Cultural landscape, nature conservation, gentle energy. In the green west of Aachen you can find several examples of a sustainable use of natural resources. Mostly it goes through the open area of an agriculturally used cultural landscape - both in the valley of the Senserbach and on the plateau above with the starting point Orsbach. On the downhill stretches out of the valley, picturesque views of the hills between Vaals, Vijlen and Mechelen emerge time and again.

The hiking route begins in the shadow of Orsbach Castle. The quarry stone building was built at the end of the 14th century and served the foresters as an office and residential building. Whether the building belonged to the watchtowers of the former Aachener land ditch has not yet been scientifically clarified. Orsbach's exposed location speaks in favour of this, the tower's location away from a main road and away from the moat in the centre of the village speaks against it.

First we go a short distance in northern direction, with a view of the Vetschau wind farm. It was opened in 1997 and completed four years later. The gigantic rotors of the eight plants produce more than 20 million kilowatt hours of environmentally friendly electricity annually and cover the needs of about 20,000 inhabitants of Aachen. The construction of the wind farm was preceded by an empirical study - the first of its kind in Germany at the time. In this study, wind potential for the city of Aachen was calculated in order to determine the best possible location for the wind turbines.

Along the route, but especially on the plateau, there are a large number of crossroads typical of the entire border region. The reasons for the erection of such a cross were manifold and can only rarely be reconstructed exactly. Thus there are pilgrim crosses, devotional crosses and also weather crosses, which are to recommend the harvest to the divine protection. Often such crosses were also stations or targets of field processions.

Along the Dutch border the route leads past the Finkenhag fruit meadow. The Nature Conservation Union of Germany is upgrading the cultural landscape along the Dutch border. In the poorly structured, intensively used Bördel landscape, relics of the historically grown cultural landscape are to be preserved and renewed. Hedges, fruit meadows, head trees and small woody structures are characteristic landscape structures and serve as a biotope network for many animal and plant species. An example of this is the Finkenhag fruit meadow. The former strip of arable land was planted in 2001 and 2007 with traditional high-trunk fruit varieties, including Red Star Renette, Rhenish Bean Apple, Countess of Paris and Aachener Hausapfel.

After the fruit meadow to the left of the route in the dense bushes, a small piece of the Aachener Landwehr wall was discovered. The trench and other parts of the wall are filled.

Shortly before the village Mamelis the monastery St. Benedictusberg lies about 10 minutes away from the border route. A detour to the architecturally interesting building is worthwhile in any case. Daily there are several prayer times with Gregorian chorales at 05:00, 06:30, 07:45, 09:30 (with high mass), 12:15, 14:00,17:00, 20:30 during prayer times no admission.

The route leads north past the village of Mamelis back to Orsbach. A section is covered on the Mameliser Mill Trail. This steep and eroded border path belongs to half of the city of Aachen and the municipality of Vaals. Probably the path corresponds to the ditch of the Landwehr, while the wall was overhauled by agriculture. At the green border to Mamelis one meets again an eagle stone, bordered by old horse chestnuts and a cross.