Eifelsteig – Day 8 – Mirbach to Hillesheim sticking to the trail

I was up and out early, before they had even unlocked the hotel front door. Luckily, as so often in Germany, my room key had the front door key attached to it. Breakfast had consisted of a Cliff bar and a cup of instant coffee in my room, but I had more snacks with me, and was hoping to find somewhere to eat along the way.

I was carrying a much lighter pack, just water, rain gear (although I suspected I wouldn’t need it) and snacks.

It was a very chilly morning and I set off in hiking trousers and four layers of clothing. A first for me!

It was just a short walk to the bus stop on the main square. There was no one else around but there was a timetable posted with the 7:38 to Mirbach listed on it. And shortly before that time, I saw a bus pass by, heading for the local high school. A few minutes later, it returned to pick me up. I was the only passenger heading to Mirbach but, on arriving there, the driver collected a bunch of schoolkids to take them to Hillesheim. It was clearly a school transport service, which explains why there were no buses at the weekend. Thank God it was Monday as I didn’t really want to hike back to Mirbach before starting stage 8.

The weather forecast said the day could be cloudy, but it was totally wrong – I was in for another gloriously sunny day. As I set off from Mirbach, the sky was crisscrossed by the contrails of early morning flights.

The first part of the day’s hike was mostly in the forest that I crossed yesterday to get to Hillesheim, albeit in another area of it. It was easy walking, with not a soul around.

The trail then emerged into open farmland for a while with views over the whole of the Eifel range. This used to be a volcanic area, and I will be seeing more evidence of that in the days to come as I head south. All the same, one of the summits in the distance clearly had a volcano-like outline.

From the farmland, the trail descended into a valley. I took a quick break to change into shorts and remove a few layers of clothing as the day was getting quite warm.

The valley trail soon lead to a beautiful waterfall, the Dreimühlen fall, which was clearly a major tourist attraction. For the first time since setting off, I encountered other people, and a lot of them! The waterfall is unusual in that it is not naturally formed, but the result of road and railway construction in the early 20th century that diverted three streams to drain an area of land. The outflow formed the waterfall that is in fact growing because of the limestone in the water.

Just after the waterfall, there was a restaurant where I was hoping to eat. Unfortunately, when I arrived, it was only 11 o’clock and the place didn’t open until 12 at the earliest. I couldn’t really see myself waiting an hour when I still had a fair distance to go, so I gave up on the idea of eating there.

As the trail continued through a number of villages, I was hoping to find food as I went along. However, in this area of Germany, Monday is ruhetag, the day off for most restaurants and cafés. Every place I came across was closed. Next Monday, I shall definitely take my precautions. And so, in the end, all I had to eat were the snacks I carried with me.

The villages I passed through were certainly interesting. The first was Niederehe where the centre of the village was occupied by a huge abbey that was closed to the public.

Next up was Kerpen with its huge castle on a hill above the village. As the trail passed very close to this monster, I was able to see that it had been completely restored, not always in the most elegant manner. It’s now privately owned and mostly used for wedding receptions and other events.

Just after Kerpen, I had to reply to an urgent email concerning work. As I sat on a bench to write it, an elderly couple passed by and told me that I should have gone further up the hill before sitting down as the view was much better. I tried telling them in German that I would be heading uphill shortly, but that I had an email to send. Rather than say schicken (to send), I said schinken (ham). I guess that adds a whole new layer to the concept of spam!

A little further on, I found one of the two Dutch guys lazing on a bench in the sun. He told me that his friend was doing the day’s full trail like me, and but that he was taking it easy by doing a shorter route. And he confirmed that they had indeed gone from Blankenheim to Mirbach by taxi the day before, explaining why I found them coming towards me at one point.

The final village before Hillesheim was Berndorf where there was a modern church and, just above it on the hill, a beautiful old one dating from the 11th century. I definitely preferred the older one.

From there, it was an easy walk back into Hillesheim where I stopped off at the tourist office to ask about the crime theme that pervades the town – I had even seen signs for a crime hiking trail as I went along. It seems that a number of popular German thrillers and crime novels are set in this area, either in Hillesheim itself or the surrounding area. And so the town, which was also hit hard in the 2021 floods, has capitalized on this. Indeed, the Dutch guy I saw earlier told me that he and his friend were staying at the Crime Hotel, and that they would be getting a crime breakfast tomorrow morning. I hope I see them again to find out what that was about!