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-   -   196 km Cycling Trip through the Ardennes forest (Germany and Belgium) (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/bicycles/284611-196-km-cycling-trip-through-ardennes-forest-germany-belgium.html)

First 100 km ride of my life!

Introduction:

Since I moved to Aachen, Germany a year ago to pursue my Master's degree, I have rediscovered the joy of cycling. I usually go everywhere by bike in this small university town on the western border of Germany. After doing multiple 20-50 km rides over the year, my friends & I finally decided to ty out the most famous cycling route in this region of the country.



History:

The Vennbahnweg is a 125 km cycling track that starts in Aachen and ends in the small country of Luxembourg. This whole route is actually a decommissioned railway track next to which a single-lane road has been built exclusively for cycling. Thanks to it being an old railway track, the maximum gradient on this entire route is only 2%. This means you can ride a non-electric bicycle quite comfortably.


The route passes almost entirely through the Ardennes forest starting with the Eifel national park in Germany. Only 10-15% of the route is alongside automobile roads. This means there is no road noise and no interaction with cars, buses and lorries. Not once do you have to ride on a normal road for the entire route. Instead, you can focus on enjoying riding on the spotless road without having to watch out for other traffic apart from fellow cyclists.

The heyday of the railway line was from the 1880s to the 1920s when it connected the coal fields of Aachen to the smelters of Luxembourg.

The track was built in the 1990s after the railway line was deemed to slow for modern trains and the route was handed over to local authorities for the construction of a Belgium-Germany frontier route.

https://www.vennbahn.eu/en/about-the-project/




Our Plan:

We were 4 friends who would be riding a 100kms one way upto the Belgian village on Sankt Vith, spend a night there and then make our way back the next day on the same route.

Our Bikes:

Being students, we did not have the best cycles for the job. Instead of purpose-built road bikes, we all had our pre-owned 26 or 27.5 inch MTB - Hybrid cycles we bought for 50-100 Euros.



It just meant we would be getting even more exercise. A blessing in disguise perhaps?lol:

Other Provisions:

We all carried very light backpacks since the route crosses a small town every 20 kms or so where you can buy whatever is needed.

Of course we carried some puncture repair kits, spare tubes, cycle multi-tools and an air pump. Thankfully, we crossed the approx 200 kms without having to use any of these.

The weather:

Definitely the hardest part about the trip was hoping that the weather gods played ball, and I am delighted to say they did. Across the two days, apart from 2-3 hours of light rain, the weather was enjoyable with temperatures around 25°C.



Riding Experience:

None of us was a regular long distance cyclist and we were nervous about how we would fare over such a long distance My longest ride prior to this was 70 kms in a day which was more than the other three. However, we all play football regularly and are decently fit with age on our side.



The bad part is that our first stage was by far the most tough since we were starting at the lowest point on the route. The first 40 kms are just a constant uphill slope till you reach the beautiful hill station of Monschau. After this point, the next 50 odd kms are predominantly flat with small uphill & downhill stretches.

We took breaks every 15 kms or whenever we saw an interesting view or artifact. This route is steeped in WW2 history.

World War 2 History:

The infamous Battle of the Bulge was fought exactly along this route. The Battle of the Bulge, also known as the Ardennes Offensive, was the last major German offensive campaign on the Western Front during Second World War which took place from 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945. It was launched through the densely forested Ardennes region between Belgium and Luxembourg.



As you ride, you see many remnants of the war in the form of bullet-riddled bunkers, railway stations that acted as shelters for soldiers and historic signage.



Apart from this, you can also see the Dragon's teeth or the Siegfried line which is a long stretch of multiple rows of cement triangles that poke out of the ground which were built by the Germans as the last line of defense.

Continued:

We started at 8.30 am in the morning and reached our hostel in Sankt Vith at 5:30 pm. Around 6 hours of moving time & 3 hours of breaks including lunch. All of us were quite sore but in good spirits. We had a nice dinner and settled down to watch the Euros with our fellow companions in this youth hostel.

The next day we started back at 10-30 am after a good night's rest and reached home by 6.30pm. The last 40 km were like a soothing balm to our tired legs as we sat on the seats and covered the distance while barely having to pedal. When we reached back home, our GPS showed we had done only 98 kms. Motivated to reach the three figure mark, we rode in circles next to our building for 2 kms and stopped at 100.1 kms. 190 kms in two days was a huge achievement for us and we managed to celebrate with whatever energy we had left.



Concluding Notes:

The entire route is extremely safe, well-signposted and has mile markers. There are shuttles available on some days on which you can put your bike and travel back if needed. Emergency services are easily accessible and never do you feel worried or lost.



For all the tbhpians who love cycling, I can only say good things about this route that passes streams, hills, forests and quaint train bridges. I can only think about the next time I can ride on this wonderful piece of infrastructure.

It has a very well-designed website which shows you the different stages of the route along with sightseeing opportunities and accommodation options nearby the route.

https://www.vennbahn.eu/en/




Cheers!:Cheering:

sauravpat

Oh wow, it's refreshing to see people cycling long distances on bikes that don't cost an arm and a leg. The route looks lovely, maybe I can drag my bike on an ICE and try to join you :)

Thanks for sharing, excellent!

I have been to most of the area you passed through, admittedly in a car, usually my Alfa Spider during one of our many tours.

Beautiful area. We always stop at Monschau to get some mustard!

Jeroen

Haha! We were the only ones amongst around 100 other cyclists that we passed (or rather they passed us) who did not have proper road bikes or electric bikes. It is certainly humbling as a young person when you are pedalling your heart out only to be passed by an elderly couple on their bicycles. lol:

Our average speed on the first day was just 14-15 kmph and around 19-20 kmph on the second day owing to the downward stretch. A lighter and larger road bike could definitely push that up by 30%.

Lovely thread.

I live south of Frankfurt and I do cycle 15 to 20 every Saturday and Sunday.

I was not aware of this beautiful route till date and I will definitely aim to ride on this route in near future.
What makes it special is WW2 historical sites on the route. I recently visited Normandy and was deeply moved by stories of D-Day landings.

Thank you very much for this thread.

Hi Sauravpat, That's one scenic path to cycle along and i intend to definitely include this in my bucket list on my upcoming travel to EU. 100 km ride and only 300mtr climb, wow ! Truly wish we had such paths in India! While the weather in my city absolutely begs one to go out n ride, sadly the same can't be said about the traffic and the roads and the fiends who populate them.
Don't really bother about the bike, as long as you enjoy the ride! And the MTB will definitely give you a workout to remember �� ( can skip leg days for a month!!)

Aren't you glad you moved to Germany and not the US for your Masters? You would have been writing about a run of the mill car trip to maybe Niagara Falls instead of this beautiful, gentle paced bicycle trip!

Looking forward to many more such trip reports.

Actually, there are tonnes of similar bicycle tracks on abandoned railroad tracks all over the USA!

When we lived in Kansas City I have cycled on many of them. The most famous and probably the longest, the Katy trail.

https://bikekatytrail.com/katy-trail-map.aspx

I could pick up the Katy trail just south of Kansas City at Clinton.

Although cycling can be a bit of a challenge in the USA, these trails are usually well kept and offer all kinds of facilities along the route for cyclist as well.

All very different from Europe, but definitely worth doing if you are a keen cyclist!

Jeroen

Only if you are lucky enough to live close to one that actually goes somewhere. Even if you do, you have to drive to the start of most of these trails, and then either ride the trail up and down, or arrange for transportation back to the start from the end of the trail.

That goes for any trail which is build on an abandoned railway of course, anywhere in the world. Ardennes, or Mississippi, Kansas, or South Africa all the same.

You can pick up the Katy trail anywhere you like of course. Same with other trails, unless they are short, you tend to have multiple entry/exit points.

In the USA some of these trails would offer transportation back and forth, or you rent a bicycle at your starting location and just leave it wherever you would stop.

I made arrangements with my wife. She would drop me off and pick me up the next day or so at a different location. We would usually make it into a little (road) trip as well.

If you follow a railroad track that’s what you get!

Jeroen

So, my original point was not to say that there are no trails in US. It was to say that riding a trail is not the first thing that comes to the mind of people who land here. Specially from India.

Last year when I did a bike tour of Utah with Adventure Cycling, I asked our guide who has been running those tours for many many years how many Indians she had had in her groups so far. Turns out I was the first one. Same goes for all the other bike events I have participated in. I have been biking since 2016 and I can count the number of people from India I have encountered on the fingers of one hand and still have fingers to spare.

True, but then again not many Indians ride a bicycle in India. Still seems the exception.

When we moved to the USA, my main worry was how to get my bicycle there without it getting scratched, or worse. I hoovered around the removal men whilst they packed up my bicycle. Told them to use more padding, more cardboard, more tape, more of everything.

Next my wife told me to supervise them packing up the China. Told them: Chuck it in the damn box boys!

Jeroen

I feel this isn't a sport/activity that we Indians like in general? I went on a few group rides and never came across anyone and this was in Bellevue, Redmond, Seattle area which is as close to Bangalore as you can get outside India. I do know a couple were practicing for STP earlier this year but that's about it. On the other hand, two of the parks near me are blocked for cricket every weekend mornings by my friends and colleagues. They even have spectators, all from India.

Not really, given that majority of us grew up biking to school or riding around with friends. But you are proving my point. Indians don't consider riding a bike as an activity. However, moving to a more bike friendly country in EU encourages Indians to consider a bicycle as a means of transport or a sport more than moving to a country like USA.

Exactly. The comparison is between Indians riding a bike in USA vs in say Netherlands or in this case, Germany. Hence my point that in USA the OP would have probably done a road trip rather than a bike trip.