For our 2019 holiday we searched for a route to cycle – not too heavy – and found the Vennbahn – a former railroad from Aachen – just over the border in Germany – that zigzagged on the boundary of Germany and Belgium, on the contours on the High Moors (“Hoge Venen” or “Hautes Faignes” in Belgium, “Hohes Venn” in Germany, hence the name) and the Eiffel area, all the way South to TroisVierges in Luxemburg. The whole track is (mostly) well signposted, but a full GPS track is also available. However – to get to the beginning, and the return path were to be planned. Luckily, return is also signposted, for the larger part, when following the Belgian Long distance Cycleway from Bouillon (near the French border) and Liege. To get to this route, another cycleway could be used, so I was left to create the intermediate tracks on GPS software (Garmin Basecamp) – and the routes to get to Aachen and to Maastricht. All tracks were loaded on the GPS unit, just in case…
Staying overnight was planned on campsites along the way, only the first day we had some small showers, the most heavy one in our destination for that day. Luckily there was always some shelter nearby – the last one opposite a hotel; and the last day, when we arrived in Maastricht, the weather forecast made us return by train instead of cycling on. For the rest, weather was fine.
The route itself was indeed easy – the Vennbahn will go up steadily until arriving in Luxenbourg, the last 10-15 kilometers steeper than the previous part, But once that is passed, it goes steadily down. The route to Bastogne is also rather flat, but the rest goes up and down – but never very steep – with some expetions. The last pasrt, from Liege to Maastricht, is as flat as can be…
Since we cycled this route, the number of images is limited – just our one day stay in Wiltz give the opportunity to look around more than is possible on bike.
because we followed the pre-defined route, I didn’t track our way. Images and tracks can be seen here.