Mechernich - Euskirchen-Kreuzweingarten

125 kilometres stretching from Aachen to Troisvierges in the north of Luxembourg

A natural monument of extraordinary fascination: a narrow gorge with metre-high rock faces, cool and dark. Cracks and crevices, weathered and overgrown with mosses and lichens. Anyone walking through this eye of a needle in the sandstone is walking through a 200-million-year-old seabed that harbours many secrets.

Around 13,000 years ago, the Laacher See volcano erupted violently. Today, the lake is a popular excursion destination. The impressive Maria Laach Abbey is also located near Lake Laach.

The road takes its name from the post-war period, when coffee smuggling from Belgium was one of the most important sources of income for the people of Schmidt. Schmidt was over 90% destroyed at the end of the Second World War, including the parish church of St. Hubertus. With the profits from smuggling coffee across the nearby border, the people of Schmidt got their families through and rebuilt their destroyed houses. Of course, this did not go unnoticed by the parish priest at the time, Josef Beyer. The reconstruction of the church initially progressed somewhat less quickly. He said in a sermon: "I know that you are getting a headache from all the money. For me it's the other way around, because I don't know where I'm going to get the money to rebuild the church." From now on, the smugglers sacrificed part of their profits from the coffee business to rebuild the church. church. This is why it is popularly known as St. Mokka.