German Belgian Dutch triple point and Christmas market in Aachen!

There is this triple point near Aachen, where Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands meet, which we visit once a year, usually in the summer time. Only recently I realized that I had never organized a hike there. In addition to this, the Christmas market of Aachen was something I always wanted to visit. This time, I saw a brilliant opportunity to combine the two.

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Despite my initial expectation, the number of participants did not grow quite a lot. I cannot really say where it comes from, except for the growing number of active groups doing more or less the same thing since the end of the pandemic. It was really a pity since I was sure that I was offering a great hike.

Anyway, not so surprisingly, our train from Düsseldorf to Aachen got cancelled. What a surprise. The one we got also got a significant delay. What else did we expect.

There were multiple people who asked me from where we were starting to hike. On my website it’s clearly written that it would start from Aachen central, but apparently they could not quite believe that it would be actually possible. It’s true that if I look at Düsseldorf or Cologne, I would also not imagine a hike from the central station. Aachen, on the other hand, is a rather small city, and it’s indeed possible to hike from the main station. I mean, if there’s a possibility to start directly in the nature, it would probably be even better, but that’s not necessarily required.

The trail we got today was not really different from the ones that we have already used before. There were a few sections which were new, but I cannot possibly claim I created a new one for today’s trail. This being said, since the season was so different, the scenery was very different.

Even though we were only around 15 people, the group went apart almost as soon as we entered the nature. It was such an active group in this regard today.

Unfortunately, there was either simply no marking or we missed the marking when we entered Belgium. I’m not really sure if it was true or not, but I somehow had the feeling that the forest was slightly wilder in Belgium. Maybe I’m simply biased by how I perceive the country.

My effort was to make a little bit different section right before the triple point. We made a weird turn towards the inside of Belgium. Frankly it was just a horrible idea, as it was just super muddy, and there was also a street that I don’t think we had to do it in the first place.

The triple point was extremely empty compared to other times today. In the French fry shop, there was not even a proper queue today. I could get my order almost immediately.

Just like every time we got the group photo at the very triple point. Compared to the other ones we have made in the previous years, you can see that there are a lot less people today.

To be honest, it was not even really cold today. We could easily stay there longer, but somehow today there were quite active people joining and we started around half an hour later.

The way back to Aachen was just as muddy. There were several points where we had to be careful to not slip, or not to let our feet be taken by the mud.

There was this one milk vending machine that we often see in the previous years. I’m not really sure whether the installation changed or we didn’t notice it in the previous times, but next to the milk vending machine, there was a vending machine for snacks and also coffee. In addition, there was a nice area to sit and drink coffee. So we had our second break there for some time.

As we had arrived a lot later than planned, it was also already getting quite dark by the time we were nearing Aachen. But then it also made a nice stage for the Christmas market, which I find is somewhat tasteless when it’s too bright.

Well, this being said, this Christmas market in Aachen was just as overcrowded as elsewhere. I got just one cup of overpriced hot wine and for the rest of the time I had the feeling that we were just trying to find the other people everywhere. It was still beautiful and a nice experience, but I’m also glad that it was not the focus of the event. In addition, it started raining quite heavily when we were about to leave the Christmas market. Well, other than that I was very happy that Aachen was the first stop of the RE1 and therefore there was hardly anyone on the train, and quite miraculously there was no delay along the way. I would say this was a good sign for the end of the year, and I wish you all the very merry Christmas!