Weekend Excursions - First month in Europe Posted on: 5th October 2016 :: Photo Credits: Silva, Prayaag, Gaurav, Sagar, Pabitra, Manish, Alap, Kavitha, Rama ::
Preface
Travelogue of weekend excursions taken during first month of exchange semester at RWTH Aachen, Germany (September 2016-17)
Continued from: Weekend 3, Munich (Germany)
Weekend : 4
Location: Kelmis (Belgium)
It was the last weekend of this month. We decided to make a short trip to Kelmis, the neighbouring Belgian town, before our bus pass expired at the end of the month. Taking a direct bus from Aachen Busof, we reached Kelmis late in the afternoon and walked around a small beautiful lake surrounded by forest.
A hiking trail led through the forest. Google maps showed a place called ‘Rocher du Casino’ at the end of the trail. Everyone got excited at the prospect of going in a casino and we started walking along the picturesque trail. The weather was perfect too, cool breeze and sunshine!
When we reached the location pointed by google maps, we were in for a great surprise! Instead of a 'casino', there was a rock climbing arena. ‘Rocher du Casino’ (French) means ‘The Rock Casino’ and apparantly, the name of that small lake was ‘Casino’ . We were astonished to see how effortlessly the rock-climbers were climbing the huge cliff. Initially, the more experienced would climb up and fit safety clamps along the way. Then the others would follow one by one.
When returning back to the town, we took a detour along the trail and got to see some stunning panoramas.
The next location on our list was a museum in Kelmis. Unfortunately, it was closed at that time. Luckily, we got to see a football match between the local teams at a field nearby.
After the match was over, the sky got covered with clouds and it started to drizzle. So, we decided to call it a day and boarded the bus back to Aachen. This refreshing short trip took our european country count to ‘3’: Germany, Netherlands and now ‘Belgium’ (well, technically the Drielandenpunt is sufficient to 'visit' these 3 countries..)!