The Vennbahn runs from Aachen via Monschau to Belgium and Luxembourg and, at 125 kilometers, is one of the longest railroad cycle paths in Europe. The Vennbahn crosses the borders between the three countries more than a dozen times along the way.
In the 19th century, the Vennbahn was used to transport coal and iron ore by rail from Aachen to Luxembourg and back. Today, cyclists can use the disused railroad line, which has been converted into a cycle path, to explore the towns, villages and sights along the route.
Not only Aachen with its Unesco World Heritage Site, Aachen Cathedral, is worth a visit on the tour, but also the cloth-making town of Monschau, the Belgian town of St. Vith with its local history museum or Reuland Castle nearby. The varied landscape along the route is just as attractive: the cycle path leads past hedgerows, moorland and heathland, through deep forests and idyllic river valleys.
Vennbahn stories
To make the cycle tour even more entertaining, the creators have come up with something special: the Vennbahn stories. Along the way, they tell cyclists stories about the beginning of coffee smuggling, the copper beech hedge and the importance of the Vennbahn as a transport link up to the early 1960s.
The Vennbahn offers fun and variety for sporty cyclists as well as leisure cyclists and families. It can be comfortably completed in two to three daily stages. Only at the beginning of the cycle route are there slight inclines to overcome. It then becomes more leisurely again.
