Ton keeps coming up with places she wants to visit. It’s interesting one of us is less willing to face the end of the trip than the other on every trip. Sometimes it’s me, and sometimes its’s Ton. This time it is very much Ton. I was ready to head to Amsterdam today. I am glad Ton is keeping us in traveling mode instead of end of trip mode. Especially as she does most of the work at the end of the trip.
Monschau comes up on nearly every list of most beautiful villages in Germany. It was only 40 minutes from Aachen. The drive was on a two lane road, and at one point along a stretch in the woods there was a sign that said Belgium. We then spent the next ten minutes wondering if we had crossed into Belgium and could we have been mistaken and Monschau was in Belgium? After a while I noticed that all the cars on the road had German license plates so we decided that Monschau was indeed in Germany. But we were right, the road we were on had crossed into Belgium for a few kilometers, but since no houses or towns were on that stretch of the road the Germans maintain the road.
Monschau was once a thriving textile town in the 1600’s and 1700’s until the industrial revolution kicked in. Then the textiles there were not competitive. It kind of hung on as a backwater and as a backwater all the wars for a couple of hundred years passed it by.
It is located in a valley in the Eifel mountains and now thrives on tourism. For a small village it attracts over 2 million tourists per year. Which given its size is a lot of people.
Today there were a decent amount of people around, probably about the right amount to have it feel active, but not too many to make it uncomfortable. The town is built in a narrow valley formed by the Rur River which used to be used to power the mills that produced textiles. Today it makes for a beautiful background as you are walking.
We spent a nice afternoon strolling thought the town. For the second day in a row we struck out on food. It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t at all memorable.
It is a beautiful setting and we caught it on a beautiful day. The trees were probably close to peak fall colors, the sun was shining while not providing much heat, and the people in the town were relaxed and having a good time.
Monschau is mostly a day trip destination from one of the multiple larger cities nearby in Germany and Belgium and that made sense to me, you can walk through the whole town in 30 minutes from end to end and back. It really is a beautiful place that time has passed by and definitely worth a days drive for.
For the last few nights we have had to turn the heater on in François. Tonight we may have to have it on most of the night as the temperatures are supposed to fall to the mid 30’s.