The Eifelsteig – Day 2 – Roetgen to Monschau

The second day on the Eifelsteig turned out to be as easy as the first, albeit a bit longer – I had clocked up 20 km when I arrived at my hotel in Monschau, but that was after a long walk around the town.

I had a great night’s sleep in Roetgen. The white noise app drowned out the din from the road and I slept 10 hours straight. There was no sense in getting up too early as it was only four hours to Monschau and I couldn’t check in until 2pm. And so after an excellent breakfast at the hotel (real scrambled eggs!), I set off just after 9.

There had been a heavy storm the previous evening (just after I got back from dinner) and the temperature was a lot lower. Plus the wind was still blowing. But the sun kept breaking through and it was perfect weather for hiking.

As soon as I left the hotel, and headed off along the trail outside the front door, the noise from the road began to fade and, after a couple of minutes, I found myself back in the woods. There was even a cute little squirrel stocking up for winter in a grove of hazelnut trees. That horrible road was soon nothing more than a memory as I made my way across an area of farmland before returning to the woods again. Throughout the morning, the path was on a gentle rise, and I climbed 300 m without noticing.

One fun thing about the morning was the constant wavering between Germany and Belgium. I knew that German was one of Belgium’s three official languages, but I had never realized the reason for that until now . For a good part of the day, I was walking through Belgium, with official signs in German, rather than French or Flemish. It’s just a tiny corner of an already tiny country, but German is clearly the language spoken in this area. The border was marked by stones from time to time with a B on one side and a D on the other and in fact, it was possible to have a a foot in either country as I went along!

And at one point, there were a number of signs along the side of the trail, with photos of an old farm, the Reinartzhof. It had stood on this spot since the middle ages, at the crossroads of two pilgrimage trails. From what I could understand, it provided, accommodation and food for pilgrims. Today, there is just a small shrine and a noticeboard telling the story of the place. Apparently, the farm was no longer viable from 1958 on following the construction of a local dam that diverted its water sources. Even so, people were living there until 1971. Today, thick forest has taken the place of the old farm buildings and not a trace of them remains,

Shortly after, following a sharp turn to the left, I found myself on a track that ran dead straight for around 5 km, crossing the Hautes Fagnes (High Fens) nature reserve. The track went on…

And on…

And on…

And on…

Until reaching the day’s highest point at Stelling (660 m). What looked like a long, boring slog on the map was anything but. The vegetation around me changed continuously, making this section quite fascinating. At first, I was in a thick forest, mostly made up of pines. These were then replaced by deciduous trees, mainly oaks, before an area of moorland with countless varieties of trees. This was also where I came across a few other hikers, notably a very pleasant lady to whom I chatted for a few minutes, who is just doing the first four stages of the Eifelsteig, and who, like me, felt the day’s conditions were ideal.

Just after the highest point, I left the trail for a short distance to go to a viewpoint overlooking the whole of the Eiffel range. Unfortunately, the view was pretty underwhelming. Just like Charlemagne’s so-called bed, a block of granite a little further on where, legend says, the emperor spent the night on one of his journeys.

From there, it was an easy descent to Monschau. Because the town is in a deep valley, it is more or less impossible to spot before you actually get there, which no doubt explains why the town is so well preserved, having avoided destruction during the various wars that swept through this area.

I arrived at around 1:20 pm and wandered around the town, amid the tourist hordes, until it was time to check in at my hotel, another simple, but comfortable place, this time in what appeared to be a former bank building.

After freshening up and relaxing for a while, I took a long stroll around the town, unable on this visit to stock up on the fantastic mustard they make in Monschau [and sell in stone jars!]. After a good slice of Black Forest cake and some excellent Darjeeling, I took in an exhibition of photos by Inge Morath, an Austrian photographer, at the local cultural centre, and also had a look inside the church, which astounded me with its layout: the altar in the middle of the church with the pews in a half circle around it. The whole interior was very modern, with a beautiful organ and some very distinctive stained glass windows.

Then it was back to the hotel to write this blog, before heading out again for dinner. At the restaurant I chose, I found the lady I met earlier. She will be on her way to Einruhr tomorrow too, so we are bound to meet again.

So, another excellent day on the Eifelsteig. Interestingly, last night, I had a message from a guy we started following on Instagram when we were on the Alpe Adria trail two years ago. He is originally from Aachen and he told me that he hiked the Eifelsteig years ago when the trail was first established, his first long-distance hike. He told me I am going to have a great time on it and so far he is right!