The Venn bahn, cycling fun without limits

You might not think so, but a bike ride over the high peaks of the Belgian and Luxembourg Ardennes and the Eifel is not just for die-hards. The Vennbahn, a former railway line, opens up this beautiful area for the average cyclist.

Family Friendly Tour
The Vennbahn once formed the artery between the coalfields around Aachen and the smelters in Lorraine and Luxembourg. Many freight trains ran here between 1889 and 1980. Then the sleepers and rails disappeared, but not the transport. From 1990 the railway started its tourist career. The Vennbahn is about 125 kilometers and has an average gradient of 2%. On a few short stretches the slope is 3 to 10%. Thanks to the small gradient, the tour is family-friendly.

Beautiful anecdotes
You will also find wonderful stories and anecdotes about the history of this border region. Of course you can also enjoy a fascinating present, because you will visit three countries: Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg. A route with historic places such as Aachen and Monschau, but also with impressive landscapes such as the High Fens. The Vennbahn is signposted in both directions. You can divide it into stages to fully enjoy all the tourist attractions. For all practical information and border stories, visit www.vennbahn.eu .

smuggling
A border region always guarantees smuggling stories. Likewise here. For example, between 1948 and 1953, some 1,000 tons of coffee were smuggled from Belgium to Germany, where black gold was three times as expensive. There was a real race between the smugglers and customs. Smugglers, for example, used discarded armored cars from the Belgian army, which allowed them to drive smoothly over the bushes and hedges. Customs also armed themselves, in James Bond style. They had two fast Porsches equipped with folding steel brushes to sweep off the crow's feet strewn by smugglers. By the way, the romance was nowhere to be found. Given the post-war scarcity, smuggling was the only means of earning a living for many.