The European long-distance hiking trail 11 (mostly simple: E11) runs from Scheveningen (a district of The hague) to the Polish-Lithuanian Border. The route is 2560 km long.
background
Since there are no hiking organizations in Lithuania, Latvia, Belarus and Russia that are members of the European Hiking Association (ERA), there will be no extension of the long-distance hiking trail to the east for the time being.
The E11 preferably runs through forest areas. If you prefer open landscapes, you should E9 to use. For the mountain hiker this is E3 the right choice.
The forest character is even given in the Netherlands, where there are only narrow forest areas. The first 20 kilometers run through the belt of the city parks of The Hague and through the royal estates ("De Horsten") in Wassenaar. The parks are an example of a variant of deciduous and coniferous forests that one encounters on the way to Lithuania. Then come the forests of the ridge of the hill Utrecht, the Veluwe and Twente and small and large forest areas in the border area too Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia. When you look at the area around the resin leaves, one reaches a relatively open part of the route. Only the Berlin forests add forest areas again. The whole of Poland has 70% forest areas, so you will mainly be able to walk through forest there.
Of course, the hiker also walks through the landscapes such as fens and lakes in the northern European lowlands. Every now and then you have to hike along rivers for a while, for example between Dessau and Coswig, near Berlin, in front of Frankfurt (Oder) and near Poznań. In water-rich areas, but also in the former GDR and in the vicinity of Poznań, the route runs through extensive pastures and cultural landscapes. It also often goes through old inner cities such as Leiden, Amersfoort, Deventer, Goslar, Bad Harzburg, Potsdam, Frankfurt (Oder), Gniezno, Toruń and Olsztyn. Even The Hague, Osnabrück, Berlin and Poznań are cut through.
The route is nowhere very high. The roof of the route is reached at 514 meters in the Weser Uplands. In the Harz you walk along the flanks and not over the peaks. Nevertheless, there are exciting landscapes such as the Bodetal near the Hexentanzplatz. In the east of the Harz Mountains, the Petersberg is the last mountain to be recognized as such. Later, on some ridges, about 200 meters are reached, but you are 100 meters above sea level.
history
Already about a thousand years ago traders, adventurers, soldiers and refugees ran or rode across the ice-edge layers that the penultimate Ice Age had formed across Germany and Poland. They were higher-lying areas that made better progress possible than the bogs or wetlands on either side, which are traversed by rivers running south or north. When trade in Europe increased in the Middle Ages, one even had to introduce "traffic rules". For the wide and heavy carts of the merchants from Hessen, a separate network of paths was laid out or designated. It was called the Hessen ways. In the meantime, Marskrämer, Tödden, Hollandgoers and Kiepenkerle ran back and forth between the Netherlands and Germany.
The emergence of the E11 as a sporty-tourist hiking trail is somehow related to the Wiehengebirge. In 1974 a collaboration developed between the Wiehengebirgsverband in Osnabrück and the "Wiehengebergte Wandelaars 1970", a group of friends of individual hikers from the Veluwe and Overijssel. They made the connection to the Töddenweg via Oldenzaal to Deventer and named it "Handelsweg". In 1980 it was extended to Amersfort. The international hiking trail, which can be seen as the predecessor of today's E11, is the Harz - Netherlands long-distance hiking trail.[1] This approximately 700-kilometer route was also created in 1980.
The disappearance of the Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain in 1989 and the reunification of West and East Germany in 1990 made it necessary to mark the E11 further east. In Germany it was primarily a matter of integrating the new federal states into the existing Federal Republic. At the European level, people dreamed of extending the route across borders to Moscow. In any case, the Harz - Netherlands long-distance hiking trail from the previous century was upgraded to a European long-distance hiking trail in 1990. The Polish tourist association PTTK created a route through Poland and Lithuania, for which local routes were used.
When the route had now grown to more than 2000 kilometers in length, the Dutch NWB added the Dutch part in the form of the network of the hiking platform LAW. Since there was no chance of finding a good route in the heavily populated area between Haarlem and Uitgeest, the beginning was simply moved to The Hague.
preparation
Residents of Schengen countries only need an identity card for the entire route.
getting there
By plane
Between The hague and Rotterdam lies Rotterdam The Hague Airport. Much more important, however, is the one that is only 50 km away Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. Trains run regularly between Schiphol and Den Haag Centraal, the journey time is around 30 minutes.
By train
Cologne Central station is just under three and a half hours drive from Den Haag Centraal. From there you can take public transport to the seaside resort of Scheveningen.
On foot
The North Sea Trail also happens to Scheveningen. Coming from the north or south there is a direct connection to the E11.
Here we go
The Dutch section (355 km)
The Dutch section of the E11 is on par with the entire route Marscramer pad (Dutch hiking website with route suggestions). Most of the time the path leads through wooded areas, but sometimes there are only narrow strips of forest.
First through The Hague, then the forests of the Utrecht ridge. Then it goes through the Veluwe and through the forests of Twenteuntil you get to the small and large forest areas in the borderland too North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony comes.
The starting point of the hiking trail is Scheveningen on the North Sea, from where the E11 initially leads to the city center of The Hague. Then you cross a belt of city parks for the first 20 kilometers The hague and the royal estates "De Horsten" in Wassenaar. Then it goes over Suffer to Amersfort, in which Utrecht is not crossed. Afterwards it's direction Deventer, but not through Apeldoornbut south around it. In Deventer you will hike further east, Oldenzaal as the last city in the Netherlands as a destination. First the Sallandse Heuvelrug National Park crossed and then a path between Almelo and Hengelo found. It is not far to the German border after Oldenzaal and after crossing the last few kilometers of the Marskramerpad on the way to the near bad Bentheim counted.
The German section (996 km)
Marskramerpad (13 km)
These first kilometers on German territory are now called Marskramerpad, they used to be part of Töddenweg.
Töddenweg (110 km)
bad Bentheim near the Dutch-German border is the first town in this section. This is where the Töddenwegwho took over the E11 Rheine to Osnabrück forms. You cross the towns of Schüttorf, Rheine, Dreierwalde, Ostenwalde, Hopsten, Recke, Mettingen and Westerkappeln on it. The path is marked with a white T on a black square.
Wittekindsweg
The E11 leads through the old town of Osnabrück and further than Wittekindsweg first to the north, after a few kilometers to turn again to the east. On the ridge it goes from Osnabrück further to Porta Westfalica. Here the route runs along the famous Kaiser Wilhelm monument shortly before crossing the Weser.
- Course: Wiehengebirge, 1 Rule, 2 Mühlenort near Engter, Vehre, Ostercappeln, Wehrendorf, Barkhausen, Oberbauerschaft, Bergkirchen to Porta Westfalica.
- Marking from Osnabrück to Mühlenort: white cross on black background. Then it's back to the white and red stripes.
The Tödden- and the Wittekindsweg are through the Wiehengebirgsverband Weser-Ems supervised. From Osnabrück to Wittekindsberg (south of Minden) you can use the compass card 750.
Section eastern Lower Saxony and Harz (186 km)
Then there is direction resin. Of Bad Gandersheim one hikes to Seesen to the western Harz border and then circumnavigate the northern Harz via Wolfshagen, Goslar, Bad Harzburg and Ilsenburg.
Section Harz - Saxony-Anhalt (244 km)
Since 1990 the Harz Club has been working hard to extend the E11 further east. By Saxony-Anhalt a completely new way emerged. Only in the Harz did they resort to old, locally known hiking trails. It's about Ilsenburg, Wernigerode, Thale and Gernrode over the mountain flanks to one Ballenstedt reached on the northern edge of the Eastern Harz. The southern edge of the Harz is reached via Pansfelde and Wippra. To Eisleben, Martin Luther's birthplace, you can use the map 450 from Kompass and then the maps 452 (Bad Harzburg - Thale) and then 453 (Thale - Lutherstadt Eisleben).
Section Saxony-Anhalt - border with Poland
It goes eastwards Eisleben and Halle (Saale), Petersberg, Dessau, Worlitz, Coswig, Bad Belzig and on towards Potsdam. There it crosses the path of the E10, which runs in a north-south direction. A large boulder marks this point about 200m south of Potsdam Central Station. The path then leads over the Glienicker Bridge Berlin. The last part of the German section runs to the German-Polish border in Frankfurt (Oder).
The Polish section (1,209 km)
In Poland the E11 runs in an easterly, later in a north-easterly direction, via Międzychód, Poznań, Toruń and Olsztyn to Ogrodniki on the Lithuanian border not far from the triangle with Belarus.
Poland is about 30% covered with forest. The hiking trail then mostly leads through forest, which, however, alternates between forests used for forestry and overgrown deciduous forest. There are also many lakes and moorlands. The cities mentioned above are passed at such a distance that there are no problems with overnight stays. If you move further away from the big cities and railway lines, you have to reckon with difficulties in staying overnight without a tent or transport on daily stages of 25 to 35 km.
security
In some sections there is a warning against pathogenic tick bites. A vaccination, however, can be given by your family doctor.
trips
- Towards England
If you want to go further west from Scheveningen, you have the option of crossing to Great Yarmouth on a cargo ferry, which has a few places for travelers on foot. The Norfolkline shipping company operates a regular ferry service to the UK and the Freight Team is available for pricing and bookings on 01805 221 783.
literature
Individual evidence
- ↑Christian Roeder: Long-distance hiking trail Harz - Netherlands; from Bad Harzburg to Haarlem. Compass, 1980. ISBN 3-8134-0099-9
