Eupen

Aachen is located in Germany's westernmost tip, bordering Belgium and the Netherlands. Around 800, Charlemagne had his Palatine Chapel built here, the core of today's Cathedral. In 814, he was laid to rest there, and between 936 and 1531, 30 kings were crowned in the Octagon. In 1978, the Cathedral became Germany's first monument on the UNESCO World Heritage list.The city, with around 249,000 inhabitants, is compact: its Cathedral, Cathedral Treasury, Town Hall on Katschhof, and Elisenbrunnen are close by. Try Aachener Printen, a spicy pastry available in bakeries all year round. Cologne is about 50 minutes away by regional train.

Monschau lies in the narrow valley of the Rur, nestled between the slopes of the Naturpark Hohes Venn-Eifel, close to the Belgian border. The medieval old town is traversed by the Rur and is characterized by half-timbered buildings and slate-clad houses, which today host cafés, restaurants, and artisan shops.The town grew prosperous from fine cloth production: it began here in the late 16th century, reaching its zenith in the 18th century under Johann Heinrich Scheibler. This story is told in the Rote Haus, now a museum showcasing bourgeois domestic culture. Above the town, Burg Monschau, dating from the early 13th century, now houses a youth hostel.

Spa in den Ardennen südöstlich von Lüttich ist der Kurort, der allen Heilbädern seinen Namen gegeben hat. Seit 2021 gehört die Stadt mit zehn weiteren Bädern zum UNESCO-Welterbe der „Great Spa Towns of Europe“.Eisenhaltige Quellen, die Pouhons, prägen den Ort bis heute, ebenso Parkanlagen, Galerien und Villen aus dem 18. und 19. Jahrhundert. Wenige Kilometer südlich liegt die Rennstrecke Spa-Francorchamps, auf der die Formel 1 fährt.

The province of Liège in eastern Belgium stretches from the Maastal to the Hohe Venn on the German border; Liège is about an hour by train from Brussels. You come for high moors and waterfalls, for the Spa-Francorchamps racetrack, and for East Belgium, where German is an official language.The Pays de Herve features orchards and a robust cheese; southwards, forests and river valleys extend into the Ardennes. Blegny-Mine is also located here, the fourth of the Walloon mining sites of the UNESCO World Heritage.

Eifel National Park was established on January 1, 2004, as North Rhine-Westphalia's first national park, covering approximately 10,770 hectares between Nideggen, Gemünd, the Belgian border, and the Rursee. It primarily protects woodrush-beech forests, alongside lakes, streams, and open grasslands. The Kermeter forest area, with its high proportion of beeches, and the Urfttalsperre form the heart of the park.Around 3,300 hectares previously belonged to the Vogelsang military training area, which has been publicly accessible since January 1, 2006. Today, Vogelsang IP houses the Eifel National Park Centre, from which you look out over the Urftsee. If you plan to be out for several days, take the 85-kilometer-long Wilderness Trail from Monschau-Höfen to Hürtgenwald-Zerkall in four daily stages.