Day 53, Geilenkirchen – Aachen

Weather: 🌧️🌧️🌧️🌧️☁️ (drizzle all day long with a dry walk into Aachen the last 2 kms)
Lunch: 🥪🥪🥪🥪 (4 out 5, breakfast at a bakery in Geilenkirchen and lunch in Hertzogenrath)
Track: 🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪 (4 out of 5, beautiful bright green forest trails along the river Worms)
Hotel: 🛌🛌( 2 out of 5, Appartment with shared iffy toilets and private shower in the hallway. Has a washer and dryer though…)
Name of followed trail: X2/ E8

For the first time since the start of our hike, we have a full day in raingear. It’s drizzling throughout the day, in a lot cooler weather than yesterday!

Despite the weather we really do enjoy the hike today. The rain makes everything so bright and green! The walk along the river today is beautiful with all the forest surrounding it. Yesterday I was a bit done with the riverwalk through the fields and all the flat trails of the last month. Today the hills are starting to appear. I guess we will soon be cursing Rein again for ever inventing the contour line 😉. What ever happens, We’re both looking forward to our next leg to Koblenz, through the Eifel and Ahr regions!

We have breakfast at a bakery in Geilenkirchen and hike along the river to our halfway point of today in Hertzogenrath. We’re very close to the border again and even hike a few 100 meters through the Netherlands. Along the border we see art and signs that call for friendship across borders. This call for friendship started here after WW2, and is today more relevant than ever before it seems… They made it work here, so I take that as hope for the future in other places.

In Hertzogenrath we find a bakery and have a good (and dry!) lunch. After that we get back on the river trail and follow the markers carefully because the gpx in my watch doesn’t match the markings in quite a few spots.

At some point we get to the river and look at our map. apparently we should cross here, but there is no bridge in sight and the river is quite high. We decide on a small detour instead 😅.

Our walk takes us through the forest until almost the last moment. We do see some industrial buildings, which must mean we’re getting close to Aachen!Around 16.30 we arrive in the city centre and walk to our hotel. It takes some time to find our room, because the room number is missing. In the room there is no running water, our shower is further down the hall, as are the shared toilets. It feels a bit like a student home, but it’ll do nicely for the next 2 nights.

We have a (very nice!) shower and go for a Korean dinner a few blocks away. After that, it’s time to rest! We hiked 240 km in 8 days, so our feet deserve a break (and so do we 😅).