwards so there was no video of the return journey recorded.
Aderich and the L106
Next I drove past the "German Farm" (Rückschlag), through Aderich and took the opportunity to take a much closer look at the L106 where it goes through Belgium - marked on the maps here as "Where is the border?"
German map:
Belgian map:
It was interesting to notice that the roadside markers in the section of road that appears to run through Belgium were identical (German) design to those clearly in Germany, but the distances marked on them appeared to be measured from where the border crosses the road, as shown on the German map above.
Here is the video of my drive through this area.
To see this in higher resolution visit the YouTube page where it is hosted.
German map:
Belgian map:
It was interesting to notice that the roadside markers in the section of road that appears to run through Belgium were identical (German) design to those clearly in Germany, but the distances marked on them appeared to be measured from where the border crosses the road, as shown on the German map above.
Here is the video of my drive through this area.
To see this in higher resolution visit the YouTube page where it is hosted.
B258-Fringshaus-Konzen
After leaving Roetgen I dorve down the B258 towards Konzen, stopping at the side of the road (in Germany) briefly to find a geocache a few meters into the woods on the right hand side (in Belgium - the border runs alonside the road here). This video starts from where I had stopped, takes you past the Fringshaus, along the "German road in Belgium" and (after missing the turn and having to turn around) ends at the turn off for Aderich (where the "German Farm" - Rückschlag is).
To see this in higher resolution visit the YouTube page where it is hosted.
To see this in higher resolution visit the YouTube page where it is hosted.
Vennbahn - Roetgen Station
Last time I visited the Belgian/Gernam border area I spent quite a lot of time investigating the Vennbahn but I failed to stop at Roetgen Station. The borders around here are particularly confusing so on this trip I took the opportunity to wander around a bit and record some video of the area.
The station is just north of Mühlenstraße on the map below (reproduced from the blog of my previous visit)
The exact border lines on the road are not clear at all but some of the signs on the buildings give some idea of where they might lie.
To see this video in better quality visit the YouTube page where it is hosted.
The station is just north of Mühlenstraße on the map below (reproduced from the blog of my previous visit)
The exact border lines on the road are not clear at all but some of the signs on the buildings give some idea of where they might lie.
To see this video in better quality visit the YouTube page where it is hosted.
Aachen-Vaals-BEDENL
Following my investigation of Kerkrade-Herzogenrath I drove a short way south to where the German town of Aachen and the Dutch town of Vaals meet at the international border. After finding a geocache (Westwall Bunkercache "MG-Schild Wachtelkopf") near an old German bunker which was right across the road from the DENL border (just north of Vaals, on Senserbachweg), I drove through the outskirts of Aachen and the town of Vaals and then on to the BEDENL tripoint. Here is some video of parts of that trip.
Again, I hope this gives you a bit of a flavour of this part of my trip.
To see this in higher resolution you will need to visit the YouTube page where it is hosted.
Next stop - a few places on the Vennbahn and the BEDE border area as I head south towards Luxembourg.
Again, I hope this gives you a bit of a flavour of this part of my trip.
To see this in higher resolution you will need to visit the YouTube page where it is hosted.
Next stop - a few places on the Vennbahn and the BEDE border area as I head south towards Luxembourg.
Kerkrade-Herzogenrath Revisited
After my conference in Eindhoven, Netherlands was over I decided to revisit a few border places I had been before, as well as a few new ones, on my drive to Luxembourg. Since my previous visit to the region I had acquired a dashboard mount for my video camera (called a Sticky Pod) and this was my first chance to try it out "in the field". I decided to drive up and down the divided road in these two towns, taking video as I went, and providing some commentary as well. I hope that this will provide an even better idea of the place than I was able to with just still photos from my previous trip
If you want to see this in higher quality you will have to go to where it is hosted on the YouTube site
Peter Smaardijk has kindly provided me a couple of links that address some of the questions I raise in the video about what this street used to look like. (For copyright reasons the images displayed here are displayed from the website on which they resided when this log entry was created, i.e. they have not been copied. If they are removed from that website they will not appear here properly).
First the Gemeente Kerkrade page has the following 3 pictures on it:
Here is the pre 1968 situation with barbed wire:
After 1968 there was just a low concrete barrier defining the border.
And, of course, today the road zigs and zags back and forth across the border.
Secondly the http://www.grenzen.150m.com/ site has the following picture which shows the remainder of the concrete barrier as a "monument" in the centre of a roundabout. This is visible at 2:22 and 7:43 of my video.
If you want to see this in higher quality you will have to go to where it is hosted on the YouTube site
Peter Smaardijk has kindly provided me a couple of links that address some of the questions I raise in the video about what this street used to look like. (For copyright reasons the images displayed here are displayed from the website on which they resided when this log entry was created, i.e. they have not been copied. If they are removed from that website they will not appear here properly).
First the Gemeente Kerkrade page has the following 3 pictures on it:
Here is the pre 1968 situation with barbed wire:
After 1968 there was just a low concrete barrier defining the border.
And, of course, today the road zigs and zags back and forth across the border.
Secondly the http://www.grenzen.150m.com/ site has the following picture which shows the remainder of the concrete barrier as a "monument" in the centre of a roundabout. This is visible at 2:22 and 7:43 of my video.
Thursday, 8 May 2008
Baarle
A nice sunny evening and a colleague and I took a trip from Eindhoven, where we were at a conference, to visit the two towns of Baarle-Nassau (Netherlands) and Baarle-Hertog (Belgium). While we didn't see all the border attractions in the town we did manage to walk around and spot a few interesting places that I captured on the video below.
To help you navigate around I have included captions for the different streets and here is a local map showing Belgium in yellow and the Netherlands in white. You can click on it for the full size image (about 2MB).
The enclave to the south of town that we visited was H17 - here is a map from the wonderful website http://www.grenspalen.nl/archief/index.html, where you will also find lots of other interesting information about Baarle and other Dutch borders. The road we drove down, and where the video is taken from, is the small yellow one that passes through the west side of the enclave (twice), not the red one that forms the eastern border of the enclave. The video is taken from the northenmost border crossing point on that road.
As we were driving south to here from the main part of the town we were passed by two police vehicles with flashing lights, going north. Dutch police in the lead, Belgian police right behind. This got me to wondering about the complexities of policing in this area - I suspect that you typically need to have both police forces operating together to ensure there is appropriate jurisdiction. The idea of the police from one country driving through another country as part of their duty is interesting to say the least.
The video also includes a segment at the end as we drive back to Eindhoven and cross the border from Belgium back to the Netherlands on the main E34 motorway.
To see this video in higher resolution you will need to visit the YouTube page where it resides.
I hope this helps to give an idea of this place and that you found it interesting. Please leave comments to help me improve my trip reports for future trips.
To help you navigate around I have included captions for the different streets and here is a local map showing Belgium in yellow and the Netherlands in white. You can click on it for the full size image (about 2MB).
The enclave to the south of town that we visited was H17 - here is a map from the wonderful website http://www.grenspalen.nl/archief/index.html, where you will also find lots of other interesting information about Baarle and other Dutch borders. The road we drove down, and where the video is taken from, is the small yellow one that passes through the west side of the enclave (twice), not the red one that forms the eastern border of the enclave. The video is taken from the northenmost border crossing point on that road.
As we were driving south to here from the main part of the town we were passed by two police vehicles with flashing lights, going north. Dutch police in the lead, Belgian police right behind. This got me to wondering about the complexities of policing in this area - I suspect that you typically need to have both police forces operating together to ensure there is appropriate jurisdiction. The idea of the police from one country driving through another country as part of their duty is interesting to say the least.
The video also includes a segment at the end as we drive back to Eindhoven and cross the border from Belgium back to the Netherlands on the main E34 motorway.
To see this video in higher resolution you will need to visit the YouTube page where it resides.
I hope this helps to give an idea of this place and that you found it interesting. Please leave comments to help me improve my trip reports for future trips.
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