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03/03/2026
This trip report is written by Rosa van Walbeek after a collective CAR research visit to the Institute of Cartopology in Vaals, the southernmost town in the Netherlands, sharing a three point border with Germany and Belgium.
To ride our route, download this gpx-file:
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The first weekend of March 2026 CAR visited the Institute of Cartopology; a research & educational center/café/artist studio/mountain hut and home of Remy and Marlies halfway up the Vaalserberg. Their work has led them all over Europe, mapping places for municipalities, NGO’s, and EU-projects. Through these experiences they developed their practice of cartopology, a combination of cartography and anthropology. The institute now has a basecamp, a methodology, and an educational program, but at the heart they cherish the curiosity of how to keep becoming a better cartopologist.
The basecamp, Berghut Halverwege is encircled by roads making it possible to efficiently go up the mountain. In contrast they offer a place to stand still and go into the mountain; by digging, observing, tasting, dyeing, they explore their situatedness in this place on a constant edge, where the borders of Germany, Belgium and The Netherlands meet.
After spending some time at basecamp we cycled up to the ‘three country point’ at the top of Vaalserberg. A lot of traffic passed, making us curious to what we would find. To envision what we eventually encountered: imagine a huge car-filled parking lot, a plastic theme park & playground full of screaming children while the smell of deep fried snacks hits you in the face. Not a place to linger and be.
We continued riding (and walking and slipping) on steep trails, through moss filled forest and small border towns, crossing the human made line of separation every few kilometers. The border is marked by occasional stones, and you notice a change in aesthetics of the human made interventions like the signs for walking trails, but besides that you wouldn’t know where one country begins and the other one ends; the forest is the same on each side.
The lack of gates, border posts, check points gave us freedom to move through and we didn’t even think of carrying our passports with us. I wonder how people in the nearby AZC (asylum center) perceive the area where they have been placed; what role the forest plays in their life and if they find freedom among the trees where no one sees you moving from one country to the other, or if the risk of accidentally crossing a border is too big to take when you are trying to comply to the endlessly aggressive list of Dutch rules during your asylum process.
Just before the end of daylight we arrived back to basecamp. Again we could stand still. After reading, cooking, eating, and exploring each others thoughts, we settled in for the night. The small shipping container, industrial on the outside, was kitsch, cozy, and warm on the inside with bunkbeds and wood paneling. I felt like we were in the forest again, falling asleep to the sound of the wind and woken up by the birds.
I’m inspired by the power of being and staying in a place in contrast to the surroundings. Building life and existing just the way you want to exist, and because of this, offering opportunities to bridge differences and learn from each other.