Kerkrade-Herzogenrath

My last set of border photos for the day are from the towns of Kerkrade (Netherlands) and Herzogenrath (Germany), where the border runs up the middle of one of the streets - quite innocuously with no significant sign that there is a border here. At the end of my trip I encountered a very pleasant and interesting surprise that I had not expected.

Read on.

First the obligatory map - the red line shows the border and the places where I took some photos are marked as 1 and 2. It was getting quite late now and I still had to get on to Düsseldorf for an early flight to London the next morning so I didn't stop to take photos in between these two spots.


This photo is looking north along the divided road, Netherlands on the left, Germany on the right. It seems to have changed somewhat from previous photos I had seen of the area - something I was to feel as I failed to recognise much of where I then drove.


This video starts looking West North West, pretty much along the border line. I'm not sure if the houses to the left (south) of the street would be in the Netherlands or Germany.

Some more views of the area - note the white and blue street signs in Dutch and German.



I then drove to point 2 which is where the border leaves the centre of the road. I noticed that the road had been significantly changed from previous photos that I had seen with "traffic calming" islands placed along the sides of the road alternating from the Dutch to the German side thereby causing traffic along the street to constantly zig-zag back and forth between the Netherlands and Germany - true multinationalism at work here.

I was using an older German map rather than the Dutch map I have provided here, and this did not have the roundabout we see here marked on it. So, needless to say, this was a huge surprise for me - and what was the other side of the roundabout was an even bigger, and most pleasant, surprise.


Beyond the roundabout is the Eurode Centre - an office complex that straddles the border. I drove (anti-clockwise) around the building and noticed the border signs as I re-entered the Netherlands at the back of the building. So, where the bi-national road had previously petered out somewhat ignominiously, the opportunity had been taken to construct a most imaginative complex that enables companies to take advantage of the border line in many ways.


This is the front entrance - the border runs between the two doors - there is a Dutch mailbox on the left and a German one on the right.


I took a few more photos of the area - I am standing here on the northwest corner of the roundabout looking south.


German sign as the road heads off to the north east


On the Dutch side of the road the Dutch name is on the top:


and on the German side of the road, the German name is on the top.



OK - that was pretty much it. I still wanted to find one geocache in the Netherlands - and there was one in Kerkrade fortunately (albeit a rather lame micro) and to drive along the former N274 Dutch road that crosses a small bit of Germany and used to be completely separated from the German road system. I did so - there are now roundabouts joining it to the German road system since it reverted to German control in 2002 - but it was now getting really late so no photos. Then I headed off to my hotel in Düsseldorf enjoying the empty A46 where I was able legally to hit over 200km/h in places.