Odysseus Abroad: Plombieres, Belgium

Montzen Abandoned Station - Henri-Chapelle Cemetery - Plombieres

Abandoned Montzen Station

On my own for Thanksgiving holiday 2022 I headed for Belgium to hike in the countryside, this time in Plombieres, at the tri-border region among Netherlands, Belgium and Germany, staying in a wonderful farmhouse, Gite des étangs à Montzen, outside the village of Montzen next door to the Chateau de Graaf. Just three hours drive south east from Leiden driving Annette's Honda making the drive a breeze, no hydraulic fluid leaks, axels broken or gear box issues with the hybrid Honda, just easy driving (my Citroen was in the shop being fixed from the Prague trip). My days were spent walking the woodlands and farmlands of this rural gem of an area under cool blue skies and sunlight flowing almost horizontal to the contours of the land, illuminating the yellowing leaves in sharp contrast with the sky and blue fields. As in much the Ardennes, there are extensive trails throughout the area, allowing me to roam through the empty forests and cross farmlands to link up the some of the sites and parks. The Staatsforst Hohnbachtal forest, where wolves once roamed as reported by Philippe Vandermaelen in 1831, was now planted in conifer trees like a farm, while the hills and ridges were a more natural range of beech, oak, alder, some quite ancient.

Although French is the official language of the Walloon region, a dialect of German is widely spoken in the border counties like Plombiers. Thought I had crossed over to Germany on one of my hikes when I saw the black, yellow and red flag, but only realized it was a Belgium flag and I had to wonder why the German and Belgian flags are so similar - apparently it is just a coincidence, the Belgian flag being based on the ancient colors of the Duchy of Brabant, while the German colors are from the uniforms of the soldiers who freed the country from Napolean's war in 1813. The countryside was dotted with hunting stands which stood silent on this weekend, allowing me to hike at ease. Catholic statuettes and shrines appear at junctions along the way, or a single cross nailed on a random tree. Vending machines are widely used - along one hiking trail was a caravan which housed a coffee machine and snack vending machine, meat could be bought from another machine at a nearby farm house and bread was on sale 24-7 outside the bakery in town, all innovative ways to serve customers in such a rural area.

The tri-border, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany sits near the town of Gemmenich which is the location where Germany invaded Belgium in 1914. Monument Via Dolorosa, representing the sorrowful route Jesus was supposed to have taken to the cruxifixation, also marks the German Belgium border on the hill above Gemmenich with a cube of rested compressed rusting munitions from world war one. The Vaalserberg woods and hills stretched southeast and made for a great hike. To the west in the valley stood the Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery and Memorial for many of the American soldiers who advanced to enter German territory during world war two, staging a siege of Aachen, for which the Germans fought forcefully, but unsuccessfully, surrendering on October 21st 1944, the first German city to do so. Under ferocious weather, the Americans battled on to take Germany to the Roer River by mid December. During the interwar years, Belgium knew trouble was brewing so they built defenses in the area. Thirteen concrete bunkers were constructed in the mid 1930's in the Plombieres area for the protection of Leige. The advanced positions were manned by an elite troop of machine gunners, The Frontier Cyclists of Hombourg.

Always attracted by abandoned places, I had found a set of pictures of a rail station in the area online. Montzen Station is a sprawling complex with many shunting lanes, built by the Germans in 1917 during WWI by Russian prison labor, it was intended to connect the German rail system via Aachen to the Belgian network with fast access to the ports of Belgium and Netherlands. The station itself is a flat plateau appropriate for rail, but interconnecting the rail lines was an engineering feat, crossing the deep River Geul valley to a depth of 60 meters with a 1200m meter span of rail viaduct and tunneling through the highlands to connect Aachen to the west. Back in the day, locomotive engines would be switched at the station between German and Belgian for cargo trains crossing countries. In Belgium trains and signaling are on the left track, while in Germany it is the opposite, so there is a switchover at the border. More recently the line has been electrified, again with a different standard in Belgium and Germany. Parking on the street in Gare Montzen, the town built for rail workers, I dashed behind the warning sighs and protection of bushes to access the railyard. Some of the rail lines has been removed, but the main station hall stood derelict and suffering the effects of entropy production, as is typical of abandoned places, windows smashed, rooms destroyed, everything cracked and broken by vandals over the many years since the station operated. Over eight trains a day still pass the station on new tracks to the west, not disturbing the abandoned yard. Passengers used to travel through, but since 1950's it was a freight only line and I understand the station has been abandoned for two decades. There used to be a few old engines and freight carriages on the long train hanger, but have since been removed. Besides all the destruction evident at the site, there are many fine graffiti walls on display. Up on a hill behind the station stood the water tower to feed steam trains originally, which has recently been converted into a holiday house.

Besides daily hikes in the country, followed by exploration of various local points of interest, each evening I watched episodes of Brideshead Revisited, a television series based on a book by Evelyn Waugh. It was a throwback to my teenaged years having then watched the original, a complex story of a long lost world set at Howard Castle in Yorkshire. A wonderful quote as apology for getting sick on wine, "the wines were too various, it was neither the quality of the quantity which was at fault, but the mixture, to know all is to forgive all?