The best walks and hikes around Gerolstein

The versatile, very different faces of this low mountain range, which is extremely popular with many hiking friends, are described by photographer Lars-Henrik Roth: „The Eifel can be harsh and soft, vast and enchanting, barren and luminous. It changes its face with the weather, with the seasons (…) A morning in the High Fens is something fundamentally different from an afternoon at the Urft Dam, a winter day on the plateau something different from a June evening in the Ahr Valley. This diversity is no coincidence. It is the real capital of this landscape.“ (Source: Member magazine „Die Eifel. Zeitschrift des Eifelvereins“)

Sometimes an area or a special attraction is named after another area for marketing reasons, for example, there are several areas in Germany that have "Switzerland" as an addition. The term "Gerolsteiner Dolomiten", on the other hand, is not such a label fraud, but here the hiker actually experiences real dolomite rock, which is geologically native to both the Vulkaneifel and the great Dolomites of South Tyrol.

Regarding the following quoted work „Lob der Berge“, I unfortunately cannot name the author, the text was found in the Karwendel mountains: „Glory to God in the highest. For he has created the beautiful world, has set the mountains so high, so that not every scoundrel, with whom the plain is so richly blessed, meets the happy hiker up there. Glory to God in the highest.“

Each of the many small sacred monuments, which were often donated generations ago out of deep popular piety, proclaims to the believing observer the eternal message of the death of Jesus Christ, but this is only apparently the end: for at the same time it is also a sign of the overcoming of death through his glorious resurrection, which we Christians celebrate at Easter. At the beginning of this year's Easter Lenten season, Pope Leo XIV, in an address, described the Cross of Christ as the “deepest revelation of God's love”.

In view of the Passion story of Jesus Christ – which ends in the apparent powerlessness of the cross, but finds its Easter fulfillment in the glorious resurrection from the dead – Karl Cardinal Lehmann writes in a contribution titled "Power and Service" the following: + "But ultimately, he takes this service seriously by giving his life even unto death on the cross. Everything ultimately finds its ultimate and deepest justification in the recourse to Isaiah's prophetic proclamation, which Jesus makes his own here: 'For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many' (Mark 10:45; cf. Isaiah 53:10-12). To give his life as a ransom for many, this is Jesus' mission and cause. He can only mean this of himself. This word accentuates the uniqueness of the service of Jesus giving his life." This unique service of the Son of God also applies to us, the people of today, almost two millennia after his death on the cross – and its overcoming through the resurrection. And each of these sacred little monuments that we encounter along the way – as here on site – keeps the memory of this alive.

Very nice root trail. Surefootedness required.

Great all-round view from Rother Kopf with a sun lounger.

Volcanic activity on the Munterley hill resulted in several eruption sites, the most prominent being the Papenkaule crater. This volcanic crater is approximately 80 meters wide and 20 meters deep. Today, the Papenkaule is a geo- and biotope of the highest importance.