Hiking in the Eifel

On Saturday, Jim and I went to the Eifel National Park for a hike. The Eifel covers 110 square kilometers. It is west of Bonn an extends to the Belgian border. The park contains 4 large reservoirs and countless hiking trails and biking trails. There are four different visitor centers inside the park. It looked like you could also rent canoes and kayaks.

We went to the Rurberg information center to start our hike. It was about an hours drive from Bonn. We already had a map of the area which we borrowed from some friends so the information center was only really helpful in that they had bathrooms.

The weather was absolutely perfect for a hike. It was sunny and in the high 70s. The canopy of the forest kept us reasonably cool on the hike.

A lot of the trails are actually paved so that people can bike in the park as well. We did find some unpaved roads and moved off the main trail to follow those.

The trails in Germany are not as technical as the ones in Colorado. They are generally pretty wide and obstacle free so make for easier hiking. That is probably one of the reasons that you see people of all levels out hiking and biking.

Although the trails are actually well marked in this park, we did get off trail for a little while due to Jim's no backtracking rule. We followed some mountain bikers who seemed to know where they were going - that is until they turned around and asked us if we knew where we were. Thankfully, both parties had GPS watches so we were able to head in the right direction.

Along the hiking/ biking route there was a snack stand. Of course, no German hike is complete without a gigantic beer and sausage. Our off track detour had put us a little farther out than we planned so we figured we needed nourishment to get back to the car. There was even a little pipe organ guy for entertainment. I could get used to this kind of hiking.