The Eifel, across the border

Cross the border at Monschau and the road surface changes and the curves get wider. The half-timbered houses in the valley haven't changed, but the infrastructure around them has. For a group arriving by bus, that's the difference between pulling up and making three-point turns on a country road. In Monschau, you then stroll through narrow streets along the Rur, between houses from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Groups choose this destination for two reasons. The first is the bus. The second is the Rursee, a reservoir almost eight kilometers long where twenty people can be out on the water at once. The German border region is clearly different from Belgium, though. The kitchens are smaller, and a group that wants to cook for thirty people themselves should look closely at the floor plan. On the sightseeing boat between Schwammenauel and Rurberg, the whole group boards at once. At the Monschau mustard mill, you get a tasting from ten people. In summer the boat rentals are packed, in fall the Eifel empties out and the forests above Monschau turn a reddish brown.