Hiking the first part of the Eifelsteig

Sep 1, 2017 • in: hiking • tags: hiking, eifelsteig

Some days ago we went hiking and started with the first stages of the Eifelsteig. There is a bus that drops you of right at the start in Kornelimünster, which is very convenient.

Swedish looking house
On our way we saw a house that looked quite swedish and reminded us that we miss Sweden.
The castle in Monschau
The castle in Monschau
View over the city of Monschau
View over the city of Monschau
A small river running through Monschau
A small river running through Monschau
The market place of Monschau
The market place of Monschau
Huge mushroom
Huge mushroom
A fly agaric
A fly agaric
Bog country side
Bog country side
One of many dams in the Eifel
One of many dams in the Eifel
Part of the path through the bog
Part of the path through the bog
Our tent and all equipment
Our tent and all equipment

The first stage was OK but is not as nice as the following ones. We passed an old and a second not quite as old lime kiln. The trip is not that long but we carried our complete equipment including tent and supplies and where happy once we arrived in Roetgen. The campground is in the town but still very quite. We where however unable to understand the apparently German speaking woman at the reception.

The second stage was probably the most interesting one regarding the country side. It partially passes the Hohe Venn bog. There is an alternative route through the bog instead of the straight road which is highly recommended. This stage officially ends in Monschau which is a very nice old German town. You should definitely set aside one or two hours to explore Monschau. We continued hiking for probably 3 more kilometer to reach the next campground. This campground is quite nice and has free hot showers, unfortunately it is close to a busy road so bring ear plugs (you should bring them always anyway).

The third day we hiked to Dedenborn. It's alternating up and down hill but still a nice route. Halfway we started walking together with a girl from the Netherlands and learned that Germans are allegedly quite friendly (I still don't believe that). We also had dinner together at the campground in Dedenborn. If you don't bring your own food, you should be aware that there is often no supermarket in the small towns, for example in Dedenborn.

Unfortunately, we received some minor foot injuries and therefore did not finish the fourth stage. We only hiked to Einruhr and then returned home by bus again, which thankfully drives directly to Aachen.

The trail goes through forest a lot but also over fields so you'll need some kind of sun protection. It's a mix of asphalt street, gravel road and dirt path. While we had brilliant weather all the time, it was rainy on the days before and some paths were very murky. This is probably also why we saw many mushrooms and also some mushroom collectors. For the next time we learned to bring a small towel to dry the outer shell of our tent which constantly got wet from the dew. All in all it's definitely a route we can recommend for hiking in Germany/Belgium.