Vennbahn: Roetgen

After Lammersdorf I took a slight detour to find some caches in the woods north of the town making a loop around on my way to Roetgen.

First the obligatory map:



The first cache on the Vennbahn in Roetgen is actually at a point where a track, which is now a cycle trail (there are many cycle trails around here - it is a wonderful area for cycling - and it's all so organised!!) crosses the railway in the middle of the woods - Bahnübergang Rackeschweg.

Looking south along the tracks:


Looking north along the tracks:


Approaching the tracks along the trail from the north west (i.e. looking south east)


and a short video of the crossing area:

Now back into the car to investigate the numerous places where the tracks cross the residential streets in Roetgen:

This is the Bahnübergang Wilhelmstraße:

Looking south east:



A border marker - on the north side of the road, east side of the tracks - photo looking south east:


Same marker - looking north east along the road:



and a video of the whole area

At this point I was starting to feel the need to check my e-mail, especially as I had not been able to do so in the hotel the previous evening. Being in a residential area I figured there was a pretty good chance someone had an unsecured wireless network so I spent more time than I should driving up and down trying to find one, but all to no avail.

Anyway, after finding a geocache at the Grünepleistraße crossing and another one a short distance away I headed over to the Kalfstraße crossing. There was another geocache here which, as it turned out, was my 1000th geocache find. I had not realised it at the time but I'm glad it turned out to be one of the Vennbahn caches and not the previous one, which was not a Vennbahn one and was really rather tame! I took another short video here. A local resident came out and asked me what I was doing taking photos - I explained in my broken German that I was interested in the Vennbahn and the fact that it was a bit of Belgium in Germany. This seemed to satisfy him that at least I had no evil intent although I think he went away shaking his head a bit at someone actually having such a strange interest in something that to him was part of everyday life and probably didn't affect him one iota.

The next three crossings I visited (a geocache at each) were really more of the same and so I didn't take any photos there. But the one after that was a surprise - Offermannstraße - this was a bridge and not a level crossing - the cache there had advertised it as a Bahnübergang.

I took this video here:

Around the corner was another bridge at Mühlenbendstraße:

This picture is looking east, from the west side of the bridge:


This is looking west from the east side:



and a video from on top of the bridge:

Time now to head round the corner to the last level crossing in this area of residential Roetgen, a particularly interesting spot as Mühlenstraße runs right along the border with Belgium, the houses on one side being in Belgium and the road itself being in Germany.

Just before (i.e. to the west) of the level crossing was this boundary marker (on the north side of the road:






This is taken on the level crossing itself, looking north.


I then walked a short way back down Mühlenstraße to the west and took a couple more photos of the border markers right at the edge of the road:



and finally a video:

I then drove out onto the B258 in the centre of town which, at this time of day, was really busy. As the time was getting on and I still wanted to visit BEDENL, Neutral Moresnet and a couple of other places before getting to Düsseldorf, I elected not to investigate the area closely even though the border here is pretty interesting. That will have to wait for another day.

Heading north up the B258 my final Vennbahn stop was at Himmelsleiter where the Vennbahn makes its northernmost crossing of a German road.

This photo is looking northwards along the B258 away from Roetgen:


And finally one last video of the Vennbahn for today:

Next stop - the BEDENL tripoint.

Vennbahn: Bahnhof Monschau

I arrived at my hotel, the Hubertusklause Hotel and Restaurant, in Monschau rather late last night - so late that it was closed!! I should have read the booking that said check-in was until 9pm. However, a quick phonecall to the published number produced the owner who let me in and saw me to my room. Feeling rather chastened I didn't complain when he told me that the wireless internet was down due to renovations although this was a bit disappointing. Nevertheless I STRONGLY RECOMMEND this as a place to stay - really, really friendly people - comfortable room, a great breakfast, free WiFi (when it is working) - and all for only 42 € per night.

Having only a day to do an awful lot I rose at 6am to head out on the first part of my Vennbahn expedition before the 9am (a civilised time!!) breakfast. The hotel was just a short way down the hill from Monschau station so that was the first stop on my tour. Someone has placed a large number of geocaches all along the Vennbahn - at almost every crossing and station - and so that was a great way to merge my two related hobbies today. Yesterday evening, after my drive from Frankfurt, I had found 4 that were along the totally Belgian part of the railway, all of which contributed to my tardy arrival at the hotel. I did also briefly visit the quaint town centre of Monschau - it gets dark so late at this time of year (sunset was at 2149) that I quite forgot the time. There is a rare webcam geocache (Monschau Cam) there that is worth taking a look at online since you can see a live view of Monschau at any time of day by following the instructions at that cache listing page. Anyway, today was the day to focus on the part of the Vennbahn that ran through Germany. The first one was entitled, not surprisingly, Vennbahn, Bahnhof Monschau. First of all, though, I went for a short drive under and over some bridges, seeking some evidence of a VDOS (Vertical Differentiation of Sovereignty). Any that I did find was very nebulous though, being more in the manner of omission of anything indicating Belgian ownership or responsibility for the road under or over the railway. Quite inconclusive.

First a map to show where the various photos and videos are from.


This is Bridge 1 from the map above where the road passes under the railway. We'll come back here later.


Turning left I quickly crossed over the railway at Bridge 2 - a still and a video here.

Further down the railway to the next bridge, number 3

And a short way further to Bridge 4

Time now to return to the station area itself.

A view where the road crosses the railway - looking north east

and in the opposite direction


A nearer view of the level crossing


The station house is pretty much abandoned - I needed to gather some information off some notices from here to calculate the final location of the geocache. It turned out that I needed to walk down the railway a short way to find it near the first bridge that I had driven under.


A video of the whole station area.

As I walked down the railway I encountered some log storage.

The station area comes to an end as the multiple tracks converge into a single line, and another necessary piece of information to calculate the final geocache coordinates is found.


Looking North from the top of Bridge 1, close to where the geocache was finally located.


What looks like a boundary marker (complete with very large snail) on the north of the railway lines, between Bridge 1 and the station.


...and another boundary stone, on the south side of the railway line this time. The road junction you see is that close to the letters ND on the earlier map.


The same border marker is just visible in the long grass here


Looking down the railway in the other direction, towards Bridge 2


...and finally a last video from this area.

Now it's time to move on to the Bahnübergang Andreaskreuz (level crossing).

Vennbahn: Lammersdorf

I stopped at a couple of crossings in Lammersdorf and then went to the station where there was another geocache - Vennbahn, Bahnhof Lammersdorf

This map shows the places that I stopped in Lammersdorf.

The first two level crossings are in residential areas. I took videos there:

This is on the street called "Im Venn" - the video is taken from south of the railway line and starts looking north north west

...and just round the corner on Wiehweg - the video is taken from east of the railway line and starts looking north west. The audio that is cut off at the end is "...to go and visit each other".

Here is a view of the Station building looking south-eastwards

...and from the same spot in the other direction


Sadly abandoned and left to decay



The waiting room...



Another geocacher apparently found another item of interest to railway buffs here - I did not spot this but am providing a link to it. For copyright reasons and blogspot's "Terms of Service" reasons I can't embed it into the blog itself. The photo is entitled wisselwerking.jpg (I think this is a Dutch word since this geocacher's log seems to be in Dutch).

Finally a short video clip of the station area taken from near where I found the geocache, which involved a short walk up the tracks to the north. The video starts and ends looking in a northerly direction.

Next I headed off for Roetgen via a circuitous route, finding 6 non-Vennbahn related caches on the way.

Vennbahn: Ruitzhof Enclave

The most confusing, but possibly most interesting part of the Vennbahn enclave complex is Ruitzhof. This is at the southernmost end of the section of railway that passes through German territory, being just north of the former Kalterherberg station. I had briefly visited here in September 2005 but had left quite confused so I was eager to investigate thoroughly this time.

Here is the map that I provided in my writeup of that visit to set the stage


I spent about an hour here in total this time as I had to get back to my hotel for breakfast which was served at 9am, but this was enough to figure out most of the peculiarities "on the ground".

For some additional "stage setting" I have also produced some images from Google Earth and marked them up to use as a reference in the following (click on these for full size images).


The image above is the south-east corner of the enclave around the Kalterherberg station and level crossing. I have marked my best efforts at delineating the actual borders in blue based on topographical maps (German and Belgian) available to me as enhanced by observations "on the ground". The section of border marked with a hatched line is, to me, uncertain, but follows a stream between two points about which I am confident. Topographical maps have been unhelpful in determining the exact line here - I would need to do more research. It is evident from the topographical map shown above that there are problems using them to determine the exact border line - even the road layout is incorrect around the level crossing!! (Update: see my update at the end of this posting for additional information subsequently received)

I have also marked specific locations that I shall refer to in the following text.


The image above is of the entire enclave. Again borders are marked in blue as well as the spot where I took some photos on the north west border.

OK - onto the details.

First of all the station itself is of general interest. It has now become the office for a business that rents out "rail bikes". People can use these to travel along the rails to the south - the track bed has been reasonably well maintained for this purpose in this direction. Unfortunately they cannot be used to go northwards along the section that runs between German territory - one can speculate on all kinds of reasons why - the problems of maintenance and jurisdiction (in the event of incidents) probably play a part here.

A view of the station building:

These look a lot of fun - but possibly hard work - they were all chained up so I couldn't have a go!!


Looking southwards into Belgium where you could take the rail-bikes.


Moving round to the left from the previous photo is this building that has the sign "Agence en Douane" (Customs Agency) on the wall. I somehow doubt it is still active in that role.


I also took a short video to show the entire area. It was a windy day so apologies for the noise!

Moving up to the level crossing, the first thing I noticed was an old stone that looked as though it could be a boundary marker. This is to the north-east of the level-crossing. In this photo you can see it just tucked into the bush, where the tarmac meets the grass.


I took some close ups of this stone but it was so weathered that it was not possible to tell if, indeed, it was a boundary marker.

This is viewed from the German side.


And this from the Belgian side.


This video is taken from the level crossing, starting by looking south-west, to provide the whole scene.

I then drove down the road, across the small bridge which you could just see in the distance after about 3 seconds of the previous video and again in the following photo (which is taken after I had crossed the bridge and is looking back towards the level crossing, i.e. north-east). At this point I thought, incorrectly it seems, that I was in the enclave. You see, I had misread the rather difficult to interpret topo map and was under the impression that the border was along the stream that this bridge crossed. It was not until I took a closer look at the pumping station and noticed that the signs were in French that I realised that I was still in Belgium and that it was a different stream that delineated the border.



Beside the pumping station was a tourist map of the cycle paths in the whole region - in German interestingly enough.

I still hadn't completely twigged so I went back to the bridge and took another video from there - but of course the commentary on this video is TOTALLY WRONG!!

This photo is from outside the pumping station again looking south-west into this small Belgian community - there is no public road access beyond these houses although there are forest tracks down there.


Finally, having figured out where I was, I went around to the right and headed a few metres north to where the road crossed a small bridge which actually IS the road entrance back into Germany.

This is standing on the bridge looking along the border to the east, Germany (Ruitzhof enclave) on the left, Belgium on the right.


This is looking in the other direction.


Standing in Belgium looking north-east across the bridge. Note the boundary marker on the far bank of the stream just to the left of the bridge.


A closer up view of the boundary marker taken from the bridge.


The very top of the boundary marker. This seems to imply that the border is not actually in the centre of the stream, but on the north bank of the stream.

And a view from the German side
.

This video gives the complete circle picture of the area. I am standing on the Belgian side of the bridge and you can see the pumping station in the background at the start and end of the video clip.

Close up of the sign as you enter the enclave. Zollgrenzbezirk means "Customs District" - I'm not sure exactly what that signifies. Could it perhaps mean that this little area has special treatment for Customs purposes (like Campione d'Italia for example)?


and from behind the sign looking back at Belgium.


I then drove to the far end of the enclave along the "main road" through this farming community. Any of the side roads that you see on the map or Google Earth leading to the railway to the north were marked as "no vehicles except farm vehicles" and "private property", and anyway I really didn't have time to explore them. I did however reach the border as shown on the second of my Google Earth captures above and here are a few photos from there.

Border marker 669


...and a close up of that marker



The view to the south-west, along the border


...and to the north-east along the border


...and, of course, I took the complete circuit video.

Time to head back for breakfast now, but first another stop at that first bridge to try to figure out things from there. This photo shows the border stream coming into the larger stream from the top left of the picture.


A clearer view of the border stream entering the larger one.


There was nothing to indicate whether the border turned to follow the larger stream away from me (I am standing on the bridge) but it seems a likely possibility. I wonder if anyone has more definitive information.


I think I had found out as much as I could by now and it was time for breakfast - so - back to the hotel so I can get ready for the rest of the Vennbahn.

One thing I did realise as a result of this visit is that this enclave would be a pene-enclave even if the Vennbahn track were German territory since there is no public road into this area anyway without passing through Belgian territory. I wonder how it is policed if the German police have to pass through Belgium (and not just a small bit of Belgian railway line) to get there.


Update:

Since originally posting this Len Nadybal has kindly provided the following images from the original treaty which make the actual position of the border much clearer in this area around the bridge. He has kindly allowed me to include these in this blog page.