A day in the Eifel—hiking, ‘rafting’, and a 1000-year-old castle

The Eifel region is just north about 60 kilometers from Trier…On Sunday, we (a group from the University—international students and German students) headed to this heavily wooded area to explore, get to know one another, and have a good time. This excursion was much different than the rest where we would typically go to a city and explore the sights…instead we got to know the mountains/hills, a castle that overlooks the area, and ants. Yes, ants. I learned the hard way that they are big, cruel, and they bite.

It is still impressing to me that Germany, a country of 82 million and roughly the size of Montana, can have so many serene, untouched areas such as the Eifel. Besides other hikers, there was virtually no one around and there were just small towns scattered throughout.

We were first split up into groups and given a compass, map and a walkie-talkie. Our job was to find certain ‘destination points’ by listening to the other group as they told us what to do and where to go. Besides losing one of our group members for a while, we passed with flying colors! At the end of the hike, we all ended up by the same small lake and were given our next assignment.

We made rafts. Yep, we put them together, got in the water, and prayed to God they didn’t sink or break with at least 10 people on top. It was fun, besides those darn ants. Only one group’s raft collapsed in the water (luckily wasn’t mine), but we had a good time having water fights.

The day ended with a tour of the castle that was built in 900 CE with a grillfest following.

Some interesting stuff about the castle:
-In one tower, they had a 7/8 meter hole that was once used to capture invaders…they would sadly leave them there until they died and the soldiers had to take their bodies out.
-We saw the living quarters (the remains of the room at least) of where the Mayor of the city would live.
-The remnants of the church’s catholic church was the only room that faced the east, so the sun would shine through.

We were starving by the time we had our grillfest, so the sauerkraut and potatoes tasted spectactular! I also got to know the tour guide’s dog, Troll. I don’t think he liked me much though because I am still having a hard time rolling my tongue with ‘r’s…so, every time I tried to say his name, my friends would tease me because he usually wouldn’t even look up.

It was a good day…This week it has been HOT…and stormy. I am hoping for more rain tomorrow, because the heat and no air conditioner combination can sometimes be dangerous when still a quarter of the population (hmmm...yeah, that sounds about right) doesn’t wear deodorant.

Happy July 6th!



This is the raft we built...can you believe we all made it on top of it?




This is a window in the mayor's living quarters...the castle you can see was a gift and the mayor lived here partly so he could see the castle everyday.





Here are some buddies with me...in this picture, there are some people from the Netherlands, Denmark, and Latvia.