Hike through the Volcanic Eifel via the Eifelsteig: From Gerolstein, the city of mineral water, to beautiful viewpoints and old castle ruins in Daun, then on to the Dauner Maars and the Manderscheid castles. Have you ever been to the Volcanic Eifel? If so, how did you like this area? Maybe you know other cool places in the area? Feel free to write us your experiences and tips in the comments! Useful links: Stages of the Eifelsteig: https://www.eifelsteig.de/eifelsteig/... Dauner Maare hike: https://homeoftravel.de/rundwanderung... Active volcanoes in the Eifel and Bavaria: https://www.ardalpha.de/wissen/natur/... We hike over two stages of the Eifelsteig (stage 10 & stage 11). We start in Gerolstein. We start directly at the Löwenburg ruins with a great view over the city and the striking rocks all around. At the town hall we fill up our water before we set off. There is the Helenenquelle spring here and water bubbles out of it that is already carbonated by Mother Nature. It tastes almost like the Gerolsteiner mineral water that you know from the supermarket. Then we hike through beautiful forests to Dietzenley. There is a large tower up there. The view is fantastic. We look out over large parts of the Volcanic Eifel. 600,000 years ago, the area around Dietzenley was covered with volcanic rock. A little way away you can see where we came from. Because there we look out over the roofs of Gerolstein. We continue towards Nerother Kopf. We pass a game reserve with red deer and then climb steeply uphill to the summit. Finally we reach the Mühlensteinhöhle cave. The entrance to the cave is huge. Large millstones used to be mined here. A few meters further on we come to the old ruins of a castle. There is so much to discover and there are really many different photo opportunities. Wonderful area. We finally hike to Daun via the so-called Xynthia Trail. The footbridge There in the hotel I am looking forward to putting my feet up after 24 km and enjoying a cold (non-alcoholic) beer. The next morning we hike to the maars. These are lakes that were created by volcanism. We soon reach the Gemünden Maar. But we don't get a really great view until we reach the Mäuseberg. There is a Hollywood swing there and the Dronke Tower towers up next to it. Then we see the Gemünden Maar in all its glory. The maars were also created by volcanism. The moment the lava rising from the earth's interior came into contact with the groundwater, there was a huge explosion. This blasted super large holes in the earth, which filled up with groundwater and rainwater over time. This is why the volcanic lakes are also super deep. The Gemündener Maar has a maximum depth of 39 meters, the Weinfelder Maar is even 51 meters deep. Gigantic! On the other side we can already look in the direction of the aforementioned Weinfelder Maar. The path there is beautiful. It is a panoramic path. On the bank we also come across a herd of donkeys. They even accompany us part of the way. After a short time we are already at the third maar, the Schalkenmehrener Maar. There is also a lido there. Luckily we packed our bathing suits. This refreshment in between does us a lot of good. I have never bathed in a maar before. And afterwards we have typical Döppekooche. This is a regional speciality and it is a kind of potato cake with apple sauce. We hike on to Manderscheid. We also go through the idyllic green valley of the Lieser. And then 3.6 km later we see the upper castle and the lower castle of Manderscheid for the first time. There is a via ferrata between the two fortresses. The castle via ferrata has a maximum difficulty of D and can certainly keep up with some alpine climbs. If you want to do the climb, you can also rent via ferrata equipment on site. However, you should plan a little more than three hours for the entire tour. We're not going to add that to the list now. I'm glad to be able to rest my feet a bit after the almost 24 km long stage. If you liked the video, we'd be happy if you gave us a thumbs up. And remember to subscribe so you don't miss anything. Thanks for watching!