E11 European Long Distance Path

The E11 European long distance path or E11 path is one of the European long-distance paths, running 2560 km (about 1600 miles) west-east from The Hague in the Netherlands through Germany and Poland to the Lithuanian border. It starts in Scheveningen, a fishing community, commercial harbor and spa in The Hague on the Dutch coast of the North Sea. As there are no rambling organizations from Lithuania, Latvia or Russia participating in the European Ramblers Association, it is unlikely that the E11 will be extended to reach Saint Petersburg or Moscow, as was foreseen originally.

The E11 is one of three European long distance paths running East from the Benelux to Eastern Poland. In the North, following the German and Polish coasts of North Sea and Baltic Sea, the E9 offers a variety of polders, sandy beaches, dunes and commercial harbors. More to the South, the E3 crosses through the long range of medium-sized mountains that links the mainly Belgian Ardennes to the Carpathian Mountains. The E11 takes an intermediate course through the rolling lowlands of Northern Germany and Poland. Nowhere does it touch a sea (not even the North Sea, as E11 starts in Scheveningen behind the first rows of buildings!), but it passes a single medium-sized mountain range, the Harz Mountains in the center of Germany. European long distance footpaths are strictly developed as hiking trails, but almost all of E11 can be travelled on a saddle - be it on a horse or a bicycle.

This article presents an encyclopedic overview of the trail. Detailed information about the routing is found in WikiVoyage. Links to detailed information about the townships along E11 are found in a special group of references at the bottom of this article.