Braky and I flew into Cologne from London and were immediately met with the small matter of finding our way without speaking German! Luckily Chris was around to rescue us at the airport. Actually Braky does know a few words, at least enough to know that Güte Fahrt is actually a perfectly polite thing to say to a fellow traveller and I too was also catching on to the lingo at the end of the trip.
Before the trip proper Braky went off to Hannover to see a friend while I did a tour of Cologne with Chris. After 8 hours of hardcore sightseeing I thought my brain was going to dribble out of my ears. City sightseeing... yech!
The trek started at the little Belgium village of Elsendorm. The village was located on the edge of a national forest, which looked fairly remote and untouched on the map. We soon found one of the reasons for this was that a large part of it was a NATO test site! We decided that the danger of death signs in 4 languages were probably worth listening to so we skirted around the edge of the site before finding a nice forest clearing to camp in.
Jens told us he would bring his dome tent along so there was no need for other tents. This was because his tent was actually a marquee! I believe he rents it out for weddings and other social functions. We spent a very comfortable night but were woken at 7am by footsteps approaching the tent. Were there bears in Belgium? No it was just a park ranger informing us in German that we really shouldn't be camping in the middle of the forest in the deer-hunting season.
As it happened the wake up call was much gentler than what followed. I was just telling the others that that diesel engine sounded a bit like a tank when BOOOOOOOM!!!!! went the gun. These bangs and explosions were a little disconcerting despite us being out of the danger area. After jumping back into our skins we rapidly headed north towards the border with Germany.
The border itself was barely discernible. However it was rather spooky crossing a line in the forest that had been fought over twice in the last 100 years. The ground seemed to still be red with blood. The trail eventually joined a path following the side of a river valley giving some pretty views. We found a nice place for lunch and I provided the traditional entertainment on the tin whistle while we ate.
In the afternoon we carried on North until we passed a very nice looking campsite just south of the town of Monschau. Not wanting to repeat our previous early morning awakening we decided to stay there for the night.
Monschau itself was a charming little town hidden in a deep valley with a proper stone castle on the hillside. We spent some time being tourists and then revived ourselves with pancakes covered in sugar or chocolate or anything else sweet we fancied. Unfortunately the excellent pancakes were somewhat spoilt by "the most expensive cup of hot chocolate in the world ever".
The next day we hiked back round the other side of the danger area. This wasn't so spectacular but was merely pleasant countryside. In fact it looked a lot like bits of the peak district in England (minus the sheep). We were forced to walk on hard roads for the last bit of the trek, which didn't do anyone's feet any good. But eventually we arrived back at Elsendorm to find an intact car where we left it.
That evening we headed back to Aachen and Chris took us to a traditional German restaurant. The food was excellent, as was the beer. (We weren't sure so we spent a long time drinking some more just to check).
The next day Jens had to leave early to see his folks. So Chris, Braky, and I decided to do a trip to Holland. My grandfather had been stationed in a small village near Aachen during World War 2 so we tried to locate it.
We managed to find the right village but lots had changed in the last 60 years or so. Anyway I got some pictures to prove I had been there. After that we headed to Brussels. I had been there once before but Braky had never been and Chris hadn't been for ages. Anyhow I got to be the tour guide and took Braky and Chris to the most famous tourist attraction in Belgium, the pissing Statue. Yes fellow Fellwanderers in the centre of Brussels there is in fact a statue of a Belgian boy urinating into a pool.
This bonus was then topped by a herd of camels walking through the town square! And they say that Belgium is boring! Anyway we carried on our scientific experiment to check how Belgium beer compared to German. In my opinion German Beers had the edge but I think we still need drink some more to decide properly!
Back in Aachen we finished the trip with Tapas in a Spanish restaurant. It was such a multicultural trip that by the end Braky was ordering coffee at Cologne Airport in French! They still understood him though.