Gimmenich and the Three Frontiers

Yesterday I hiked from the outskirts of Aachen Germany to the border with Belgium and the Netherlands.  At the three borders is a park that more or less spans all three countries.  After visiting the park, I hiked the rest of the way to Gimmenich, one of the first places captured by Germany at the start of the war.

I parked rather close to the border.  I've already done a lot of walking and my feet are quite sore.  I was very pleased that the border is well visited and therefore had some reasonable parking available at just the right distance for me, about 1.7km.

The path through German forest to Belgium.

Up ahead, the Belgian border, gloriously undefended in this time
of (west) European peace.

Right on the other side of the border in Belgium, is a parking lot, next to the park.  There is a belgian part, with a tower and some shops, and there is a Dutch part, with a maze and some shops.  The German part looked mostly like just forrest.  At the intersection of all three countries is a marker with all three flags.

Here I am looking shabby wearing the same trousers for the fifth day
in a row.  I was lucky people were kind enough to take this photo of me
heroically clutching the Belgian flag.  This is at the intersection of
all three countries.  I'm standing in Germany, the photographer in Belgium.

The border between Belgium and the Netherlands is that little green line between the cobble stones.

I could not read the sign.
Translations welcome.

I had to see all (both) attractions at the park, so bought a ticket to the maze.  Unfortunately I never really solved the maze, but rather found the exit and took a short cut through the center.  But that was after getting well lost in the maze proper.  The maze itself was a dark, confusing and foreboding place.  Lost inside you never would know when you would encounter another fellow traveler, nor would you know what language they would speak.  It could be Dutch.  I could be German.  Or French or that Flemish language they speak up north.  Or that really weird language from that soggy island next to the north sea, which is really just a combination of all of them.

The maze also contained many watery dangers.  There were gates which were guarded by mighty hoses which would shoot water from them up at any passer by.  It was not clear what it was that controlled these formidable monsters.  Were they on a timer?  Some people in the maze seemed to think they were controlled by motion sensors.  Or were some of them controlled by motion sensors while others were on a timer?  Whatever the logic behind these traps, it was impossible to traverse the maze without terrible peril to your mobile phone.

Also somewhere in there was one of those wooden walls with a painting of someones body on one side with a hole cut where the head is meant to be.  If you are traveling with companions one can stick their head in the hole from behind while the other takes a picture.  I did not have such a luxury, so I decided I would follow the latest craze and take the stupidest selfie ever.  I have no idea what the couple who walked past thought of me when I was doing this, but never mind.

Finally, I figured out that if you go back to the start of the maze there is a path that led more or less right to the center.  I thought maybe this was some sort of clever there-is-no-real-solution maze, which I kind of thought was lame, so I just followed that path.  Turns out, the sign must have meant "exit", so I never really solved it.  I did however get to the center of the maze and took this partial panoramic photograph.

The center of the maze, when I foolishly used the shortcut.

I also climbed up the giant tower.

The view from the top of the tower.  This panorama includes, from left to right, Belgium (including Gemmenich), the Netherlands and Germany.  Click on it for more detail.

Also on the Belgian side of the park is a monument to fighters in the second world war.

Translations welcome, it will take me forever.

After seeing the WWII monument, I went on to complete the journey which I really intend, which is to visit the village of Gimmenich on foot, another 2.8km or so.  It's not so far.  On the way, I noticed that there were numerous trees with the markings as depicted on the image on the right.  I've seen these markings before.  The last time was on the side of a road outside of the Bagram airbase in Afghanistan.  My understanding is that this is a marking that indicates land mines.  If this is what those marking means here, it probably means they are left over from the second world war.  Alternatively, this could just be a really wicked and highly effect forestry conservation tactic.  Either way, I'm happy to stay on the trails.

As I approach the peaceful village of Gimmenich.

A war monument in the main circle of the village.  The disks on the gate in front denote
the beginnings of each war, 1914 and 1939 on the left, and the ends of the wars,
1918 and 1945 on the right.

This may be the list of people from Gimmenisch who were killed in the first war.

Of course I was too shy to actually speak to anyone in the village.  There was plenty of opportunity.  There was a perfectly nice and open saloon with a group of people staring suspiciously as I walked past.  I'm sure it would have been a great time if I stopped for a drink.

But it was also getting late, and I needed to walk back to the car, pick up my (travel on) bag in Aachen and then travel to Liege.

Live in peace Gimmenich!