Roland and and his bestie from childhood days Stephan recently went on a four-day e-bicycle trip through the hilly Eifel mountain range.
Trailhead was in Aachen at the railway station Rothe Erde where I left the two boys to their own devices. The so called Venn-Bahn-Trail is a former Belgian owned railroad track transformed into bike trail with elevation gain of 2000 meters on 250 kms.
It was sunny and hot so frequent stops for isotonic refreshments were necessary. The e-motors helped with some steep inclines but the ride went smoothly until arrival in Monschau, a medieval village with rich history where they had booked a hotel for the night.
The second day lead through the hills and high bogs of the Venn region until reaching the youth hostel in Prüm, a town with a sad back story. Over 90% of this village had been destroyed in the 2nd World War and if that hadn't been enough, a huge explosion of an underground ammunition bunker wrecked it even further and killed several people in the process.
The third stretch became challenging as the trail went constantly up and down bringing even the e-bikes to their limits plus neither restaurant nor café were to be found to allow for a break or refreshment. The boys where pretty exhausted when arriving at their stop for the night in Adenau.
An Italian dinner that evening and a decent German breakfast plus an easy ride the next day compensated for the strenuous effort of the previous day as the bike path lead along the river Ahr back to the home base. Both riders arrived happy and very motivated to do something like this tour again in the not so far away future.
