Hiking Around

There are many great hikes located throughout Germany and we are doing our best to visit each one before our time here is up. Last week I kept the tradition of hiking on my birthday by visiting Echternach, Luxembourg, which offers several kilometers of hiking trails. One of the fun parts of hiking in Germany is that you rarely understand the local hiking maps posted and once you are on the trails, you will need to interpret signs and symbols so that you do not become lost....er, I mean not arriving at your preferred destination. In my opinion, experienced hikers never get lost, they simply find new locations by surprise. Back to it.

We chose to hike up to a lookout that you can see from the heart of Echternach. Why? Because the trail head location has been somewhat of a mystery to find and I love a good challenge. We hiked around and found what looked to be a promising street that went in the general direction of the lookout. I have to admit that I was very happy to find the trail head at the very end of the street.....it was hot outside and walking around in the blazing sun was not all that enjoyable. Have you seen me sweat in the sun? It's not pretty. Once we were on the trail the shade provided a nice break from the sun. I wish I could say that it was a pleasant stroll in the woods, but I would be lying. The pitch immediately went vertical and it seemed that we were going to cover the few hundred meter climb in a very short distance. Fortunately there were several cool spots to stop and catch our breath.

Feeling refreshed, we continued our journey up until we encountered the first of many "forks in the road". Now, in these situations in the past, I have always followed the sage advice from the ski film director Warren Miller: "when you come to a fork in the road, take it". As you can see, there were no signs per say that described distance or names to different locations.

In the end, we guessed correctly and found the lookout. The first sight was this old prayer chapel that was erected in 1630.

On the other side of the chapel offered a bench to rest and take in the view of Echternach.

After our quick stop, we ventured down the trail a bit and found another lookout. The only catch was that you had to navigate this near-vertical stair case:

The view was worth the risk, in my opinion.

These rock formations were pretty neat, especially since the trail went through the heart of this rock:

Destination reached, we found a trail that went down the hill in the general direction of Echternach, so we took it. Mission accomplished as we found the car....after a few wrong turns and long walk through a city park. In the end, it was a great hike and wonderful way to continue the tradition of hiking on my birthday.

Meerfeld

Another great hiking area that we have discovered is around the village of Meerfeld. It is about 20 minutes from our village and offers amazing views and several hiking options. First, we chose to walk around Meerfelder Maar, a volcanic lake created nearly 29,000 years ago.

The views walking around the lake looking up to the rim of the former volcano.


The village of Meerfeld sits near the shore of the lake and offers great views from the balconies of the local hotels. It is easy to see why this place is so popular for weekend getaways in the summer.

After our walk around the lake, we decided to hike along a trail that eventually ended up at the top of the volcanic rim. The view was worth the effort and we loved sitting on the bench taking it all in.

Since there are so many different trails around Meerfeld, we are planning to hike here often. Perhaps on our next trip we will undertake the challenge of navigating our way to the next village over: Manderscheid. We might want to pack an extra sandwich in case we "find a new location by surprise".