One of my favourite things about Europe is the freedom of movement. The Schengen Zone, a collection of 25 of the 27 EU states (not Ireland and Cyprus) plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, all sit under a singular visa, meaning travel between them, once you're in one of them, is a total breeze. Most of the time, the border crossing is nothing more than a small sign on the side of the road!
We were in Cologne for a weekend specifically to visit an immersive art exhibit about Monet, after visiting the goosebump-inducing immersive Van Gogh exhibit in Paris. But by early Sunday morning we decided we had seen pretty much everything we had wanted to see in Cologne.
→ Check out my guide to Cologne!
But, instead of driving straight back to Salzburg, where I live, from Cologne, we realized how close to so many other countries we were and decided to make an adventure out of it.
In one day, we drove through the following five countries:
- Germany (Cologne, Aachen, Monschau)
- Netherlands (Maastricht)
- Belgium (Montjoie)
- Luxembourg (Luxembourg City)
- France (Metz)
We technically also visited Austria, but that was purely to make it home and straight to bed after a long day!
We had just spent a night in Cologne, in northwestern Germany, to visit the immersive art exhibit about Claude Monet, one of my favourite painters.
With the rest of our Sunday stretching empty before us, we decided to add on a few more stops to our roadtrip itinerary and so it was that we found ourselves in nearby Aachen, a German city in the far west of the country, bordering Belgium and the Netherlands. The main reason I wanted to visit Aachen was to see the incredible Aachen Cathedral, the very first UNESCO World Heritage Site in Germany.
Suggested stops:
- Cologne
- Burg Stammeln
- Aachen
- The Three Country Point where Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany touch
- Monschau (right across the border from country 3, below)
Cologne
Burg Stammeln
Aachen
From Aachen, Germany's westernmost city, we crossed the border into the Netherlands and visited Maastricht. Home to about 125,000 people, roughly the same size as Salzburg, where I live in Austria, Maastricht is the southernmost city in the Netherlands. It sits on the Maas River home to lots of museums, art galleries, a university, restaurants and shopping.
The last time I was in Maastricht was in 2021 to pick up my Dutch passport, my third after British (1996) and Canadian (2013)!
The Netherlands and Germany come together at a three-country point with Belgium, so from Maastricht we headed south.
I lived in Belgium for a year from 2020-2021, based in Brussels, and spent a lot of time exploring the country while the borders were closed due to COVID-19. This time, I had found a funky looking section on Google Maps where a thin slice of Belgian territory seemed to run through Germany; of course we had to go see it for ourselves!
After the Second World War, when the maps of Europe were being redrawn, there was a Belgian railway that Belgium really wanted to keep, so they designated the railway through Germany as belonging to Belgium still. The railway no longer exists (although a train station still does) and it's now a bike path, maintained by Belgium, within Germany!
→ Check out the reel I made about the Belgian railway in Germany!
From the Belgian railway and Monschau, we drove south into Luxembourg. Luxembourg is Europe's seventh smallest country after the Vatican City (the world's smallest), Monaco, San Marino, Liechtenstein, Malta and Andorra. It is also the world's richest country according to capita per GDP! All that to say, it's a pretty fascinating place to visit.
I've been to Luxembourg quite a few times; it was one of the first I visited as a baby. I visited solo in 2017 and 2021 and it was fun to come back again with my partner to show him my favourite views of Luxembourg City, the country's capital.
I also highly recommend having dinner at AAYAM, a Nepalese semi-fine dining restaurant in the capital.
More time? I also suggest Larochette, Vianden, the Mullerthal Trail and some of Luxembourg's prettiest castles.
We had originally wanted to reach Strasbourg but the sun went down before we could make it there so instead rerouted to Metz, a beautiful city in France's northeast with a massive cathedral and gorgeous promenades along both the Moselle and Seille rivers. We are very much looking forward to coming back and exploring this city much more thoroughly.
More time? I also suggest Strasbourg and Colmar.
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Hi! I’m Jana, a Dutch-German-British-Canadian with a dream of seeing every country in the world. I am a storyteller, photographer and adventurer passionate about documenting and sharing my travels.
