It's Pfingsten (aka Pentecost) weekend and the host fam and I just got home from a lovely, two-day bike tour through the Eifel. Over the course of 140 or so kilometers, we saw several lakes, rivers, fields of grain and the whole spectrum of energy sources-- turbines, solar, dam, coal. You name it we saw it.
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| Ready to tackle NRW's only National Park! |
Luckily the weather was beautiful and the route's undulations weren't too cruel. Plus, we got to enjoy a wide variety of scenery. One moment we were ripping down a foresty gravel trail along the idyllic Rur River and the next chugging up an asphalt road passing one of the many trailer campgrounds. Spring is especially beautiful with the flowers blooming.
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| A break with a view. |
From license plates we could tell quite a few tourists from the Netherlands were also enjoying an Eifel vacation. When the Dutch say, "Let's go to the mountains!" Eifel National Park is a perfect solution. I mean, it's right at their doorstep, and although the mountains aren't exactly the Alps, they're ginormous compared to pancake Holland. Apparently there are even whole hotels run by Dutch for the Dutch in the Eifel and Saarland south from here. They greet guests in Dutch, serve their typical food, have Dutch reading materials-- everything to make it feel like home while on vacation.
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| Indemann stands at about 119 feet and provides a great view of the area. |
One of our points of interest was Indemann, a large structure built a little ways outside of Aachen near the city Düren. The Inde River flows by below and looking out in the direction the Indemann points you can see the Tagebau Hambach, a huge open-pit coal mine. It's been around since the 70's and has been a large source of not only energy, but public debate. What with the mine spreading out, towns having to resettle to make room, environmental issues, etc., it's no wonder the coal company has decided on an alternative plan for the pit's future. A man-made lake is coming soon, ahem, as in start date 2030 through 2055, bringing with it exciting tourism possibilities for the area!
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| Learning what separating your trash wrong looks like... |
Speaking of repurposing and energy, Friday afternoon I took a tour of a local organic waste facility with some fellow Aachener-Zeitung student reporters for an upcoming article. It was fascinating to see, firstly, how poorly many people separate their trash. I mean, I thought it was pretty clear you can't throw your H&M plastic bag into the green recycling, but I guess it wasn't. Secondly, it was neat learning how they capture the methane and get energy out of it. Due to the potential methane throughout the entire facility though, there were many, very serious signs forbidding not only smoking, but any kind of fire. And lastly, I was surprised that it didn't actually smell all that bad. Just very... natural.
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| *I got a pocket, got a pocket full of compost* |
Our guide was a really smart, insightful dude. I liked how he talked about the cycle of our things and what we use. Like they told us in first grade, we're drinking the same water the dinosaurs were chugging. Eventually it all comes back around (whether or not we'd like it to) and someone's got to be responsible for monitoring that process. It was also very clear during our tour how much biology and chemistry you have to know in order to run this kind of operation.
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| Separate your green and non-organic waste properly, kids! |
Well, it was definitely both an educational and scenic weekend. As my return date inches ever closer, it's wonderful getting to spend quality time with my German family, whom I'll miss dearly come mid-June. When I first came here, I thought ten months was a lifetime, but just like 140 kilometers biking may seem a long ways, when it's through beautiful terrain with great people, it zooms by.
