The Eifelsteig – Day 1 – Kornelimünster to Roetgen

I’m aiming to make daily posts on this new trail. I’ve realized that taking notes and hoping to write up each trail when I get home is not the best method as daily life kicks back in and I soon get swamped. So here goes…

This new trail will be in an entirely different area of Germany after the Black Forest, the Harz and Swiss Saxony. It was a toss-up between the Mosel Valley and the Eifel region. The latter won by being the shorter of the two possible trails, 15 days compared to 24. I wasn’t feeling lazy, but it’s easier at this point to take two weeks off, rather than in excess of three.

The Eifelsteig is mostly in the Rhineland-Palatinate region of Germany, very close to the border with Belgium and Luxembourg. Indeed, a large part of the second day is spent in Belgium. And so, logically, the way to get to the start of the trail in Kornelimünster, just outside Aachen, is to take the Franco-Belgian Thalys train from Paris to Aix-la-Chapelle, as the French call it, via Brussels and Liège. An early departure from Paris meant that I reached Aachen at 10:45 AM. After a short stroll through the city and a 20-minute bus ride, I reached the start of the trail in Kornelimünster.

Monday was not a good day to be in Kornelimünster as all the restaurants and cafés were closed for the day. Fortunately, one bakery was open and I was able to pick up a sandwich for lunch before heading into the centre of the town to find the start of the Eifelsteig. It was a pretty little place, but the sheer number of cars parked on the main square diminished its charm a little. The start of the trail was easy to find in any case and it soon became clear that I would have no problem finding my way over the course of the next two weeks. As so often in Germany, the trail markings were absolutely impeccable, along with signposts giving the distance left to cover.

The first stage would only be 13 or 14 km with a total climb of 400 metres over that distance, so it was easily doable despite setting off later than usual. And just outside Kornelimünster, someone had marked the distance to cover to reach Trier, so I knew right away how far I had to go.

Almost immediately on leaving Kornelimünster, I found myself in the countryside, walking along a pleasant trail between woods and meadows, alongside babbling brooks from time to time. A stiff wind was blowing, but it wasn’t at all cold, and the day turned out to be mostly sunny. There were quite a few people out walking and, as always in Germany, there were plenty of friendly greetings and occasional brief chats.

After passing a couple of equestrian centres, the trail headed down to the village of Hahn. Shortly after, there was a detour that left the trail proper to head uphill to an open area of fields before descending to join the trail again. Because of this detour, I missed the lime kilns that are a feature of this first stage and that my guidebook devoted a whole page to.

Shortly after, I made a stop to eat my sandwich from the bakery and take in a very pleasant view of the meadows around me. By this time, I had already completed more than half of the day’s hike.

After my lunch break, the trail skirted the village of Rott before gently heading uphill for a while to reach the beautiful Struffelt moor which I crossed on a narrow boardwalk.

This ended at a viewpoint over the Dreilägerbachtal dam, the first of several dams that I would be seeing in this area.

At this point, I was just a couple of kilometres from Roetgen where I would be spending the night. The final approach to the village was particularly bucolic, with fields of grazing cattle on either side. Therefore, it was extremely surprising to arrive in Roetgen and discover a village crossed by a very busy road, right on the Belgian border. The traffic was a real shock after three hours spent in magnificent countryside.

My hotel was right at the side of this busy road, with the start of the next day’s trail just outside the front door. A simple place, but cheap and comfortable, even though I would be needing my white noise app to drown out the sound of the traffic during the night.

Here, too, as in Kornelimünster, most of the restaurants were closed on Monday. However, there was one small place open just across the Belgian border, so I headed there for an early dinner. Having worked until 1 AM to finish a subtitling job before getting up again at 5 AM to take a train into Paris, I needed an early night.

So that was day one of the Eifelsteig. In the end, the distance covered was just over 14 km. It was a great first day, with very easy walking. I don’t think I’ve ever done another long-distance trail that has such an easy first stage. With days of up to 30 km ahead, this was the perfect way to begin